Saarland, a place for innovation – science and industry on the same wavelength
The Saarland Informatics Campus is of prime importance for innovation in Germany. The university as well as non-university research institutions contribute to this; they enjoy worldwide recognition and draw talent from all over the world. Saarbrücken computer science has around 1,000 permanent employees, including more than 800 informatics researchers. It thereby provides highly trained young talent, in particular for IT firms.
Our researchers work in more than 30 research areas. Through this exceptional breadth, the computer science department is able not only to continually expand its worldwide research network, but also to take part in a multitude of collaborations with industry partners both inside and outside of Germany. Within Germany these include Siemens, Adidas, Deutsche Post, Airbus Operations and the BMW “Research and Technology” group in Munich. Internationally, the Saarland Informatics Campus works together with major global concerns such as Microsoft, Adobe, Intel and Google. Already in 2009, the US semiconductor firm Intel chose to establish an institute on the Saarbrücken campus.
In 2013, the Federal Ministry for Business and Technology designated Saarland University as an “EXIST Start-up Campus” for its concept “Gründer-Campus Saar” (Entrepreneurial Campus Saar). The Saarland Informatics Campus supports the university with its on-campus IT-Incubator. This creates structures that innovators and young entrepreneurs need in order to bring new technologies to market maturity. In this way, ideas and discoveries arising from the research projects of the IT institutes and the Max Planck Society can be further developed and marketed for application. To this end, the scientists can start their own companies, or advance the technology far enough for established industry firms to acquire licenses.
Great things always start small.
Our expertise for you
IT Security
Spectacular security holes are making daily headlines. With the Center for IT-Security, Privacy and Accountability (CISPA) on campus, companies have the best conditions to benefit from numerous synergies in security research.
Big Data Science
Sensible and efficient search through enormous quantities of data, as well as meaningful linking of data in order to find desired information, already offer great potential for commercial applications. Saarbrücken computer science is also very well positioned in this discipline, with research groups in the Department of Computer Science, the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, and the Cluster of Excellence.
Visual Computing
The Max Planck Institute for Informatics, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, the University with the Cluster of Excellence “Multimodal Computing and Interaction” and the Visual Computing master’s degree program as well as the founding of the Intel Visual Computing Institute: Outstanding, wide-ranging collaborations between research and industry create a highly attractive environment for additional partnerships and new facilities.
Semantic Web
Getting computers to understand information as quickly and robustly as humans do is a challenge that companies like Microsoft, Google, and IBM have been taking on for decades. Saarland University and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics have already established intensive industry contacts in this area, through doctoral stipends and joint projects.
Automotive Industry
Both in large collaborative research projects as well as in the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, there very are close connections with the most important representatives of the German and European automotive industry. Here the specialized expertise of Saarbrücken researchers comes into play.
Pharmaceuticals
In particular through the Center for Bioinformatics, there are close connections to the pharmaceutical industry. Cooperative efforts deal with algorithms-based analysis and diagnostics, but also overlap with the field of Visual Computing, including via so-called visual screening.
Technology Transfer: Collaboration and Investment
In order to transform research results into products and licenses, all institutes of the Saarland Informatics Campus work closely with the entrepreneurship organizations of the state and federal governments. The Competence Center also makes businesses aware of opportunities to collaborate with scientists. The on-site IT-Incubator, supported by the university, the state, and the Max Planck Society, helps scientists to protect their ideas with patents and to make them usable by business and industry, and supports the establishment of new IT businesses that provide numerous jobs for the region. This breadth makes the campus highly attractive for top international companies.
Research Institutes
Several world-renowned computer science institutes are located on the Saarland Informatics Campus at Saarland University – often only a few steps apart from one another. The researchers working here make Saarbrücken a unique European site for computer science.
Selected Start-ups
Weeding out software bugs automatically
Testfabrik AG was established in June 2013 out of the chair for Software Engineering (held by Andreas Zeller). It developed “webmate”, an integrated test automation platform for testing on the web.
Extracting knowledge from Big Text
Ambiverse GmbH began in July 2016 as a spin-off from the Max Planck Institute for Informatics. The four active founders develop a cloud service that automatically analyzes and understands large quantities of text, such as the Panama Papers.
Capturing reality
Recognizing how multiple people are moving, within only milliseconds? The technology of the Captury, founded in July 2013 through the Max Planck Institute for Infomatics, helps animation specialists in Hollywood, as well as doctors and athletes.
Research Highlights
Scientists at the Saarland Informatics Campus (SIC) carry out top-level research. Their projects are presented at renowned international conferences, as well as at trade fairs such as the international computer expo CeBIT in Hannover.
Press Releases and News – The Latest Bits and Bytes
State Chancellery receives computer scientists from Saarland University
Last week the State Chancellery of Saarland invited nine computer scientists to a reception in order to thank them for their commitment to the competition “Landmarks in the Land of Ideas”. Three Saarbrücken computer science projects in the areas of dependable systems, bioinformatics and cybersecurity were able to prevail among almost 1500 applications. Thus, the […]
“It is urgent that we break free of this arms race”
Professor Backes, a few days ago your research center organized the Summer of Cybersecurity event in the Congress Hall. Why are researchers so committed to engaging with the public? At some point we came to the conclusion that we could not effectively serve the interests of citizens by holding smaller events. Members of the public […]
Jonathan Mace receives Dennis M. Ritchie Dissertation Honorable Mention
MPI-SWS faculty member Jonathan Mace has received an honorable mention for the Dennis M. Ritchie Doctoral Dissertation Award. Launched in 2013, the Dennis M. Ritchie Doctoral Dissertation Award was created by the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Operating Systems (ACM SIGOPS) to recognize research in software systems and to encourage the creativity that […]
IT Theme Nights – Entrepreneurs, Citizens and Researchers Exchange Ideas
With the “IT Theme Night” event series, the Competence Center for Computer Science, the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Liaison Office (KWT), the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), and the Zentrale für Produktivität und Technologie Saar e.V. (ZPT/saar.is) facilitate interchange among scientists, citizens, and technology users in small and medium-sized businesses from the region. These events link the latest findings from computer science research with the the needs of professional end-users.
