From June 25 to 28 2024, ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig hosted the 10th International Summer School and welcomed students, PhD students, researchers, and practitioners to discuss selected topics in the field of AI and big data.

Date and Location

The 10th International Summer School on AI and Big Data took place from 25.06 – 28.06.2024 in Leipzig.

Event location:

Mekong in Gondwanaland
Zoo Leipzig
Pfaffendorfer Str. 29
04105 Leipzig

Accommodation

The Summer School 2024 coincides with the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, so it is possible that hotels and hostels will be booked out quickly. We recommend booking well in advance.
In the attached pdf you will find recommended accomodations.

Program

The program for the 10th International Summer School focuses on five big topic areas that ScaDS.AI is also currently working on:

To give you the opportunity to delve deeper into these areas and focus on different aspects, we have organized the agenda thematically. The idea is that people who are interested in or working on these topics can spend more connected time together and exchange ideas.

This year the International Summer School starts on a Tuesday with various contributions to Generative AI. The topics Protein Engineering & AI and Earth and Environmental Science will run simultaneously on Wednesday. Thursday will give you input on Mathematical Foundations of AI. Every day, you will have the chance to get insights on topics in the area of Responsible AI.

The program will include time for networking, talking to other participants, and of course, asking questions of the speakers. Another option to get in touch with other participants of the Summer School 2024 will be our social program in the evenings. We are planning to take you on a dragon boat trip on the rivers and channels in Leipzig. If you prefer walking, you can also take part in a city tour.

Tuesday, June 25th

Time	Speaker	Institution	Title of Presentation	Topic
10:30	Prof. Erhard Rahm	Leipzig University, Germany	Welcome Research adn Transfer at the AI Center ScaDS.AI
10:40	Prof. Martin Potthast	Leipzig University, Germany	Evaluating Generative Retrieval Systems
11:40	Prof. Rainer Mühlhoff	Osnabrück University, Germany	The risk of secondary use: Challenges in the ethics and governance of AI
12:30	LUNCH
13:30	Dr. Robert Haase	Leipzig University, Germany	Large Language Models for Quantitative Bio-image Analysis
14:20	Dr. Patrick Ebel	Leipzig University, Germany	AI-Assisted UI Design – Using Computational Models of Human Behavior to Create Better Interfaces
15:10	BREAK
15:30	Prof. Pavlo Bazilinskyy	Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands	AI-based traffic safety research with public datasets
16:30	END
19:00 – 20:30	CITY TOUR

Wednesday, 26th
Protein Design / Drug design and AI

Time	Speaker	Institution	Title of Presentation	Topic
8:30	Prof. Oliver Koch	University of Münster, Germany	AI in Drug Discovery – What can be done that could not be done before
9:30	Dr. Gerrit Grossmann	German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Germany	Molecule Generation with Graph Neural Networks and Probabilistic Diffusion
10:30	BREAK
10:40	Prof. Michael Schroeder and Mahmood Nazari	TU Dresden, Germany; Pharm.AI, Dresden, Germany	Computational Drug Repositioning with Interaction Fingerprints: Drug Discovery in the Fast Lane
11:40	Dr. Stanislav Mazurenko	Loschmidt Laboratories, Czech Republic	Protein Representations for Efficient Machine Learning in Biology
12:30	LUNCH
13:00	Prof. Florian Praetorius	Institute of Science and Technology Austria	Protein design in the age of AI
14:00	Dr. Hermann Diebel-Fischer, Jun.-Prof. Clara Schoeder, Dr. Georg Künze, Dr. Stanislav Mazurenko, Prof. Alena Khmelinskaia		Panel discussion
15:00	BREAK
15:30	Prof. Alena Khmelinskaia	Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany	Building functional protein Legos with de novo protein design
16:30	END
18.00 – 24:00	DINNER

Wednesday, 26th
Earth and Environmental Sciences and AI

Time	Speaker	Institution	Title of Presentation	Topic
8:30	Lily-belle Sweet	Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Germany	Advancing agricultural modelling with machine learning through interdisciplinary coordination
10:00	BREAK
10:10	Dr. Willi Schimmel	Leipzig University, Germany	Seeing Through Clouds: Advancing Liquid Droplet Detection Beyond Lidar Attenuation with Machine Learning
11:20	Dr. Josefine Umlauft	Leipzig University, Germany	Leveraging Earth System Data Cubes for Enhanced Environmental Insights through Machine Learning
12:30	LUNCH
13:00	Prof. Jonathan Bedford	Ruhr University Bochum, Germany	Applying machine learning to geodetic and scaled fault zone laboratory data to understand earthquake processes
14:00	Dr. Christopher William Johnson	Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA	Applications of AI to Earthquake Physics: Learning Fault Slip and Precursors to failure to Advance Earthquake Prediction
15:00	Dr. Christoph Lehmann	TU Dresden, Germany	Data, Assumptions, Models and Uncertainties: A Statistical View on Responsible AI
16:30	END
18:00 – 24:00	DINNER

Thursday, 27th

Time	Speaker	Institution	Title of Presentation	Topic
8:30	Prof. Guido Montúfar	University of California, USA	Biases of gradient optimization in neural networks
9:30	Prof. Andrea Agazzi	University of Pisa, Italy	Correcting SGD for Scalable Bayesian Inference
10:30	BREAK
10:40	Prof. Paweł Dłotko	Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland	Invitation to methods of topological data analysis
11:40	Dr. Rudolf Seising	The Research Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Deutsches Museum, Germany	Fashions of Artificial Intelligence
12:30	LUNCH
13:00	Prof. Søren Hauberg	Technical University of Denmark	Reparametrization invariance, identifiability and representation learning
14:00	Prof. Sayan Mukherjee	Leipzig University, Germany	A sheaf-theoretic construction of shape space.
15:00	BREAK
15:30	Prof. Ingo Steinwart	University of Stuttgart, Germany	Density-Based Cluster Analysis
16:30	END
18:00	DRAGONBOAT

