Experience it for yourself! Try out “Data Science and Artificial Intelligence” before registering!

Professor Verena Wolf talking with students. She is part of the founding team of the new course "Data Science and Artificial Intelligence". Photo: Oliver Dietze / Saarland University

Artificial intelligence and data science are regarded as occupational fields of the future. Saarland University teaches these disciplines in the new study program “Data Science and Artificial Intelligence”. On Friday, September 6, high school graduates can try out the new subject for four hours. A hands-on workshop, lectures and current research projects are presented to give students a realistic impression of the subject. The offer is free of charge, but Saarland University asks participants to register online.    

Graduates of the course do not have to worry about their professional future. The Donors’ Association for the Promotion of Humanities and Sciences in Germany asked more than 600 large corporations, medium-sized and small companies and start-ups about their needs. Companies estimate that by 2023 around 455,000 experts will be needed in Germany on the subject of complex data analysis. “The expertise the course teaches is now being used everywhere, in online shopping, autonomous driving and medical data analysis,” explains Jens Dittrich, professor of computer science and head of the “Big Data Analytics” group at Saarland University.

This range of applications is also demonstrated by the research projects exhibited on September 6. The “Climbtrack” software system, for example, captures a climbing wall in a hall. It projects stored climbing routes or previously recorded movements of a life-size climber onto the climbing wall. In this way, high school graduates can climb and then receive feedback from the system on the climbing route they have chosen. Artificial intelligence (AI) will also change daily supermarket shopping. The so-called “Innovative Retail Labratory”, or IRL for short, at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is therefore testing various possibilities, ranging from interactive product comparison and personalized shopping suggestions to a household account book kept by the AI. On Friday afternoon, the IRL will show an intelligent freshness counter and a muesli advice program that warns of substances that could trigger allergies or sensitivities. The third project, presented this afternoon and called “IIP Extreme”, addresses a challenge for lower limb implants and prostheses. For example, shin fractures are often so complicated that they are supported by special titanium plates that are screwed to the bone. To ensure that these plates fit exactly, software developed by DFKI analyzes medical images and calculates an exact model of the fractured bone.

In order to let the students work with artificial intelligence themselves, they can explore what is known as machine learning, an important part of AI, in the hands-on workshop. The workshop does not require any special previous knowledge. The afternoon will be rounded off by a lecture on professional prospects followed by a question and answer session with Professor Jens Dittrich in Verena Wolf, Professor Jens Dittrich and Professor Tobias Marschall.

The information event takes place starting at 1 p.m. in the foyer of building E1.7 on the Saarbrücken University campus.

Further information:
About the event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2509682825932538/

About the course of study:
http://datasciencebachelor.de

 Questions can be directed to:
Dr. Tanja Breinig
Program Coordinator Computer Science
Saarland Informatics Campus
Phone: 0681 302-58092
E-mail: studium@cs.uni-saarland.de

Professor Dr. Jens Dittrich
Big Data Analytics Group
Saarland Informatics Campus
Phone: 0681 302-70141
E-mail: jens.dittrich@bigdata.uni-saarland.de

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