50 Years of Computer Science at Saarland University: Talk series combines past and present

The lecture series takes place every Tuesday at 18:30 in the Filmhaus. Credits: Nina Kronemberger / MMCI

On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the Department of Computer Science of Saarland University is organizing a weekly series of lectures at the Filmhaus Saarbrücken at 6:30 p.m. starting on April 9. The lectures bridge the gap between the past and current research. Scientists who work in the institutes of the Saarland Informatics Campus will present their current projects and also discuss the history of the respective institute. The lecture series begins with Vera Demberg, who holds a professorship at the Cluster of Excellence. The celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Saarbrücken Computer Science will take place on May 25 on the campus of Saarland University.

In 1969, the Department of Computer Science was founded at Saarland University and Günter Hotz was appointed the first professor of computer science. Now, 50 years later, 1900 students from more than 80 nations are enrolled in computer science and 800 scientists are doing research at the Saarland Informatics Campus (SIC) at one of the many research institutes. The Department of Computer Science at Saarland University is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a series of lectures in which representatives of SIC research institutes present their current research and their relationship to the beginnings of computer science in Saarbrücken.
“How should voice-controlled digital assistants in the car adapt to the driver?” is the title of the first lecture on April 9 at 6:30 p.m., with which Professor Vera Demberg from the “Cluster of Excellence for Multimodal Computing and Interaction” begins the series. The background: For many people, voice control in the car is already part of everyday life. For example, a navigation device announces when to turn; more and more applications can be controlled by voice interaction. But how does this affect driving safety, and can voice interaction be designed in such a way that it automatically adapts to the user and the situation, thus reducing the cognitive strain on the driver?
Another lecture on May 14 will be devoted to the topic “Wrong payroll tax, stinking diesel, crashing airplanes – Saarbrücken computer science in the era of irresponsible software”. Holger Hermanns, computer science professor at Saarland University and spokesman for the Collaborative Research Center for Comprehensible Software Systems, will discuss the background to the recent software scandals.

The series ends on May 21 with a lecture by Nils Ole Tippenhauer. The researcher from the Helmholtz Center for Information Security (CISPA) will show how the “interplay between the digital and analogue worlds repeatedly leads to surprising security problems” and will discuss some of them in his lecture entitled “Cybersecurity for everyone – from mobile phones to waterworks”.

The complete series including topics and speakers:

April 9
How should voice-controlled digital assistants in the car adapt to the driver?
Professor Vera Demberg, Cluster of Excellence for Multimodal Computing and Interaction

April 16
Current developments in the field of artificial intelligence
Professor Philipp Slusallek, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence

April 23
How computers and intelligent systems learn to see and understand the world with cameras
Professor Christian Theobalt, Max Planck Institute for Computer Science

April 30
Like peas in a pod? – Bioinformatics of individual tumor cells
Professor Tobias Marschall, Center for Bioinformatics

May 7
Hey Siri! How do you teach machines to understand language?
Professor Alexander Koller, Department of Linguistics and Language Technology, Saarland University

May 14
Wrong wage tax, stinking diesel, crashing airplanes – Saarbrücken computer science in the era of irresponsible software
Professor Holger Hermanns, Department of Computer Science, Saarland University

May 21
Cybersecurity for everyone – from mobile phones to waterworks
Dr. Nils Ole Tippenhauer, Helmholtz Center for Information Security (CISPA)

Editor:
Gordon Bolduan
Science Communication
Competence Center Computer Science Saarland
Saarland Informatics Campus
Phone: 0681 302-70741
E-mail: bolduan@mmci.uni-saarland.de