Friday, 28th

Time	Speaker	Institution	Title of Presentation	Topic
8:30	Dr. Mariam Hassib	fortiss Research Institute of the free state of Bavaria	Exploring Human-AI collaboration: Decision Making, Reliance, and Trust
9:30	Prof. Daniel Buschek	University of Bayreuth, Germany	Human-AI Interaction in Writing Tools
10:30	BREAK
10:40	Dr. Arthur Fleig	Leipzig University, Germany	Applied Mathematics in Human-Computer Interaction
11:40	Prof. Birte Platow, Dr. Hermann Diebel-Fischer, Prof. Roderich Barth, Dr. Arthur Fleig		Panel discussion
12:30	LUNCH
13:00	Dr. João Belo	Saarland University, Germany	Optimization methods for interface design and adaptation
14:00	Adrian Lindenmeyer and Dr. Daniel Schneider	Leipzig University, Germany	Utility of knowledge uncertainty estimation in human-computer collaborative decision-making
15:00	END

Topics

To give you an idea of the topics of the individual areas, we summarized them in short abstracts below:

Earth and Environmental Sciences and AI

The most pressing questions of our time involve a profound understanding and description of the impacts of climate change risks. These include extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and hazardous near-surface environmental processes. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analytics are becoming increasingly important in this context. Most parts of the Earth system are continuously monitored by sensors. AI can cope with both the volume of data and the heterogeneous data characteristics. For instance, satellites, drones, and sensor networks monitor the atmosphere, land and ocean surfaces, including air, water, soils, rocks, and biodiversity or even the deep Earth’s interior, with unprecedented accuracy. Furthermore, citizen science projects collect data with smartphone apps and enrich our data archives. All in all, the key in studying the Earth system will be a combination of the latest AI-driven method developments with the untapped data resources. 

During the Summer School, we will bridge state-of-the-art AI research and data challenges in Earth System Sciences. The focus will rest on the opportunities and methodological advances arising in this broad context from different perspectives and considering multiple environmental facets.

Protein Design / Drug Design and AI

The field of applied life sciences is seeing continuous advancements and innovations in areas like drug discovery, diagnostics and biotechnology. Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly applied in these areas and can become a game-changer that will revolutionize research and development in the life sciences. For instance, AI algorithms are speeding up the discovery of new drugs by analyzing vast amounts of chemical and biological data. This expands the coverage of the chemical space by several orders of magnitude compared to in-house chemical compound collections.

Also, the design of tailor-made proteins for applications in medicine or biotechnology, which has been science fiction for many years, is now gaining momentum through the use of AI. Recent years have witnessed the uncovering of the protein universe by tools like AlphaFold and ESMFold as well as the opening of so far untapped chemical and protein spaces with the help of generative AI models. Ongoing integration of AI approaches will continue moving the life sciences field forward. It offers new opportunities for researchers and speeding up many steps of the discovery process.

During the Summer School, state-of-the-art AI methods for addressing life sciences challenges will be presented, covering the underlying algorithms as well as targeted applications. A number of expert speakers will present cutting-edge AI-driven drug discovery and protein design research highlights.

Generative AI and ML

Generative AI is a field of artificial intelligence that empowers machines to create new, original content, whether it’s images, text, music, or even entire narratives. It has therefore driven many fields in the recent past, from science and industries even towards education and general societal movements. These AI models, often known as generative models, can analyze patterns and structures in existing data and use that knowledge to produce novel and creative outputs. They have wide-ranging applications, from generating realistic artwork to composing music and enhancing natural language understanding. Generative AI is at the forefront of innovation, enabling machines to mimic and, in some cases, surpass human creativity. We want to present at our summer school these recent developments in contributions from the scientific community and discuss future developments as well as implication to science and society in general.

Responsible AI

The advancement of technical developments in the field of AI is not without consequences for society and individuals. For this reason, the area of “Responsible AI” is a central concern that must also be considered within the technical side of AI. Not only the question of biases, but also that of the epistemic prerequisites for mapping sections of our world in AI systems, is negotiated within the framework of Responsible AI.
At this year’s Summer School, there will be a thematic unit each day that will handle these questions and offer space for exchange.

Mathematical Foundations of AI

The last day of the summer school is dedicated to the mathematical foundations of Artificial Intelligence. 

Various branches of mathematics (from linear algebra, calculus, and statistics to differential geometry, logic, and even category theory) play a crucial role in the development of artificial intelligence algorithms. A solid understanding of these principles not only helps in the development and implementation of models. It also enables practitioners to make informed decisions about model architecture and training procedures.

Our diverse lineup of presentations from researchers and industry professionals in the field is designed to provide insight into the application of mathematical principles in AI. It will expose participants to real-world applications to enhance the relevance of the learning experience.

One of our objectives is to provide opportunities to connect with fellow participants, instructors, and professionals in the field and establish networks that can be valuable for future collaborations and learning opportunities.

Organizers

The summer school is organized by ScaDS.AI (Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence) Dresden/Leipzig, one of five AI centers in Germany funded under the federal government’s AI strategy.

Dr. Eric Peukert Administration Director, ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig, Leipzig University Dr. René Jäkel Administration Director, ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig, TU Dresden Prof. Dr. Erhard Rahm Director, ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig, Leipzig University Prof. Dr. Wolfgang E. Nagel Director, ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig, TU Dresden Jana Bendigs Communication Management ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig, Leipzig University

Find out more about our summer schools.