The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) is a research institute of the Max Planck Society, founded on 18 March 2011. It operates two locations: one in Stuttgart and one in Tübingen, Germany. The institute's mission is to advance the understanding of intelligent systems that perceive, learn, and interact, and to apply this knowledge to create innovative technologies that benefit society. Research at MPI-IS spans hardware, software, and theory, with a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration across computational, physical, and social intelligence.
Research Departments
MPI-IS is organized into five research departments, each led by a director:
- Empirical Inference (Bernhard Schölkopf, Tübingen): Focuses on machine learning, causal inference, and statistical learning theory.
- Haptic Intelligence (Katherine Kuchenbecker, Stuttgart): Studies haptic interaction, robotic manipulation, and human-robot collaboration.
- Perceiving Systems (Michael J. Black, Tübingen): Investigates computer vision, human motion analysis, and 3D scene understanding.
- Robotic Materials (Christoph Keplinger, Stuttgart): Develops soft robotics, artificial muscles, and adaptive materials.
- Social Foundations of Computation (Moritz Hardt, Tübingen): Explores algorithmic fairness, accountability, and the societal impact of AI.
Current Research Groups
In addition to the departments, MPI-IS hosts numerous independent research groups led by group leaders. These groups cover a wide range of topics, including:
- AI Safety and Alignment (Maksym Andriushchenko, Tübingen)
- Algorithms and Society (Celestine Mendler-Dünner, Tübingen)
- Biomimetic Materials and Machines (Florian Hartmann, Stuttgart)
- Computational Applied Mathematics & AI Lab (Konstantin Rusch, Tübingen)
- Cooperative Machine Intelligence for People-Aligned Safe Systems (Sahar Abdelnabi, Tübingen)
- Cyborg Robotics and Intelligent Sensing (Antonia Georgopoulou, Stuttgart)
- Deep Models and Optimization (Antonio Orvieto, Tübingen)
- Embodied Social Interaction (Philipp Müller, Stuttgart)
- Human Aspects of Machine Learning (Samadi, Tübingen)
- Learning and Dynamical Systems (Michael Mühlebach, Tübingen)
- Neuromechanics of Movement (Janneke Schwane, Stuttgart)
- Organizational Leadership and Diversity (Ksenia Keplinger, Stuttgart)
- Robotic Composites and Compositions (Buse Aktaş, Stuttgart)
- Robust Machine Learning (Wieland Brendel, Tübingen)
- Safety- and Efficiency-Aligned Learning (Jonas Geiping, Tübingen)
- Science and Probabilistic Intelligence (Maximilian Dax, Tübingen)
- Wild, Efficient, and Innovative AI Lab (Shiwei Liu, Tübingen)
Initiatives and Networks
MPI-IS is actively involved in several collaborative initiatives and networks:
- Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems (CLS): A joint doctoral program with ETH Zurich, established in 2015. As of 2023, CLS has admitted 112 doctoral students and post-docs as Fellows or Associated Fellows, and counts 50 directors, professors, and research group leaders among its members. In July 2019, the Max Planck Society and ETH Zurich agreed to extend the program's funding until 2025.
- Cyber Valley: A research network launched in December 2016, involving MPI-IS, the University of Stuttgart, the University of Tübingen, the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, and the State of Baden-Württemberg. It also includes seven industrial partners: Amazon, BMW Group, Daimler AG, IAV GmbH, Porsche AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, and ZF Friedrichshafen AG. Cyber Valley is supported by the Christian Bürkert Foundation, the Gips-Schüle Foundation, the Vector Foundation, and the Carl Zeiss Foundation.
- European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS): Founded in 2018, ELLIS aims to strengthen Europe's role in global AI research. MPI-IS is a key participant in this pan-European initiative.
See Also
- Artificial intelligence
- Machine learning
- Deep learning
- Neural network
- Large language model
- Transformer (architecture)
- OpenAI
- Google DeepMind
- Amazon Web Services
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud
- MIT CSAIL
- Stanford AI Lab
- University of Toronto
- Carnegie Mellon University
- BAIR (Berkeley AI Research)
- University of Oxford
- Waymo
- Tesla
- Michael I. Jordan
- Anima Anandkumar
- Samy Bengio
- Joshua Tenenbaum
- Brendan Lake
- Melanie Mitchell
- Aaron Courville
- Aleksander Madry
- Alexei Efros
- Ali Rahimi
- Carlos Guestrin
- Chris Bishop
- Filippo Menczer
- François Fleuret
- Adam (Optimizer)
- Residual Network (ResNet)
- Batch Normalization
- Dropout
- Positional Encoding
- Multi-Head Attention
- Cross-Attention
- Encoder-Decoder Architecture
- Sequence-to-Sequence (Seq2Seq)
- Beam Search
- Data Augmentation
References
- Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems official website
- Max Planck Society annual reports
- Cyber Valley official website
- ELLIS official website
- Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems official website