About This Newsletter

Dear RWTH AI community,

This newsletter is meant to keep you informed on relevant activities around AI at the RWTH University. The newsletter also provides an excellent platform to showcase your success, share your results, and promote your events. We've had numerous contributions and suggestions, so keep up the good engagement. If you are missing something or have any other ideas how this newsletter could be even more interesting and useful to our AI community, please send an email to contact@ai.rwth-aachen.de

As usual, we would appreciate it if you could forward this information to your research groups, your students, and other interested parties. To receive the newsletter, please join the mailing list by sending an email with the subject “subscribe” to ai-center-interest-join@lists.rwth-aachen.de

We are looking forward to collaborating with you all on some exciting topics and hearing your feedback.

QUICK ACCESS

Announcements/News

Meet The Members

Project/Paper Of The Month

Events

Awards/Prizes/Recognitions

Open Calls

External Events

External Open Calls

Announcements/News

Comics as a medium for science communication

The latest comic by Aachen-based cartoonist Alfred Neuwald was published in early May. Neuwald, who rose to fame with his ‘Karl der Kleine’, tackles a completely different subject this time: everyday life at the Chair of Artificial Intelligence Methodology at RWTH Aachen University.
The cartoonist spent a total of nine months working as an “artist in residence” at the chair of Alexander von Humboldt Professor Holger Hoos, documenting the day-to-day academic life with sketchpad and pencil in hand. With no prior knowledge and a touch of scepticism, Neuwald delved ever deeper into the much-discussed topic of “artificial intelligence” and drew – entirely without AI – the 108-page work “Deus AIX Machina”.
Professor Holger Hoos, one of the executive directors of the AI Center, sees the comic primarily as a medium for science communication and believes it offers the opportunity “to explain complex issues in a way that is easy to understand”.

Meet The Members

Katharina Schmitz

Area of Expertise:

Learning-based Control, Physics-Informed Machine Learning, Condition Monitoring, AI in Fluid Power, Accelerating Complex Simulations

Ancillary activities:

Several, leading the largest research lab worldwide researching fluid power systems and components

Hobbies:

Skiing, Kids, and both together

Contact:

katharina.schmitz@ifas.rwth-aachen.de

Project/Paper Of The Month

Events

Awards/Prizes/Recognitions

Open Calls

BMFTR Call for “AI-powered robotics for real-world applications” between Europe and Japan

Under this funding scheme, support is available for research and development projects – both individual and collaborative – that focus on the research of AI-enabled robotics for real-world applications, carried out in international cooperation with partners from Japan and the participating European countries.

The final list of partners will be available on the website http://www.concert-japan.eu at the time of publication of the multilateral call for proposals.

The application process consists of two stages. The deadline for submitting project outlines in English is 22 July 2026 at 10.00am.

If you are interested in applying, please submit the draft proposal, including all attachments, to the Abteilung Drittmittelmanagement-Team Bund for internal review by 15 July 2026 at the latest (applies to Faculties 1–9).

Further information on this call for proposals can be found here.

External Events

External Open Calls

BMFTR Call: Concept competition: Innovation labs for AI-based robotics (Robo-Hubs)

With these funding guidelines, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) aims to use a concept competition to establish innovation laboratories, known as ‘Robo-Hubs’, each with a clear domain-specific focus (for example in the fields of manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, construction or health/care), to strengthen collaborative research into AI-based robotics and the transfer of this research into practical applications and value creation in Germany.

The BMFTR aims to implement the three best proposals as part of subsequent collaborative projects and to support the establishment of the Robo-Hubs. In doing so, it is explicitly seeking co-funding from industry and the federal states.

Recipients of funding:

Eligible to apply for the competition to produce concept studies in preliminary projects are public and private higher education institutions, as well as non-university research organisations with proven expertise in AI-based robotics.

Submission deadline to the BMFTR by 31/07/2026 and more informations can be found here.

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