Team
Mitarbeiterliste (A - Z)
CHIMIAK-OPOKA Joanna (Associate Dean of Studies)
Management and Administration
Prof. Justus Piater, PhD
Head of DiSC & Professor of Computer Science
DiSC & Intelligent and Interactive Systems Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-13, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Informatik, Technikerstraße 21a, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I seek to enable autonomous robots to perceive and act flexibly and robustly in unstructured environments, leveraging machine learning methods to build perceptual, motor and reasoning skills. Of particular interest is the ability of robots to conceptualize their environment such that they can learn on the basis of already-learned skills, transfer skills to novel tasks, and communicate with humans.
Research Area
Robotics, Embodied AI and Machine Learning
Prof. Adam Jatowt, PhD
Deputy Head of DiSC & Professor of Data Science
DiSC & Data Science Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-09, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Informatik, Technikerstraße 21a, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My research is related to knowledge extraction and information retrieval from unstructured text collections such as news article collections, financial/legal documents or social media posts. In particular, I am interested in novel approaches towards retrieving useful knowledge from long-term news archives and other types of temporal document collections, as well as in applications of text mining techniques for digital history.
Research Area
Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval Methods
Dr. Joanna Chimiak-Opoka
Associate Dean of Studies (Minor Digital Science) & Senior Lecturer
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-11, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My goal is to develop an intriguing bundle of courses creating new career opportunities for our students. In line with the DiSC’s mission, I seek to promote the transfer of digitalization-related skills. To do so, I support our interdisciplinary students and instructors in all teaching and learning matters. In particular, I am engaged in finding optimal and innovative solutions and in the continuous development of our teaching portfolio. Moreover, as a senior lecturer and computer scientist, I am involved in teaching our IT-related modules. In my courses, I adapt and experiment with new methods and tools seeking to increase my effectiveness as a lecturer.
Carina König genannt Kersting, M.A. M.Sc.
Coordinator, Chair of the DiSC Advisory Board
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-14, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
As coordinator of the Digital Science Center, I serve as the primary contact for its members in all administrative matters so they can be fully dedicated to their research. I ensure effective communication between all parties involved to allow for a lively exchange of information and knowledge. That way, I seek to contribute to the DiSC’s overarching goal: the creation of synergies across disciplines. Read more in the university portrait (in German).
Maija Fedotova
Secretary (Adam Jatowt's group)
Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-14, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
As secretary of the DS Group (Data Science Group), I am in charge of all managerial and organizational duties. In addition, I support the administration of DiSC.
Clemens Weißbacher
Systems Administrator
clemens.weissbacher@uibk.ac.at
Information Technology Services (ZID)
Personal website
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-11, A-6020 Innsbruck
ZID, Technikerstraße 23, A-6020 Innsbruck
Assistant Professors and Senior Scientists
Dr. Sébastien Court
Assistant Professor
DiSC & Department of Mathematics
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-11, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Mathematik, Technikerstraße 13, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My background are numerical simulations of fluid-structure interactions, elasticity theory, scientific computing, and optimal control theory. At the Digital Science Center, I work on the mathematical foundations of Deep Learning
Research Area
Artificial Neural Networks, Mathematical Optimization, and Dynamical Systems
Mag. Reto Stauffer, PhD
Assistant Professor
DiSC & Department of Statistics
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-06, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Statistik, Universitätsstraße 15, Raum O-2.18, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I am working on the development and refinement of statistical machine-learning methods and their application in the field of natural and atmospheric sciences: spatio-temporal regression methods to enhance climatological estimates or probabilistic decision trees to improve weather forecasts. The development of these new methods is accompanied by implementing open-source software which is able to handle vast and continuously growing amounts of data in today’s digital world. Read more in the university portrait (in German).
