Saarland Informatics Campus

A photo collage with Prof. Dr. Andreas Keller at the top, Friederike Grandke at the bottom left, and Shusruto Rishik at the bottom right. Overlaid text reads: “Ready for take-off: Saarbrücken Bioinformaticians analyze how spaceflight affects humans.” Logos of Saarland Informatics Campus, Saarland University, and the Center for Bioinformatics appear in the top left corner.

🚀 As we move closer to life in space, understanding how it affects our bodies is becoming increasingly important.

A team led by Prof. Andreas Keller, with Stanford University colleagues, investigated how spaceflight alters the information exchange within cells.

🔗 Read more: sic.link/spaceflight

Collage of the Saarland Informatics Campus Graduation Ceremony (Dec 5, 2025). Features two speakers on stage with logos for Saarland University, DFKI, and Max Planck Institutes visible.

Collage titled "Keynote Speech." Top: Speaker with a slide about "Zen, Wabi Sabi, and Careers." Bottom: Speaker next to a flowchart slide that says "DO STUFF."

Collage titled "FdSI Bachelor-Preis." Two separate award winners standing on stage with a presenter, each holding a framed certificate in front of large SIC letters.

Collage titled "Günter-Hotz-Medaille." Two award recipients standing with a presenter, each holding a certificate and a medal case at the Saarland Informatics Campus event.

Celebrating the class of 2025 at the #SIC! 🎓 Huge congrats to all our graduates and the winners of the FdSI Bachelor-Preis & Günter-Hotz-Medaille. 👏

📸 See the photo highlights below, and catch the full group video here: sic.link/19 🎞️

@uni-saarland.de @mpi-inf.mpg.de @dfki.bsky.social

#graduation

Prof. Dr. Andreas Zeller stands at a desk in a bright office, wearing a beige shirt and dark vest. In front of him is a monitor and a water bottle. A banner reads: “Andreas Zeller awarded IEEE Harlan D. Mills 2026!” with CISPA, Saarland University and Saarland Informatics Campus logos.

🏆 Congrats to @cispa.de researcher and @uni-saarland.de Professor @andreaszeller.bsky.social on becoming the second German to receive the most important research award in software engineering — the Harlan D. Mills Award of the IEEE Computer Society!
 
🔗 Read more: sic.link/zeller

#computerscience

Group photo of hackathon winners on stage holding certificates at the "Future Pioneers: Paris Edition" event. A green text overlay at the bottom reads "3 AWARDS. 3 WINS." next to the Saarland Informatics Campus logo.

🇫🇷✨ Huge success at the Future Pioneers Hackathon in Paris! #SIC students were part of every single winning team.

🥇 Disruptive Idea: Izzettin Algan & Denis Pushchai
🎤 Best Pitch: Abhiroop Basak & Artem Ivanov
🌱 Future Pioneer: Yiting Yun

@uni-saarland.de @mpi-inf.mpg.de @dfki.bsky.social @cispa.de

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Next up in our series "Research at MPI for Informatics": The Computer Vision and Machine Learning department. Director Bernt Schiele talks about the department’s work on explainable AI, foundation models, and how this connects to a range of real-world applications. 🎓

www.youtube.com/shorts/KUwuL...

Out into the countryside: MPI for Informatics takes part in “Heimspiel Wissenschaft” Talking about research in places where science is otherwise rarely present—that is the idea behind the event series “Heimspiel Wissenschaft.”

Science where it’s rarely present: “Heimspiel Wissenschaft” brings researchers back to their rural homes to talk about their work. @oduenkel.bsky.social spoke in Boxberg-Schwabhausen on generative AI. 86 attendees in a village of ~600 people, plus a lively Q&A.🎓

↪️https://sic.link/heimspiel

Photo of Prof. Dr. Sven Apel wearing glasses and a maroon polo shirt, standing with arms crossed against a light wall with sunlight casting striped shadows. Saarland Informatics Campus logo rests at the top left, while the Saarland University logo rests on the top right. A banner at the bottom reads: “Sven Apel becomes the 11th ACM Fellow of Saarbrücken.”

