Newsroom
Stay informed with our latest news and announcements on this page. For more in-depth content, we also encourage visitors to explore our bimonthly STRUCTURES Newsletter magazine, which features a variety of articles, interviews with members, and background information on our latest research and activities.
We are happy to announce that the 40th Colloquium on Combinatorics (Kolkom 2023) is going to take place in Heidelberg, organized by Felix Joos ( STRUCTURESHeidelberg) and supported by the STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence. The conference aims to provide a forum for researchers working in diverse areas of combinatorics. The plenary speakers will be Johannes Carmesin (Birmingham), Daniel Král' (Brno), Kai-Uwe Schmidt (Parderborn) and Vera Traub (Bonn).
The conference will take place from Oct 13 to 14 at the Mathematikon in Heidelberg. The registration deadline is Sep 17. More details on the registration and venue can be found at the conference webpage:
STRUCTURES Short Film 5: How can complex physical structures be used as a resource for computation?
Our world consists of complex physical structures, spanning from quantum systems and cells to waterfalls and the cosmos in its entirety. Various fundamental insights gained from observations of those intricate structures can be used as a resource for novel approaches of computation. Any structure, whether it is a mug, atoms, light rays or a car, can be used as a computational structure. In the STRUCTURES Cluster, we use the learnings and know-how from our own experiments and research to drive new frontiers in computational innovation within our laboratories – all powered by the collaborative synergy of unique expertise from diverse disciplines.
Video link (YouTube):
STRUCTURES: How can complex physical structures be used as a resource for computation?
STRUCTURES Short Film 4: How can we efficiently and reliably identify structures in large datasets?
In a data-abundant world, the challenge of discerning meaningful patterns becomes ever more crucial. One of the four key research questions of STRUCTURES is how to reliably and efficiently uncover structures in large datasets. Our team of researchers trains specialized unsupervised neural networks to tackle the complexity of structure discovery. These AI algorithms autonomously construct what we term as feature spaces — an abstraction that comes to life through a relatable example: How do people's handwriting styles differ? Our networks possess the ability to learn and interpret distinct handwriting styles. The foundational concepts underlying these abilities can be applied to various structure discovery tasks in diverse fields, including disciplines such as medicine.
Video link (YouTube):
STRUCTURES: How can we efficiently and reliably identify structures in large datasets?
STRUCTURES Short Film 3: What are deep new relations between mathematical & physical structure?
"This is a coffee mug. But for a scientist, it is so much more…" Join us on a fascinating tour through the world of geometry & topology, where intriguing links emerge between physics & mathematics. The study of these connections from an interdisciplinary angle allows us to advance understanding in both disciplines, surpassing what each discipline can achieve independently. The STRUCTURES Cluster in Heidelberg offers a unique environment for scientists from diverse backgrounds to interact and collaborate. Together, our researchers synergize their expertise to drive rapid advancements, pushing the boundaries of knowledge and understanding.
Video link (YouTube):
STRUCTURES: What are deep new relations between mathematical and physical structure?
Complicated structures emerge from simple laws applied to very general conditions. Mathematics plays a unifying role in providing very similar methods for cosmology and quantum fields. Our latest film, available on the STRUCTURES YouTube channel, underlines the unique interdisciplinary collaboration within the STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence, in which theoretical and experimental methods are linked:
Video link (YouTube):
STRUCTURES: Understanding Complex Structures
We are delighted to announce the first anniversary of the STRUCTURES Science Outreach Blog and our social media channels. Under the motto What's that Structure?, the STRUCTURES blog has been a source of knowledge, and inspiration for a broad, scientifically interested audience passionate about understanding how structure, collective phenomena, and complexity emerge from the fundamental laws of physics. Launched in August 2022, the STRUCTURES Blog has become a platform for the exchange, transfer and discussion of scientific ideas and knowledge across diverse disciplines, including physics, mathematics, astronomy and computer science. Complementing this, we provide an extensive offer of news, information, and science communication through our active and engaging social media channels aimed at the public, members, students and colleagues.
We are proud that over the past months, in addition to gaining many new authors and presenting exciting articles, we have achieved a steady growth in visitor numbers. Our blog articles are currently accessed more than forty times a day (median over three months). The STRUCTURES blog has found a big positive resonance also on our Social Media channels, where we count 160 Twitter and 193 Instagram followers as of July 31. In addition, with the beginning of STRUCTURES' Public Talk Series Akademische Mittagspause 2023, the STRUCTURES Cluster has launched its new YouTube channel as a new content offer, on which you can already find a large amount of content related to the talks.
Throughout August, we will celebrate the Blog's and Social Media anniversary with various posts, movies and a special blog article . As a beginning, and to inaugurate our recently launched YouTube channel, we present one of four upcoming short movies about the STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence, titled "We Are STRUCTURES":
Short Film: We are STRUCTURES
YouTube: We are STRUCTURES
On the occasion of this anniversary, we would like to warmly thank all of our blog authors, colleagues, visitors and everyone involved behind the scenes. The STRUCTURES Blog would not be possible without you, and the efforts of many!
Weblinks:
We are happy to announce the workshop Human Intelligence (HI) Meets Artificial Intelligence (AI) jointly organized by the STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence and Field of Focus IV (Self-Regulation And Regulation: Individuals and Societies). The workshop will take place from October 4 to 5, 2023 at Marsilius Kolleg, Heidelberg.
The registration is open until September 15. The link and the programme can be found at:
https://structures.uni-heidelberg.de/workshop_HI_meets_AI.
About the Workshop: Human intelligence (HI) emerges through the coordinated activity of a highly intricate and interconnected neural network, our brain. Understanding HI thus rests on understanding how this network implements cognitive processes, a question tackled by cognitive and neuro-scientists for decades. On the other hand, in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), the past few years have witnessed considerable progress in developing and understanding artificial deep neural networks. These models share common principles with the brain, sometimes even borrowing ideas from neuroscientific principles, although they also differ in important ways. As it stands, using modern AI tools to improve our understanding on HI, and vice versa, is a scientific field still in its infancy.
This workshop brings together experts on HI and AI to highlight recent progress in these areas and stimulate novel ideas bridging both fields. Our overarching questions are: How can AI help to better understand HI, how can we leverage deep learning models to explain neural mechanisms underlying HI and how can HI inspire the development of AI? Our invited speakers have focused and are currently focusing on these questions. We hope that this workshop will connect researchers on HI and AI, and identify novel collaborations between the fields.
Further information: