Team
Mitarbeiterliste (A - Z)
CHIMIAK-OPOKA Joanna (Associate Dean of Studies)
Management and Administration
Prof. Justus PIATER, PhD
Head of DiSC & Professor of Computer Science
DiSC & Intelligent and Interactive Systems Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-13)
Institut für Informatik, Technikerstraße 21a, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I seek to enable autonomous robots to perceive and act flexibly and robustly in unstructured environments, leveraging machine learning methods to build perceptual, motor and reasoning skills. Of particular interest is the ability of robots to conceptualize their environment such that they can learn on the basis of already-learned skills, transfer skills to novel tasks, and communicate with humans.
Research Area
Robotics, Embodied AI and Machine Learning
Prof. Adam JATOWT, PhD
Deputy Head of DiSC & Professor of Data Science
DiSC & Data Science Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-09)
Institut für Informatik, Technikerstraße 21a, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My research is related to knowledge extraction and information retrieval from unstructured text collections such as news article collections, financial/legal documents or social media posts. In particular, I am interested in novel approaches towards retrieving useful knowledge from long-term news archives and other types of temporal document collections, as well as in applications of text mining techniques for digital history.
Research Area
Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval Methods
Dr. Joanna CHIMIAK-OPOKA
Associate Dean of Studies (Minor Digital Science) & Senior Lecturer
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-11)
Statement
My goal is to develop an intriguing bundle of courses creating new career opportunities for our students. In line with the DiSC’s mission, I seek to promote the transfer of digitalization-related skills. To do so, I support our interdisciplinary students and instructors in all teaching and learning matters. In particular, I am engaged in finding optimal and innovative solutions and in the continuous development of our teaching portfolio. Moreover, as a senior lecturer and computer scientist, I am involved in teaching our IT-related modules. In my courses, I adapt and experiment with new methods and tools seeking to increase my effectiveness as a lecturer.
Carina KÖNIG GENANNT KERSTING, MA MSc
Coordinator, Chair of the DiSC Advisory Board
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-14)
Statement
As coordinator of the Digital Science Center, I serve as the primary contact for its members in all administrative matters so they can be fully dedicated to their research. I ensure effective communication between all parties involved to allow for a lively exchange of information and knowledge. That way, I seek to contribute to the DiSC’s overarching goal: the creation of synergies across disciplines. Read more in the university portrait (in German).
Maija FEDOTOVA
Secretary (Adam Jatowt's group)
Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-14)
Statement
As secretary of the DS Group (Data Science Group), I am in charge of all managerial and organizational duties. In addition, I support the administration of DiSC.
Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, and Senior Scientists
Assoz. Prof. Dr. Sébastien COURT
DiSC & Department of Mathematics
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-11)
Institut für Mathematik, Technikerstraße 13, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My background are numerical simulations of fluid-structure interactions, elasticity theory, scientific computing, and optimal control theory. At the Digital Science Center, I work on the mathematical foundations of Deep Learning
Research Area
Artificial Neural Networks, Mathematical Optimization, and Dynamical Systems
Assoz. Prof. Mag. Reto STAUFFER, PhD
DiSC & Department of Statistics
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-06)
Institut für Statistik, Universitätsstraße 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office O-2.18)
Statement
I am working on the development and refinement of statistical machine-learning methods and their application in the field of natural and atmospheric sciences: spatio-temporal regression methods to enhance climatological estimates or probabilistic decision trees to improve weather forecasts. The development of these new methods is accompanied by implementing open-source software which is able to handle vast and continuously growing amounts of data in today’s digital world. Read more in the university portrait (in German).
Research Area
Data Science in Atmosphere Climate Research
Ass.-Prof. Mag. Mag. Dr. Clara RAUCHEGGER, LLM
DiSC & Department of Legal Theory and Future of Law
Digital Science Center & Institut für Theorie und Zukunft des Rechts, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-07)
Statement
I examine the opportunities and risks of digital technology from a legal perspective. In particular, my research explores the regulation and governance of digital platforms and artificial intelligence by the European Union. My recent work focuses on EU legislation and policy that is aimed at preventing the spread of illegal or harmful online content such as hate speech, terrorist propaganda, or disinformation. I am particularly interested in the legal implications of AI-assisted filtering of online content. My other research interests include EU and comparative constitutional law, with a particular focus on the protection of fundamental rights in the digital environment.
Research Area
Law and Digital Technology
Ass.-Prof. Mag. Alexander KUPFER, PhD
DiSC & Department of Information Systems, Production and Logistics Management
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-03)
Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik, Produktionswirtschaft und Logistik, Universitätsstraße 15, A-6060 Innsbruck
Statement
My work focuses on information in digital business and digital markets. Online reviews, for instance, help to considerably reduce information asymmetries for consumers (e.g., hotel reviews or amazon reviews). In particular, my research investigates the effects of rewards and design aspects on online review systems. More generally, I am keenly interested in a wide variety of digital business and digital markets phenomena that employ the reduction of (information) asymmetries including crowdfunding and sharing platforms.
Research Area
Digital Business - Information System Design and Economic Behavior
Ass.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Dr. Joseph WANG-KATHREIN
DiSC & Research Institute Brenner-Archiv
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-03)
Brenner-Archiv, Josef-Hirn-Straße 5-7, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My work field covers the philosophy of Wittgenstein’s and digital editing including related fields in the Digital Humanities. My research focus lies on the interface between philosophy and computer science: How can the insights gathered in philosophy help us in our daily work using computers?
Research Area
Text Modeling, Digital Editing, and Archival Science
Ass.-Prof. Dr. Luis Miguel RODRÍGUEZ ROJAS
DiSC & Department of Microbiology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-05)
Institut für Mikrobiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My main research interest is the understanding of eco-evolutionary principles governing microbial communities: primary evolutionary and ecological forces shaping populations and their metabolic potential, their interactions with other microbial species, their hosts and the environment, and the role of stochasticity. I develop computational and statistical techniques aimed at answering these questions as well as advancing standards and data quality evaluation methods in the field of environmental genomics. Read more in the university portrait (in German).
Research Area
Microbial Ecology, Environmental Genomics, and Bioinformatics
Ass.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Matthias SCHURZ
DiSC & Department of Psychology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-04)
Institut für Psychologie, Universitätsstraße 5-7, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 3S12)
Statement
Humans are a highly social species, and complex societies rely on mutual understanding, cooperation, and trust. In my work, I am studying how central social abilities are implemented in the human brain. In particular, I would like to understand how we can represent another's perspective while at the same time keeping track of reality. Comparative work from other species as well as patient studies show us that this high-level skill is not easy for the brain. Presumably, it requires the interplay of several large-scale networks. To deepen our understanding of these mechanisms, I study functional brain activity and connectivity with statistical and machine learning methods.
Research Area
Computational Neuroscience, Brain Networks, and Human Cognition
Ass.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Gabriel ROJAS-KOPEINIG
DiSC & Unit of Energy Efficient Building at the Department of Structural Engineering and Material Sciences
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-04)
AB Energieeffizientes Bauen, Technikerstraße 13, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My academic work centers on energy-efficient construction. Specifically, I explore how we can design buildings in such a way that they provide a comfortable and healthy indoor climate while conserving energy and resources. To answer this question, I use both experimental and computational simulation methods, such as building performance and air flow simulations. My research focuses on indoor air quality, thermal comfort, and energy efficiency. In addition, I also seek to improve the aforementioned simulation methods by combining and enhancing them with data-driven methods, for example data-driven modeling or model calibration.
Research Area
Digital Methods in Indoor Environment and Building Energy Research
Ass.-Prof. Priv.-Doz. Francesca FINOTELLO, PhD
francesca.finotello@uibk.ac.at
DiSC & Computational Biomedicine Group at the Department of Molecular Biology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-05)
Institut für Molekularbiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My research focuses on the bioinformatic analysis of bulk and single-cell multiomics data and on the development of new computational methods to inform precision and personalized medicine. I have a special focus on cancer immunology: I integrate bioinformatics, systems biology, and machine learning techniques to shed light on the rules governing tumor-immune cell interactions. By characterizing the landscape of cancer neoantigens, the composition of the tumor immune contexture, and the intricate crosstalk governing cell-cell interactions in the tumor microenvironment, I aim at extracting mechanistic rationale to improve cancer immunotherapy.