🏆 Saarbrücken now houses 11 ACM Fellows — about 1/3 of all ACM Fellows in Germany — highest of any location nationwide. This year, only 3 new Fellows in Germany were named, and Saarland University software engineering professor Sven Apel was one!

Congrats, Prof. Apel! 👏

🔗 Read more: sic.link/apel

📚 Curious about research at Max Planck Institute for Informatics?

Good news — you can now check out their new series, where they put every department under spotlight! 🎥

Prof. Dr. Andreas Zeller stands in a bright university hallway. Logos for Saarland Informatics Campus, Saarland University, and CISPA appear at the top. A banner at the bottom reads, “Among 0.1% — Andreas Zeller becomes an IEEE Fellow.”

Congrats to @cispa.de researcher and Saarland University professor @andreaszeller.bsky.social on his IEEE Fellowship for his exceptional contributions to software analysis and development! 👏

Fellow is the top membership grade, awarded to under 0.1% of members each year.

🔗 Read more: sic.link/ieee

image displays the logos for the Saarland Informatics Campus (SIC) and Saarland University. Below the logos is a professional headshot of Prof. Dr. Ingmar Weber with glasses and a grey button-down shirt, looking directly at the camera against a blurred indoor background.At the bottom, white text on a dark blue banner reads: "AI for Society: Ingmar Weber elected as an AAAI fellow".

Congrats to Prof. Dr. @ingmarweber.de on his AAAI Fellowship! The fellowship honors individuals with significant contributions to #AI.

Working in societal computing, he bridges AI and the social sciences, analyzing social platform data for valuable insights on society. 👏

Read more: sic.link/weber

Announcement for Saarland Informatics Campus library holiday closure. We are closed from Dec 24 to Jan 4 and return on Jan 5.Announcement for Saarland Informatics Campus library holiday closure. We are closed from Dec 24 to Jan 4 and return on Jan 5.

Time to close the books! 📚✨

Campus Library Holiday Hours:
🔒 Closed: Dec 24 – Jan 4
🔓 Reopen: Jan 5

Happy holidays & see you in 2026! ❄️

@uni-saarland.de @dfki.bsky.social @mpi-inf.mpg.de

#SaarlandInformaticsCampus #CampusLibrary #SIC #UniSaarland #UdS #WinterBreak #StudyBreak #HappyHolidays

Portrait of Professor Alexander Koller smiling. A banner at the bottom reads: Alexander Koller elected as a Fellow of the Association for Computational Linguistics.

💬 Ever wonder how Alexa or Siri understands you? Prof. Alexander Koller has the answers!

We’re thrilled to announce he’s been elected an ACL Fellow—the only 2025 Fellow from the EU! 🏆
Huge congrats to Prof. Koller for his contributions to NLP. 👏

@uni-saarland.de @mpi-inf.mpg.de @dfki.bsky.social

@tomonag.bsky.social

The top half shows a screenshot of a mindful math learning tool with a forest-themed interface and algebra exercises, overlaid with a square portrait of Prof. Dr. Tomohiro Nagashima against a neutral background. The bottom half shows the AlgeSpace learning tool interface with a balance-scale algebra exercise, overlaid with a rectangular group photo of the members of LaLa Lab. Below the images, a large banner reads: "The Henriette Herz Fellowship: bringing researchers together for AI that supports, not dictates."

Are you an international researcher interested in ethical AI in education? Good news — Prof. Nagashima is hiring another Postdoc (as a Humboldt Fellow) to LaLa Lab!

🎤 Read his interview to see what he looks for in candidates: sic.link/lalalab

📄 Application requirements: sic.link/fellowship

Prof. Dr. Andreas Keller, seated at a desk in front of his computer.

Spotify Wrapped may have just dropped – but do you know what else has? The Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list, basically academic citations wrapped. 😌📚

Congrats to Saarland University’s Prof. Dr. Andreas Keller for making it to the list for the third time in a row!

