Saarland Informatics Campus #SIC

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Saarland Informatics Campus #SIC

1000 researchers, 2800 students, 5 renowned institutes & 24 academic programs - computer science at Saarland University
Impressum: https://bit.ly/484nGeh

Saarbrücken is an international research-oriented center for computer science. Researchers at Saarland University cooperate closely with the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the Center for Bioinformatics and the Visual Computing Institute. These internationally renowned research institutes are co-located on the Saarbrücken University Campus, neighbours to the Computer Science Department with its 19 chairs. All in all, more than 300 researchers in Computer Science have made their academic home in Saarbrücken. Many work on common projects funded by the German Government, the European Union or industrial partners. In October 2007, Saarbrücken Computer Science was awarded two major grants in the framework of the Initiative for Excellence of the German federal and state governments: the Cluster of Excellence on Multimodal Computing and Interaction and funding for the Saarbrücken Graduate School of Computer Science, which will help us continue to build and secure our international scientific and academic standing.

07/10/2026

📣 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐱 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐤 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝: the new 𝐌𝐚𝐱 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐤 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 (MPC-VMI), a partnership between the 𝐌𝐚𝐱 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐤 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 (𝐌𝐏𝐈-𝐈𝐍𝐅) and 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠, will be in Saarbrücken!

After a competitive process including many different locations, the 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐬 was chosen. The center is expected to start operations at the end of 2026, aiming to develop AI systems that integrate with humans and the real world seamlessly. In what way, you ask? For instance, for a robot to become your waiter, caretaker, or tutor, there are still problems to be solved in computer vision, computer graphics, machine learning, natural language processing, human-computer interaction, and robotics. That's where the MPC-VMI will step in.

The center is funded with around €29 million, with €11.6 million from the Ministerium der Finanzen und für Wissenschaft Saarland. 💶 It will also be closely supported by industry partners Google and Flawless.

Professors Christian Theobalt (MPI-INF) and Gordon Wetzstein (Stanford Engineering) will serve as the center's directors, alongside co-directors Bernt Schiele (MPI-INF) and Karen Liu (Stanford Engineering), with Dr. Marc Habermann (MPI-INF) as the scientific coordinator.

With the new MPC-VMI, the will be the home of an exceptional AI network. Students and researchers will be able to benefit not only from the strong research ecosystem of the Saarland, but also from Stanford, Silicon Valley and industry. In this highly international environment, many new collaboration opportunities will arise. Additionally, researchers at MPC-VMI will have the chance to pursue research stays of up to two years at the Stanford School of Engineering.

🔗 Read more: sic.link/mpistanford

Universität des Saarlandes - Saarland University Fachschaft Informatikstudiengänge / CS Students' Representative Council UdS The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz

01/10/2026

🍁 Our favorite time of the year? Fall, when our new students join us — welcome to the ! Take a look at our welcome events to make your first weeks on campus easier.

Got questions about your study program? Get answers first-hand with the 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭-𝐔𝐩𝐬!

Meet your future professors, fellow students and study coordination at the 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐲 and get a brief overview of what you can expect in the following weeks.

Feeling overwhelmed by all the things you need to learn about the program, university, or moving to a new country to study? 𝐒𝐭𝐄𝐏 𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮: join the orientation program of the Computer Science Student’s Council to learn everything you need to know about studying in the Computer Science department of Saarland University.

Find out more about your study program at 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦-𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 and get information from the ultimate primary source: your future professors.

Already attending Saarland University? Attend the 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 of the department to see what’s new.

Adjusting to a new department and university can be hard, but we’re here to make it easier for you. So don’t miss the orientation events, and start your studies without any information gaps! We’ll see you soon 👋

🔗 More information: sic.link/semesterinfo

Universität des Saarlandes - Saarland University Fachschaft Informatikstudiengänge / CS Students' Representative Council UdS The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz

25/09/2026

Four days of bioinformatics, fresh perspectives, and conversations across disciplines: this week, we welcomed the international bioinformatics community to the Saarland Informatics Campus for the ! 🧬

gave us twice the reason to celebrate: the conference’s 40th anniversary and 25 years of the Center for Bioinformatics (CBI) at Saarland University. Twenty-four years after GCB last came to Saarbrücken, it was a pleasure to bring the community together here again. 🥳

Since we last hosted the conference in 2002, a lot has changed in Bioinformatics: from the freshly sequenced human genome, we moved on to next-generation sequencing, the biological data explosion, AlphaFold, and AI in our labs. This also changed the research questions: How do we go beyond a single reference genome for better genetic diversity? How can we predict health outcomes with AI? After AlphaFold, how do we proceed forward in understanding protein function and dynamics?