Research Area
Data Science in Atmosphere Climate Research
Mag. Mag. Dr. Clara Rauchegger, LLM
Assistant Professor
- on maternity leave -
DiSC & Department of Legal Theory and Future of Law
Digital Science Center & Institut für Theorie und Zukunft des Rechts, Innrain 15, Raum 01-07, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I examine the opportunities and risks of digital technology from a legal perspective. In particular, my research explores the regulation and governance of digital platforms and artificial intelligence by the European Union. My recent work focuses on EU legislation and policy that is aimed at preventing the spread of illegal or harmful online content such as hate speech, terrorist propaganda, or disinformation. I am particularly interested in the legal implications of AI-assisted filtering of online content. My other research interests include EU and comparative constitutional law, with a particular focus on the protection of fundamental rights in the digital environment.
Research Area
Law and Digital Technology
Mag. Alexander Kupfer, PhD
Assistant Professor
DiSC & Department of Information Systems, Production and Logistics Management
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-03, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik, Produktionswirtschaft und Logistik, Universitätsstraße 15, A-6060 Innsbruck
Statement
My work focuses on information in digital business and digital markets. Online reviews, for instance, help to considerably reduce information asymmetries for consumers (e.g., hotel reviews or amazon reviews). In particular, my research investigates the effects of rewards and design aspects on online review systems. More generally, I am keenly interested in a wide variety of digital business and digital markets phenomena that employ the reduction of (information) asymmetries including crowdfunding and sharing platforms.
Research Area
Digital Business - Information System Design and Economic Behavior
Mag. Dr. Dr. Joseph Wang-Kathrein
Assistant Professor
DiSC & Research Institute Brenner-Archiv
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-03, A-6020 Innsbruck
Brenner-Archiv, Josef-Hirn-Straße 5-7, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My work field covers the philosophy of Wittgenstein’s and digital editing including related fields in the Digital Humanities. My research focus lies on the interface between philosophy and computer science: How can the insights gathered in philosophy help us in our daily work using computers?
Research Area
Text Modeling, Digital Editing, and Archival Science
Dr. Luis Miguel Rodríguez-Rojas
Assistant Professor
DiSC & Department of Microbiology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-05, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Mikrobiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My main research interest is the understanding of eco-evolutionary principles governing microbial communities: primary evolutionary and ecological forces shaping populations and their metabolic potential, their interactions with other microbial species, their hosts and the environment, and the role of stochasticity. I develop computational and statistical techniques aimed at answering these questions as well as advancing standards and data quality evaluation methods in the field of environmental genomics. Read more in the university portrait (in German).
Research Area
Microbial Ecology, Environmental Genomics, and Bioinformatics
Mag. Dr. Matthias Schurz
Assistant Professor
DiSC & Department of Psychology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-04, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Psychologie, Universitätsstraße 5-7, Raum 3S12, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
Humans are a highly social species, and complex societies rely on mutual understanding, cooperation, and trust. In my work, I am studying how central social abilities are implemented in the human brain. In particular, I would like to understand how we can represent another's perspective while at the same time keeping track of reality. Comparative work from other species as well as patient studies show us that this high-level skill is not easy for the brain. Presumably, it requires the interplay of several large-scale networks. To deepen our understanding of these mechanisms, I study functional brain activity and connectivity with statistical and machine learning methods.
Research Area
Computational Neuroscience, Brain Networks, and Human Cognition
Mag. Dr. Gabriel Rojas-Kopeinig
Assistant Professor
DiSC & Unit of Energy Efficient Building at the Department of Structural Engineering and Material Sciences
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-04, A-6020 Innsbruck
AB Energieeffizientes Bauen, Technikerstraße 13, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My academic work centers on energy-efficient construction. Specifically, I explore how we can design buildings in such a way that they provide a comfortable and healthy indoor climate while conserving energy and resources. To answer this question, I use both experimental and computational simulation methods, such as building performance and air flow simulations. My research focuses on indoor air quality, thermal comfort, and energy efficiency. In addition, I also seek to improve the aforementioned simulation methods by combining and enhancing them with data-driven methods, for example data-driven modeling or model calibration.
