Our research group leader Manuel Renold had the opportunity to give two presentations at the UMB, once at their office in Volketswil and at Puls 5 in Zurich, accompanied by our Unitree RoboDog.
We are very excited to announce that not just one, but two of our applications have been accepted for the Applied Machine Learning Days (AMLD) from March 23-26 in 2024! The AMLD is one of the largest AI/ML conferences in Europe, hosting participants from over 40 countries and providing the opportunity to learn about the latest research and insights in machine learning, network with fellow experts in the field and enjoy the beautiful scenery of Lausanne.
Who doesn’t love Christmas? We definitely do - which quickly becomes evident to anyone who walks past our office…
We’re very excited to announce Dr. Manuel Renold has been appointed as the head of the new Cybernetic Learning Systems Research Unit at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence. His current research group, consisting of Janik Vollenweider, Julia Usher and Oliver Carmignani will join him in the move. We leave behind the Institute of Data Analysis, the Traffic and Transport Engineering Group and many long-standing friendships with heavy hearts, yet we look forward to continued collaboration.
Finding a new name for a research group which doesn’t exist at every other Artificial Intelligence institute is difficult - impossible even. We knew our focus lies in the design of AI solutions for complex systems, particularly using Reinforcement Learning methods. We knew that we wanted to keep our options open, given the broad interests and skills within our team. We also knew we wanted to differentiate ourselves from the rest, so we got a bit creative. Eventually Manuel came up with the idea to use “Cybernetics”. The rest of us were a bit puzzled at the idea, seeing as for our generation, the terminator was what we pictured under cybernetics. Little did we know that the word itself refers to a field of science which perfectly describes what we do!
In his master thesis Fabiano Ulmke developed a concept for economically viable operation of On-Demand Air Taxis in the greater area of the city of Zurich on behalf of the Lucerne-based aerospace company Aurora Swiss Aerospace. By 2035, Fabiano Ulmke estimates that the first air taxis carrying passengers will be operational in Switzerland. Fabiano was awarded by the Association of Business Engineers (VWI) Switzerland for the best Master thesis in Business Engineering in 2023.
Our research group is finally announcing its partion as research partner respresenting the ZHAW in the newly established Flatland Association. In collaboration with the SBB CFF FFS and T-Systems, the Flatland Association faces the resource challanges of contemporary railway networks with innovative solutions. The newly founded association sets the corner stone for collaboratively navigate the future challenges of transportation networks.
In collaboration with Swissport we successfully received funding from Innosuisse for an innovative project on tailored deep reinforcement learning methods with human feedback (RLHF) to enhance resource-efficient dispatching and operational delay reduction. The co-learning approach aims to foster trust in AI systems and maintain a high degree of human control while simultaneously improving system performance.