These were just some of the questions explored through this week’s workshops, keynotes, talks and poster sessions. The takeaway is simple: the future lies at the intersection of computer science and life sciences — which CBI puts into practice every day at SIC.

Of course, the exchange continued beyond the sessions: over coffee (𝐋𝐨𝐭𝐬 of it— wouldn't be a conference without it, would it? ☕) and at the PhD Networking Event, which we were delighted to sponsor. Our SIC Rescue Station also made its conference debut — a little extra backup for busy conference days!

After ensuring no one had any last minute conference emergencies, we were excited to announce that…

This year's Poster Prize went to:

🏆 gfaidx: On-Disk Genome Graph Indexing for Fast and Low-Memory Random Access — Fawaz Dabbaghie & Martin Steinegger, Seoul National University

And the Fachgruppe Bioinformatik (FaBi) Dissertation Award went to:

🏆 Inference and analysis of recurring genomic variation in human populations — Dr. Hufsah Ashraf, University of Düsseldorf

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all speakers, presenters, participants and students who joined us, with a special thanks to the organizing team and student assistants who made it all happen.

Goodbye GCB 2026, it was nice hosting you at the Saarland Informatics Campus! 👋 Looking forward to University of Tübingen next year!

📸: Trang Do, PhD, Dyar A.

Universität des Saarlandes - Saarland University Fachschaft Informatikstudiengänge / CS Students' Representative Council UdS The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz

18/09/2026

Congratulations to Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS) Students Toghrul Karimov and Simon Spies for being awarded Otto Hahn Medals!

The Otto Hahn Medal is awarded to early career researchers with outstanding achievements. Karimov has received the medal for fundamental contributions to automated methods that check if linear dynamical systems behave normally, and Spies for his work on making the Iris framework for program verification more powerful and better at automated reasoning.

Karimov has previously received the Ackermann award in 2025 for his thesis, Algorithmic Verification of Linear Dynamical Systems.” Now, he continues to work as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS) within the ERC Synergy Grant, "DynAMiCs.”

Spies, also a recipient a Google PhD Fellowship in 2022 and a co-recipient of multiple Distinguished Paper Awards at ACM PLDI and ACM POPL, currently works as a software engineer at Jane Street in London, working on the OCaml compiler.

This marks the 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐢𝐱 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 that two MPI-SWS students have received the Otto Hahn medal in the same year, a notable achievement for the institute and its partners at the Saarland Informatics Campus! 👏

Universität des Saarlandes - Saarland University Fachschaft Informatikstudiengänge / CS Students' Representative Council UdS The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz

07/09/2026

Let’s do the time warp again… Except it’s the in the 90s! ⏰

Ever wondered just how much the campus has changed in the last three decades? You’d be surprised at how little. If you ever wish to “go back to simpler times”, maybe you can just take a stroll around campus without your devices.

🧑‍🎓 The technologies and tools may have changed, but being a certainly has not. So once you’re done with all your deadlines, grab your friends, hit the Mensa, and enjoy being on campus— it is your oyster, after all.

We’d like to thank Saarland University Alumnus Christoph Schmitz for providing the photos.

Universität des Saarlandes - Saarland University The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems Fachschaft Informatikstudiengänge / CS Students' Representative Council UdS Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz

03/09/2026

AI may hallucinate. These numbers don’t.

Of the five ERC Starting Grants in computer science going to Germany this year, three are going to researchers at Saarland Informatics Campus. One of them is Michael Hahn, professor of computational linguistics in Saarland University’s Department of Language Science and Technology. In his new €1.5 million ERC-funded project REALM, he will investigate why language models fail at complex reasoning – and how these failures can be predicted and prevented. His goal: more reliable, efficient and trustworthy AI.

An Emmy Noether Research Group. The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize. And now an ERC Starting Grant. Another major milestone for Michael Hahn – and part of a remarkable ERC result for Saarland Informatics Campus. And he is in excellent company: Yiting Xia and Thomas Leimkühler from the Max Planck Institute for Informatics have also secured ERC Starting Grants in the current round. In their projects, Xia will investigate how data center networks can be redesigned to meet the demands of AI workloads, while Leimkühler will explore how a single model can represent the visual world across scales, from entire landscapes to microscopic details.

Across Europe, only 22 computer science projects were selected. Five of them will be hosted in Germany. Three of those five are here at Saarland Informatics Campus. A record 4,807 proposals were submitted across all fields, with only 421 – just 8.8% – selected for funding. Together, the three new grants bring the total number of ERC Grants secured by researchers at Saarland Informatics Campus to 54. That is what scientific density looks like: outstanding people, institutions that reinforce one another and an environment in which ambitious research can thrive.

