Two Junior Professorships in AI for Universität Heidelberg

10 January 2019

State creates total of ten professorships in the field of artificial intelligence

Heidelberg University will be home to two of the ten junior professorships in artificial intelligence (AI) recently set up by the state. Baden-Württemberg Minister of Science Theresia Bauer made the announcement in Stuttgart. With a total of six million euros to finance the positions, the Ministry aims to develop innovative AI methods and research their possible applications. The positions will be filled in 2019 for a period of six years. The Heidelberg junior professorships will take up the subjects of “Artificial Intelligence in Cardiovascular Medicine” and “Machine Learning in Scientific Computing”.

Ruperto Carola President Prof. Dr Bernhard Eitel stresses that “the two junior professorships in AI reinforce Heidelberg University's prominence in the computational sciences, allowing us to push the boundaries of research as well as expand our range of courses”. According to Minister Bauer, the state is joining forces to make Baden-Württemberg an even more vigorous locus of AI research. “With the new professorships, we are building up competence throughout the entire state, beyond the former centres,” stated Theresia Bauer when she announced the results of the “Artificial Intelligence Baden-Württemberg” (AI-BW) funding programme on 9 January 2019.

In addition to Heidelberg University, Freiburg, Hohenheim, Konstanz, Mannheim, Ulm and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology were also awarded funding for the new professorships. A broad range of disciplines will be covered, bolstering the respective institutions' areas of focus and the dynamic areas of research. Subject areas include medicine, medical technology, the material sciences, IT security, and the economic and social sciences.