🔗 Read more: sic.link/keller

Missed the #TEDxSaarbridge talks by our Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing? Good news, you can find their recordings now! 👀 🎥

#societalcomputing #sciencecommunications

Saarland University Computer Science and Language Science and Technology students participating in the torch run.

Prof. Dr. Sven Apel participating in the torch run.

Prof. Dr. Christian Theobalt (Left), Prof. Dr. Alexander Koller (Middle), and Prof. Dr. Peter Druschel participating in the torch run.

A man lighting his torch.

🔥 Last week, Computer Science and Language Science and Technology students joined forces for a torch run to honor Prof. Dr. Alexander Koller. They were joined by staff and faculty.

Result? An #SIC evening where we united for our passion for teaching and research.

🔗 Read more: sic.link/torchlight

A tall, decorated Christmas tree stands inside the E1.3 building. The tree is adorned with red and white ornaments, small lights, and large, golden letters spelling out #SIC. In the background, a person wearing a backpack is walking through a brightly lit doorway with yellow trim. The bottom of the image features a dark blue banner with white text that reads: "Look up from your laptops... It's SIC's Christmas Giveaway!" The logo in the top left is for "Saarland Informatics Campus" and "UNIVERSITÄT DES SAARLANDES".

#SIC is hosting an X-Mas giveaway!

Send us a pic or tag us:

– you,

– you + your bestie,
or
– your favourite study gadget (for everyone who’s camera-shy 😉).

🏆 First 3 entries: an official SIC mug ☕️.

✨ The most creative pic? SIC Christmas ornaments for your own tree at home.

Join the fun! 🎁

Overview of the Natural Language Processing research groups and professors at Saarland Informatics Campus.

🗣️ Language connects people — #NLP lets computers join the conversation.

At SIC, we explore it from all angles:
💬 Spoken Language, Prof. Klakow
🧩 Cognition & Psycholing, Prof. Demberg
🧠 Computational Linguistics, Prof. Koller
💭 LaCoCo Lab, Prof. Hahn

🔗 sic.link/17

@dfki.bsky.social @mpi-inf.mpg.de

📸 © Iris Maurer

Professor Reinhard Wilhelm stands with his arms crossed in a bright hallway lined with framed artwork and potted plants. He is wearing a gray blazer and light shirt. Below the photo, a blue banner contains the text: “Honoring Decades of Excellence: ACM SIGBED Award for Reinhard Wilhelm.

🏆 Congrats to Professor Reinhard Wilhelm for being awarded the 2025 ACM SIGBED Technical Achievement Award!

His work in WCET analysis has shaped safe embedded, real-time, and cyber-physical systems used worldwide, from aircraft control to medical devices.

🔗 Read more: sic.link/profwilhelmacm

Ist das echt oder KI? Social Media-Videos immer schwerer zu erkennen Wer auf Social Media Videos schaut, kann seinen Augen nicht immer trauen. Denn nicht alles, was dort gezeigt wird, ist auch echt. KI-generierte Inhalte werden häufiger. Könnte die geplante KI-Kennzeic...

Telling AI content from real content has been getting harder and harder.

To overcome this, the masses have requested labels for AI videos. But DFKI Saarbrücken's Prof. Philipp Slusallek suggests a different approach: label what's real, so people know what to trust.

🇩🇪 Read more: sic.link/slusallek

Prof. Dr. Sven Apel sits smiling in an office environment with computer monitors in the background. Beneath the photo, a blue banner displays the text: "Is AI your friend? Saarbrücken says: Not yet — especially while you’re coding." Logos for Saarland University and Saarland Informatics Campus appear at the top.

🤖 Using AI while coding? Think again.

🖥️ A study conducted by Prof. Dr @svenapel.bsky.social and his team shows that, compared to human partners, developers working with AI assistants approach code less critically and experience less knowledge transfer.

🔗 Read more: sic.link/software

A student binding a thesis using the Bindomatic machine at the Campus Library.

Shelves filled with bound Bachelor’s and Master’s theses at the Campus Library.