Congratulations to Michael Hahn, Yiting Xia and Thomas Leimkühler on this outstanding achievement!

Universität des Saarlandes - Saarland University Fachschaft Informatikstudiengänge / CS Students' Representative Council UdS The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz

03/09/2026

AI may hallucinate. These numbers don’t.
Of the five ERC Starting Grants in computer science going to Germany this year, three are going to researchers at Saarland Informatics Campus. One of them is Michael Hahn, professor of computational linguistics in Saarland University’s Department of Language Science and Technology. In his new €1.5 million ERC-funded project REALM, he will investigate why language models fail at complex reasoning – and how these failures can be predicted and prevented. His goal: more reliable, efficient and trustworthy AI.

An Emmy Noether Research Group. The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize. And now an ERC Starting Grant. Another major milestone for Michael Hahn – and part of a remarkable ERC result for Saarland Informatics Campus. And he is in excellent company: Yiting Xia and Thomas Leimkühler from the Max Planck Institute for Informatics have also secured ERC Starting Grants in the current round. In their projects, Xia will investigate how data center networks can be redesigned to meet the demands of AI workloads, while Leimkühler will explore how a single model can represent the visual world across scales, from entire landscapes to microscopic details.

Across Europe, only 22 computer science projects were selected. Five of them will be hosted in Germany. Three of those five are here at Saarland Informatics Campus. A record 4,807 proposals were submitted across all fields, with only 421 – just 8.8% – selected for funding. Together, the three new grants bring the total number of ERC Grants secured by researchers at Saarland Informatics Campus to 54. That is what scientific density looks like: outstanding people, institutions that reinforce one another and an environment in which ambitious research can thrive.

Congratulations to Michael Hahn, Yiting Xia and Thomas Leimkühler on this outstanding achievement!

Universität des Saarlandes - Saarland University

26/08/2026

📣 Looking to start a computer science related study programme this winter?

Then the maths preparatory course might be just the thing for you. In this four-week course, you’ll build the mathematical foundations (including logic, proofs and set theory) for your upcoming studies and get to know some of your fellow students at social events.

📆 When? September 7 – October 2

🕑 Time: Monday to Friday, 9.00 am – 4.00 pm

🌍 Where? On campus in Saarbrücken

💰 Cost? Just €20 (including materials)

🔊 Language? Lectures and materials are in English. Tutorials are available in German or English.

🔗 Read more and register here: https://vorkurs.cs.uni-saarland.de/

Universität des Saarlandes - Saarland University The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems Fachschaft Informatikstudiengänge / CS Students' Representative Council UdS Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz

18/08/2026

🏛️ Exam season has been busy for us all, including our professors: congratulations to Sven Apel and Andreas Zeller for being selected into the first !

SIGSOFT Software Engineering Academy, launched by ACM this year, is an honor for researchers who made lasting contributions to software engineering.

Apel’s research revolves around developing tools for efficient, reliable and configurable software systems, while Zeller’s focus lies in automated software testing, debugging and repair. But these honors go beyond just lasting contributions— the Academy is all about individuals whose influence and leadership in the field have transformed software engineering. 💪 With two researchers on this year’s cohort, Saarland University is one of the few institutions with multiple researchers who were named.

So once you take Software Engineering or Automated Debugging at the , remember that you'll be getting a chance to learn from field leaders, who not only push their Git commits, but the also the boundaries of computer science. 💫

(No pressure, though. ☺️)

Universität des Saarlandes - Saarland University The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems Fachschaft Informatikstudiengänge / CS Students' Representative Council UdS Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz

11/08/2026

💿 Digital music has never been this digital until The Night of the Fine Arts at The Commune, when students from the showcased the instruments they made from scratch!

As part of the Audio Devices: Synthesis, Control, & Performance seminar taught by Paul Strohmeier, senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, the students made their own electronic instruments.

They built custom hardware and programmed the instruments using audio synthesis and processing, embedded systems, sensors, and MIDI communication. The emphasis was on large-scale bodily action, so rather than pushing buttons, the instruments were played by body movements. They performed for the public on July 17, and art and technology became one for a night.

Who says computer science has to be done a certain way? With the diversity of fields on our campus, our researchers and students constantly find ways to combine computer science in other disciplines. Translation: here in Saarbrücken, creativity only fuels the fire. 🧑‍🎨🖥️

Our biggest applause to Paul Strohmeier and his students for a great show! 👏

Universität des Saarlandes - Saarland University Fachschaft Informatikstudiengänge / CS Students' Representative Council UdS The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems

Adresse

Campus E1 7
Saarbrücken
66123

Telefon

+4968130270740

Website

https://saarland-informatics-campus.de/

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