Research Area
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Ass.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Samuele TOSATTO
DiSC & Intelligent and Interactive Systems Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-03)
Institut für Informatik, Technikerstraße 21a, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
How can we enable embodied agents, like robots, with the ability to understand, learn, and interact with their physical surroundings?
My research is a crossover between machine learning and robotics. In particular, I focus on enhancing reinforcement learning efficiency and developing state and action abstractions that naturally cope with physical quantities like velocities and forces.
Research Area
Embodied Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Ass.-Prof. Dr. Hauke LICHT, BA MA
DiSC & Department of Political Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-11)
Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Universitätsstraße 15, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
The goal of my research is to understand how and why governments, parties, and politicians employ various rhetorical strategies, whether during election campaigns to win voter support, when debating bills in parliament, or negotiating on the international stage. To achieve this, I combine classical approaches of comparative political analysis with methods from machine learning and computational linguistics. This allows me to measure and analyze the communication behavior of political actors in large text datasets.
My methodological focus is on the application, evaluation, and further development of techniques for computer-based measurement of communication phenomena in text data, for example, using large language models and related methods. In addition to my research, an important part of my work is to impart this knowledge to students and early-career researchers. By doing so, I aim to enhance their competencies in dealing with politics and artificial intelligence in the digital age.
Research Area
Computational Political Science, Comparative Politics, Political Communication, Natural Language Processing
Dr. Gerald HIEBEL
DiSC & Department of Archaeologies
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-05)
Institut für Archäologien, Langer Weg 11, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My work focuses on research on methodologies that can be used to represent the complex knowledge arising from a (pre-)historic reality and the scientific research about this reality. They are from the fields of ontology engineering (in particular CIDOC CRM), knowledge graph creation, geoinformation systems, and computational linguistics (Named Entity Recognition, Named Entity Linking). While my main work field is archaeology, I also apply these methodologies in several projects from various fields of the Digital Humanities. My goal is to create e-infrastructures that can be used for research and the dissemination of knowledge about our past and how it was gained.
Research Area
Semantic and Space-Oriented Information Technology in Archaeology
PhD Candidates
Bhawna PIRYANI
PhD student & university assistant (Adam Jatowt's group)
Data Science Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-10)
Statement
My research focuses on Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Open-domain Question Answering (QA). I am working on building QA systems that focus on the temporal aspects of the text. Prior to joining the Data Science Group, I was working on Sentiment Analysis and developing resources for Scarce Resource Languages (SRLs) such as Nepali.
Research Area
Natural Language Processing (NLP), Information Retrieval (IR), and Question Answering (QA)
Abdelrahman Elsayed Mahmoud ABDALLAH
PhD student & university assistant (Adam Jatowt's group)
abdelrahman.abdallah@uibk.ac.at
Data Science Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-10)
Statement
I am deeply engaged in pioneering research at the forefront of computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), and information retrieval (IR). My primary dedication lies in the realm of extracting knowledge and information from unstructured text collections across diverse domains, including news articles, financial and legal documents, and social media posts. Through the skillful application of advanced techniques in computer vision, NLP, and IR, my goal is to unveil invaluable insights, foster a profound comprehension of unstructured data, and revolutionize its analysis.
Research Area
Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Information Retrieval (IR) Methods
Jamshid MOZAFARI
PhD student & university assistant (Adam Jatowt's group)
Data Science Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-10)
Statement
My research focuses on natural language processing and information retrieval, especially Open-Domain Question Answering systems. In this regard, I have published some papers related to question answering for the Persian and English language. Prior to joining the Data Science Group at the University of Innsbruck, I received BSc and MSc degrees in Computer Science from the University of Kurdistan and the University of Isfahan in 2016 and 2019 under the supervision of Dr. Parham Moradi and Prof. Mohammad Ali Nematbakhsh, respectively.
Research Area
Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval
Mohammed Mustafa Abdelgwad ALI
PhD student & university assistant (Adam Jatowt's group)
Data Science Group at the Department of Computer Science
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-10)
Statement
My research focuses on Natural Language Processing (NLP), with a particular emphasis on the extraction and structuring of information from domain-specific texts such as ESG and EU Taxonomy reports. I develop end-to-end pipelines that transform unstructured content into structured knowledge representations and enable advanced retrieval and analysis through large language models. Prior to joining the Data Science Group, my work centered on Arabic aspect-based sentiment analysis, where I developed linguistic resources and models for low-resource languages.
