From 13 to 15 October 2025, Prof. Dr. Thomas Bartz-Beielstein, Director of the THK-AI Research Cluster and the Institute IDE+A at TH Köln, visited the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), Leiden University, together with Jens Uwe Brandt and Noah Christoph Pütz. The team met with Prof. Dr. Thomas Bäck (Fellow, IEEE) to review dissertation progress, align research directions, and further deepen the institutions’ strategic collaboration in artificial intelligence.
Jens and Noah are supervised jointly by Prof. Bäck, Prof. Bartz-Beielstein, and Dr. Marc Hilbert as part of their PhD studies at TH Köln and LIACS, respectively.
A milestone in a long-standing partnership
The visit marks a highlight in the long-term cooperation between Prof. Bäck and Prof. Bartz-Beielstein, both alumni of TU Dortmund, whose collaboration spans joint research projects, shared PhD supervisions, and continuous exchange across academia and industry. The joint discussions with Prof. Bäck, Prof. Niki van Stein, Prof. Hao Wang, and many others at LIACS were described as deep, constructive, and forward-looking, reinforcing the shared commitment to excellence in human-centred, responsible AI.
Research focus and thesis work
Jens Uwe Brandt works on adapting self-supervised learning to learn robust representations for virtual sensing in safety-critical environments. The work aims at improving resilience under data shifts and partial sensor outages using transformer-based architectures and self-supervised strategies.
Noah Christoph Pütz focuses on deep imbalanced regression for multimodal sensor data, addressing skewed target distributions where accuracy is most critical (e.g., extremes in vehicle dynamics and industrial IoT).
These topics align closely with the research strengths of THK-AI and LIACS in evolutionary computation, machine learning, robust AI systems, and real-world applications in mobility, energy and water systems, aerospace, and health.
Impact and outlook
The meetings identified concrete avenues for co-authored publications, shared datasets and benchmarks, and continued joint supervision. They also strengthen ongoing European and national projects involving both teams and broaden opportunities for researcher exchange, seminars, and industrial collaborations. „Our collaboration with LIACS is a cornerstone of THK-AI’s mission to advance trustworthy AI for real-world impact,“ said Prof. Bartz-Beielstein. „This visit underscores the depth of our partnership and accelerates progress on doctoral research that sits at the frontier of robust, data-efficient machine learning.“ Prof. Bäck added: „The exchange with THK-AI continues to produce tangible results. The dialogues in Leiden were highly productive and set the stage for impactful joint contributions to AI methods and applications.“
About LIACS
The Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) is a centre of excellence for multidisciplinary research and education in computer science and AI. LIACS advances algorithms, systems, and the foundations of AI for a sustainable future of society.
About THK-AI
The THK-AI Research Cluster at TH Köln is the central hub for artificial intelligence at the university. It drives high-impact research, publications, collaborations, and open engagement in AI under the guiding principle “Mit KI soziale Innovation gestalten.”
Both institutions are members of the CAIRNE Research Network, fostering European excellence in human-centered AI research and innovation.