Events

The SFB-TRR 161 organizes various events to promote research activities and to inform about current developments in research and education in the field of Visual Computing, both at a national and an international level.

May 22nd, 2026, 11 am - 12 pm

University of Stuttgart

Talk| Classes are not Clusters, or are they? A Visual Analytics perspective on AI alignment

Held by:

Michaël Aupetit, QCRI, Qatar

Abstract:

Alignment is often framed as making machines conform to human values. But the challenge is not one-sided: humans and machines need mutual alignment, or at least mutual understanding, to work well together. In practice, this means building systems that generate language, images, or actions that align with human values and judgments, while also adapting their representations in response to human actions. Those values are rooted in human sense-making, including visual perception. In this talk, I argue that this view connects today's alignment problem to an older challenge in dimensionality reduction: the distortions that arise when machine-generated representations fail to preserve structures humans find meaningful.

From this perspective, the relationship between clusters and classes is more than a familiar problem in visual analytics; it is a useful test case for alignment itself. For domain experts, the task is not simply to translate machine-generated groupings into human categories, but to build a shared framework in which both representations can inform one another. If this remains difficult even in the constrained setting of data exploration, it may help explain the broader challenge of aligning AI systems with human concepts, values, and goals. By revisiting this problem through the lenses of dimensionality reduction and visual analytics, the talk offers both a concrete case and a broader reflection on what alignment should mean.

Bio:

Dr. Michaël Aupetit is a Senior Scientist at the Qatar Center for Artificial Intelligence (QCAI), part of QCRI, where he works on AI foundation models and their applications in health and materials science. Prior to joining QCRI in 2014, he spent a decade at CEA LIST in Paris-Saclay as a research scientist and senior expert in data mining and visual analytics, developing decision-support systems for complex industrial challenges. He holds an HDR in Computer Science from Paris-Sud University and a PhD in Industrial Engineering from Grenoble INP.

Location:

University of Stuttgart, Visualization Research Center (VISUS), Room: 00.012

The talk will be available via WebEx.

Meeting-ID (access code): 2780 607 5384
Meeting password: B7i9dYZGMZ2

For participants via WebEx: The transmission will kindly be managed by Patrick Gralka. He will be on site and monitor/manage the WebEx-Session incl. Q&A during and after the talk as well. Please don´t hesitate to get in touch with Patrick in case of questions or problems regarding the transmission/your online participation: Patrick.Gralka@visus.uni-stuttgart.de

May 27th - 29th, 2025, full days

Kloster Roggenburg, Klosterstraße 2 89297 Roggenburg

Doctoral Retreat of the SFB-TRR 161

Jun 1st, 2026, 10.30 - 11.30 am
ETVIS 2026

Keynote | Thinking with the Eye, the Hand, and the Page
                               --- supported by SFB-TRR 161 ---

Held by:

Barbara Tversky, Stanford University and Columbia University

Abstract:

As many have noted, thought does not happen just between the ears. We use the space around us and our actions in it to think, communicate, and create. Artists, architects, mathematicians, in fact, all of us, put thought on a page because the mind cannot hold all our thoughts. When artists and architects sketch, words get in the way. When they reexamine their sketches, they get new ideas, ideas they had not intended. Sketches are messy, meant to be ambiguous and stimulate new interpretations. Visualizations like maps and diagrams also use lines, to convey information unambiguously. Hands draw lines, the eye is biased to see lines, lines link ideas in the mind and neurons in the brain. The thinking is in the loop, the eye, the hand, and the mind, presenting challenges to GenAI.

More information about ETVIS 2026

Jun 16th - 17th, 2026, full days

Berghotel Jägerhof, Isny

Internal Status Seminar of the SFB-TRR 161

13.-15. Juli 2026

Universität Konstanz

PROGRAMMIERKURS für Schülerinnen ab Klasse 7 | Computergrafik mit Processing

Mit wem?

Thomas Ningelgen war vor seiner Pensionierung Informatiklehrer am Heinrich-Suso-Gymnasium in Konstanz und ist Mitautor des Buches "Programmieren lernen mit Comutergrafik".

Wann?

3 x 4 Stunden mit Pausen am
13. Juli 2026 von 14 bis 18 Uhr,
14. Juli 2026 von 14 bis 18 Uhr und
15. Juli 2026 von 14 bis 18 Uhr 

Wo?

Universität Konstanz, Gebäude ZT, Raum 1201

Was ?

In diesem Kurs lernt ihr “Processing” kennen – einen einfach zu bedienenden Editor, mit dem ihr schnell wunderschöne Grafiken, Computeranimationen und interaktive kleine Spiele programmieren könnt. Processing wurde am MIT entwickelt und wird von vielen Künstlern und Mediengestaltern verwendet. Es basiert auf der Programmiersprache Java, die auch die Grundlage unseres Kurses ist. Anstelle aber irgendwelche langweiligen Beispiele zu programmieren, werdet ihr die Programmierung anhand von Computergrafik lernen, was wesentlich mehr Spaß macht. Dennoch gibt es auch genug zu knobeln.

Der Kurs ist eine Einführung in die Programmierung.
Vorkenntnisse sind nicht erforderlich.

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