Research Area
Digital Methods in Indoor Environment and Building Energy Research
Francesca Finotello, PhD
Assistant Professor
- on maternity leave -
francesca.finotello@uibk.ac.at
DiSC & Computational Biomedicine Group at the Department of Molecular Biology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-05, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Molekularbiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My research focuses on the bioinformatic analysis of bulk and single-cell multiomics data and on the development of new computational methods to inform precision and personalized medicine. I have a special focus on cancer immunology: I integrate bioinformatics, systems biology, and machine learning techniques to shed light on the rules governing tumor-immune cell interactions. By characterizing the landscape of cancer neoantigens, the composition of the tumor immune contexture, and the intricate crosstalk governing cell-cell interactions in the tumor microenvironment, I aim at extracting mechanistic rationale to improve cancer immunotherapy.
Research Area
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Dr.-Ing. Samuele Tosatto
Assistant Professor
DiSC & Intelligent and Interactive Systems Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-03, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Informatik, Technikerstraße 21a, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
How can we enable embodied agents, like robots, with the ability to understand, learn, and interact with their physical surroundings?
My research is a crossover between machine learning and robotics. In particular, I focus on enhancing reinforcement learning efficiency and developing state and action abstractions that naturally cope with physical quantities like velocities and forces.
Research Area
Embodied Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Dr. Gerald Hiebel
Senior Scientist
DiSC & Department of Archaeologies
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-05, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Archäologien, Langer Weg 11, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My work focuses on research on methodologies that can be used to represent the complex knowledge arising from a (pre-)historic reality and the scientific research about this reality. They are from the fields of ontology engineering (in particular CIDOC CRM), knowledge graph creation, geoinformation systems, and computational linguistics (Named Entity Recognition, Named Entity Linking). While my main work field is archaeology, I also apply these methodologies in several projects from various fields of the Digital Humanities. My goal is to create e-infrastructures that can be used for research and the dissemination of knowledge about our past and how it was gained.
Research Area
Semantic and Space-Oriented Information Technology in Archaeology
PhD Students
Bhawna Piryani
PhD Student (Adam Jatowt's group)
Data Science Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-10, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My research focuses on Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Open-domain Question Answering (QA). I am working on building QA systems that focus on the temporal aspects of the text. Prior to joining the Data Science Group, I was working on Sentiment Analysis and developing resources for Scarce Resource Languages (SRLs) such as Nepali.
Research Area
Natural Language Processing (NLP), Information Retrieval (IR), and Question Answering (QA)
Abdelrahman Elsayed Mahmoud Abdallah
PhD Student (Adam Jatowt's group)
abdelrahman.abdallah@uibk.ac.at
Data Science Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-10, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I am deeply engaged in pioneering research at the forefront of computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), and information retrieval (IR). My primary dedication lies in the realm of extracting knowledge and information from unstructured text collections across diverse domains, including news articles, financial and legal documents, and social media posts. Through the skillful application of advanced techniques in computer vision, NLP, and IR, my goal is to unveil invaluable insights, foster a profound comprehension of unstructured data, and revolutionize its analysis.
Research Area
Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Information Retrieval (IR) Methods
Jamshid Mozafari
PhD Student (Adam Jatowt's group)
Data Science Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-10, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My research focuses on natural language processing and information retrieval, especially Open-Domain Question Answering systems. In this regard, I have published some papers related to question answering for the Persian and English language. Prior to joining the Data Science Group at the University of Innsbruck, I received BSc and MSc degrees in Computer Science from the University of Kurdistan and the University of Isfahan in 2016 and 2019 under the supervision of Dr. Parham Moradi and Prof. Mohammad Ali Nematbakhsh, respectively.
Research Area
Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval
Simon Beck, BSc
PhD Student (Gabriel Rojas-Kopeinig's group)
Unit of Energy Efficient Building at the Department of Structural Engineering and Material Sciences
AB Energieffizientes Bauen, Technikerstraße 13, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
After studying Environmental Engineering, I developed an interest in research and working on exciting new ideas in the field of energy efficient buildings. My research interests include the collection and analysis of indoor air quality data and the simulation of different ventilation strategies.
