News Archive

Until now, photographers and filmmakers had to use special equipment if they wanted to change the focus area in post-processing or reproduce an object three-dimensionally. The start-up K-Lens has now developed a special lens that can turn any standard camera into a 3D camera. What began as a research project of the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and Saarland University, and was developed further with the help of the IT Inkubator, is expected to become available as a commercial product starting in 2019.

Thomas Lengauer, director at the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science and spokesman of the Center for Bioinformatics at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, has become president of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB).

In the analysis of the human genome, one question researchers have so far left unanswered is how to differentiate the variants of a gene inherited from the mother and father. Such information would increase the likelihood of treating certain diseases successfully. The so-called third generation of sequencing technologies is now making this possible. One of the most important tools for solving this complex puzzle is special software developed by scientists at the Center for Bioinformatics at Saarland [...]

One of Germany’s most prestigious awards for basic research with high practical relevance goes to Professor Dr. Christian Theobalt. The computer scientist receives the Beckurts Prize 2017 for his trend-setting insights and developments to efficiently capture human movements, poses, gestures, and facial expressions from videos and transfer them into 3D models. His methods are characterized by the fact that he does not use markers on clothing or bodies to capture people in real environments in [...]

Since the beginnings of informatics, computer scientists have also brought the art of deduction to computers, so that they can support humans in thinking and even prove statements that can be formulated mathematically. Hence, researchers delve into mathematical logic and develop formal systems, based on and evaluated by deductive principles. For their nearly 20-year-old research, three Saarbrücken computer scientists have now received the internationally renowned Thoralf Skolem Award.

“There are already six lectures on the topic of ‘machine learning’ at Saarland University. Therefore, it seemed logical to expand upon this focus and open it up to people unfamiliar with the field,” explains Matthias Hein, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Saarland University. Hein has already won several prizes for his machine learning research, such as the German Pattern Recognition Award in 2011 and an award from the European Research Council in 2012, and he is recognized [...]