📚 Writing your thesis?
Print it at the CS Students Printer (E1.3, room 013) and bind it in the Campus Library.
Get inspired by past theses — and leave yours for future students.

👉 Learn more: sic.link/15


@uni-saarland.de @dfki.bsky.social @mpi-inf.mpg.de

#campuslibrary #saarlanduniversity

Image announcing that PhD student Yonggang Jiang has been named a 2025 Google PhD Fellow

🏆 Congrats to Yonggang Jiang, PhD candidate at the Saarbrücken Graduate School of Computer Science (Saarland University) and researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, on being named a 2025 Google PhD Fellow!

🔗 More: sic.link/14

@uni-saarland.de @mpi-inf.mpg.de @dfki.bsky.social

@mpi-inf.mpg.de @lst.uni-saarland.de @uni-saarland.de @dfg.de

Three computer scientists from Saarland Informatics Campus (SIC) are featured side by side in professional portraits above a blue banner announcing €5.1 million in funding for three Emmy Noether Grants that strengthen research excellence at SIC. From left to right: Karol Węgrzycki, Department of Algorithms and Complexity, MPI-INF, working on algorithms and theoretical methods to solve packing problems; Jan Eric Lenssen, Department of Computer Science and Machine Learning, MPI-INF, enabling AI systems to interpret visual scenes in a human-like manner; and Micheal Hahn, Department of Language Science and Technology, UdS, developing language models that reason more logically and robustly. Logos of the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarland University, and Saarland Informatics Campus appear at the bottom.

🎉Three #SIC scientists join the Emmy Noether Programme (DFG), launching three new Junior Research Groups in Al, optimization & ML — strengthening #Saarbrücken's CS leadership as one of Germany's leading computer science centers!

Congrats Drs. Lenssen, Wegrzycki & Hahn!👏

Read more: sic.link/emmy

Eine Fotocollage, die für den Journalismuspreis Informatik wirbt.Die Collage besteht aus mehreren kleineren Bildern, die zeigen:Eine Gruppe von Personen, die hinter einem großen beleuchteten Schild mit der Aufschrift '#SIC' (Saarland Informatics Campus) steht.Einen Kameramann, der einen Mann filmt, der auf einer Veranstaltung spricht.Eine Gruppe von vier Männern und einer Frau, die Urkunden halten und vor einem Banner mit der Aufschrift 'Saarland Informatics Campus' stehen.Einen Mann, der eine Rede an einem Rednerpult mit dem Logo des Deutschen Forschungszentrums für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI) hält.Ein aufmerksames Publikum, das der Veranstaltung folgt.Drei Personen (zwei Männer und eine Frau), die eine Urkunde vor dem Banner des Saarland Informatics Campus halten.Der untere Teil der Collage besteht aus einem großen blauen Block mit weißem Text, auf dem steht: "Journalismuspreis Informatik: Jetzt bewerben!"

📰 Fundierter Journalismus hilft, die schnelle technologische Entwicklung zu verstehen und zeigt, wie wichtig Informatik für die Gesellschaft ist.
🏅 Die besten Beiträge 2025 werden mit dem Journalismuspreis Informatik ausgezeichnet.
📅 Bewerbungen bis 16.01.2026.

Mehr info: sic.link/journalismuspreis

November 2025 CACM: The Silent Scientist: When Software Research Fails to Reach Its Audience YouTube video by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

📰 This week at #SIC: Prof. Dr. Sven Apel, Chair of Software Engineering, and Dr. Marvin Wyrich, software engineering researcher at Saarland University, highlight the importance of science communication in November’s CACM issue!

📰 Read: sic.link/silentscientist
📺 Watch: youtu.be/85Q3gTx_MUs

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Wahlster holding his award certificate. Next to him stands a woman holding out his medal.

🏅Big news from #SIC: Congrats to Wolfgang Wahlster, Professor Emeritus at Saarland University and Founding Director of #DFKI, for receiving the Konrad Zuse medal for Services to Computer Science!

Read more: sic.link/wahlster

#ArtificialIntelligence #ComputerScience #SaarlandInformaticsCampus