Research Area
Ventilation, Indoor Air Quality and Building Energy
Nathan Ernster, MSc
PhD Student (Miguel Rodríguez-Rojas's group)
Institut für Mikrobiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My interdisciplinary background began in chemistry and hydrology, before shifting into molecular microbiology and genomics during my MSc. As a PhD student in Prof. Rodriguez-Rojas' group, I'm investigating microorganisms found in extreme environments to understand how these conditions drive community dynamics, and to identify molecular adaptations which have evolved at the limits of habitability.
Research Area
Environmental Genomics and Molecular Evolution
Edoardo Mandolini, MSc
PhD Student (Miguel Rodríguez-Rojas's group)
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-04, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Mikrobiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
How does barren ground in a glacier forefield become a fully functional ecosystem in less than 200 years? Thanks to microorganisms and the cumulative effects of their cell-to-cell interactions. I research how microbial interactions mark the difference in early developmental stages of ecosystems. Why should we care? Because Alpine glacial systems are rapidly disappearing and they represent unique and ideal frameworks to research how community assembly processes work: a concept that remains largely theoretical at today’s state of the art.
Research Area
Microbial Ecology, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics
Irene Rigato, MSc
PhD Student (Francesca Finotello's group)
Department of Molecular Biology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-05, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Molekularbiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I work in the field of cancer immunology as a bioinformatician. My focus is on the development of a new computational framework to integrate multi-omics data to investigate malignant-cell transformation and ultimately identify new targets for cancer prevention and therapy.
Research Area
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Markus Ausserhofer, BSc MSc
PhD Student (Francesca Finotello's group)
Department of Molecular Biology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-04, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Molekularbiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I studied the master’s program in Molecular Biology at the University of Innsbruck and decided to specialize in the field of bioinformatics during my master’s thesis.
My research as a PhD student revolves around the development of bioinformatics tools that allow for the prediction of new immunotherapy targets in cancer.
Research Area
Bioinformatics and Cancer Immunotherapy
Lorenzo Merotto, MSc
PhD Student (Francesca Finotello' group)
Department of Molecular Biology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-04, A-6020 Innsbruck
Institut für Molekularbiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
As a bioinformatician, I am responsible for the processing and analysis of high dimensional genomics data, in close collaboration with biology scientists. The focus of my PhD is the integration of multimodal, single-cell data to investigate the mechanisms regulating cell plasticity and the success of cell reprogramming techniques.
Research Area
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Raphael Perla, MSc
PhD Student (Project ELSA)
Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-03, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
In my research, I utilize reinforcement learning and related computational methods to delve deeper into the mechanics of social learning and decision-making processes. At the Digital Science Center, I am involved in the ELSA project, which is primarily focused on investigating the prerequisites enabling embodied AI agents to master social affordances effectively, enhancing their ability to communicate and collaborate seamlessly with humans.
Research Area
Computational Psychology
Student Assistants
Lena Lagger
Student Assistant (Project ArtiPro)
Department of Legal Theory and Future of Law & Department of Psychology
Digital Science Center & Institut für Theorie und Zukunft des Rechts, Innrain 15, Raum 01-06, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I study law and political science, am a student project assistant of Clara Rauchegger’s and work with her on the ArtiPro project. Our focus is on the data protection aspect of ArtiPro and the use of AI in the management of health data.
Research Area
Data Protection and Artificial Intelligence in Health Care
Constantin Zackl, BSc
Student Assistant (Francesca Finotello's group)
constantin.zackl@student.uibk.ac.at
Department of Molecular Biology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, Raum 01-05, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My academic background is in bioinformatics with a focus on transcriptomic data analysis. I develop novel computational tools to analyze omics data to decipher the underlying biological mechanisms. I am currently studying Software Engineering in a Master's program at the University of Innsbruck with the aim of using my expertise to build advanced software systems for the life sciences, in particular to improve data analysis and interpretation.
Research Area
Bioinformatics and Software Engineering