Research Area
Natural Language Processing (NLP), Information Retrieval, Knowledge Graphs and Sentiment Analysis
Dipl.-Ing. Simon BECK, BSc
PhD student & university assistant (Gabriel Rojas-Kopeinig's group)
Unit of Energy Efficient Building at the Department of Structural Engineering and Material Sciences
AB Energieffizientes Bauen, Technikerstraße 13, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
After studying Environmental Engineering, I developed an interest in research and working on exciting new ideas in the field of energy efficient buildings. My research interests include the collection and analysis of indoor air quality data and the simulation of different ventilation strategies.
Research Area
Ventilation, Indoor Air Quality and Building Energy
Irene RIGATO, MSc
PhD student & university assistant (Francesca Finotello's group)
Department of Molecular Biology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-04)
Institut für Molekularbiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I work in the field of cancer immunology as a bioinformatician. My focus is on the development of a new computational framework to integrate multi-omics data to investigate malignant-cell transformation and ultimately identify new targets for cancer prevention and therapy.
Research Area
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Lorenzo MEROTTO, MSc
PhD student & university assistant (Francesca Finotello's group)
Department of Molecular Biology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-04)
Institut für Molekularbiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
As a bioinformatician, I am responsible for the processing and analysis of high dimensional genomics data, in close collaboration with biology scientists. The focus of my PhD is the integration of multimodal, single-cell data to investigate the mechanisms regulating cell plasticity and the success of cell reprogramming techniques.
Research Area
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Federico CALABRESE, MSc
PhD student (Francesca Finotello's group)
Federico.Calabrese@student.uibk.ac.at
Department of Molecular Biology & DiSC
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-04)
Institut für Molekularbiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I am a PhD candidate at the Department of Molecular Biology and the Digital Science Center (DiSC) at the University of Innsbruck. My research focuses on developing a multimodal artificial intelligence platform for precision oncology in breast cancer. My work aims to analyze immunogenomic features that can guide personalized treatment strategies, particularly in the context of immunotherapy. My interdisciplinary project bridges computational biology (bioinformatics), precision medicine, and AI.
Research Area
Bioinformatics and Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Nathan ERNSTER, MSc
PhD fellow (Miguel Rodríguez-Rojas's group)
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-05)
Institut für Mikrobiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
My interdisciplinary background began in chemistry and hydrology, before shifting into molecular microbiology and genomics during my MSc. As a PhD student in Prof. Rodriguez-Rojas' group, I'm investigating microorganisms found in extreme environments to understand how these conditions drive community dynamics, and to identify molecular adaptations which have evolved at the limits of habitability.
Research Area
Environmental Genomics and Molecular Evolution
Student Assistants
Maurits VAN STAALDUINEN
Student assistant (Public Relations)
Maurits.Van-Staalduinen@uibk.ac.at
Digital Science Center
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-03)
Statement
I study computer science and am involved as an international youth advocate for the global exchange of ideas and people. Through my participation in and organization of international youth summits, I have gained experience in communicating complex topics in intercultural contexts. At the DiSC, I apply my technical knowledge and international experience to make digital topics clear and accessible.
Felix PETSCHKO, BSc
Student assistant (Francesca Finotello' group)
Felix.Petschko@student.uibk.ac.at
Department of Molecular Biology
Digital Science Center, Innrain 15, A-6020 Innsbruck (office 01-05)
Institut für Molekularbiologie, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020 Innsbruck
Statement
I am a master’s student of computer science and as part of my thesis I am working on optimizing the performance of a bioinformatics tool for the analysis of immune cell receptors. As a student assistant, I am also involved in examining immune cells in the context of cancer immunology using computational methods.
Research Area
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Former Members
We thank our former employees for their hard work and wish them all the best for the future!
- Katherine DORMANDY
- Kohei WATANABE
- Matteo SAVERIANO
- Raphael PERLA
- Elwin HUAMAN QUISPE
- Constantin ZACKL
- Edoardo MANDOLINI
- markus AUSSERHOFER
- Clemens WEISSBACHER
- Katharina HUBER
- Lena LAGGER