SAIL Closing Conference: New Horizons in Sustainable AI

On May 7th, we came together at the CITEC Building at Bielefeld University for the SAIL Closing Conference, a celebration of years of collaborative research and a look ahead at the future of sustainable and efficient AI. With over 100 attendees from partner institutions and the broader AI community, the day was packed with inspiring contributions across all formats:

🎤 Three plenary talks by Katharina Eggensperger (TU Dortmund). Mira Merzini (TU Darmstadt), and Nicola Strisciuglio (University of Twente) offered diverse perspectives on the frontiers of AI research.

🚀 Junior Research Group Leader Spotlights showcased the breadth of research conducted within SAIL, with presentations on topics ranging from machine learning for convective flow prediction and interpretable model selection to explainable benchmarking, hate speech modeling, and learning from small data.

🖥️ Demo and poster sessions gave our doctoral researchers the opportunity to present their work hands-on, a great chance for exchange and discussion with the broader community.

🎓 An Alumni Session with Kaja Balzereit, Julia Fröhlich, Annika Junker, Bassam Mokbel, and Riza Velioglu offered inspiring insights into the many directions a career can take after a PhD, whether in academia, industry, or entrepreneurship.

🤝 As SAIL’s funding period draws to a close, this conference was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved together. A big thank you to the organizing team and all the helping hands that made this event such a success!

📸 A special thank you to Sarah Jonek for the wonderful photos capturing the day!