News Reports

4th in Germany and 11th in the EU – 69th worldwide

In 2026, the University of Bonn will once again rank among the top research universities in Germany and Europe. In the recently published Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), better known as the Shanghai Ranking, it once again ranks 4th in Germany and 11th within the European Union. In a global comparison, Germany’s most successful university of excellence ranks 69th and thus remains among the top 100 universities in the world.

Dagstuhl Seminar Brings Together International Experts to work on Social Artificial Intelligence

As artificial intelligence increasingly moves beyond answering questions to interacting with people—as tutors, collaborators, healthcare assistants, mediators, companions, and scientific partners—a new research frontier is emerging: Social Artificial Intelligence.

Grace Hopper, BIG, and other honors in 2026: A number of outstanding student research recognized

From compact language models to intelligent robotics and the mathematical foundations of complex systems: This year’s recipients of the Grace Hopper Award, the BIG Thesis Awards, and the Johannes Kepler Scholarship demonstrate the wide-ranging and forward-looking nature of Computer Science at the University of Bonn. Their achievements were honored in a festive ceremony at the institute’s summer celebration.

New Bachelor's Degree Program in Economics and Computer Science

In the 2026/27 winter semester, the University of Bonn will launch the bachelor’s program "Economics and Computer Science," an interdisciplinary program offered by the Department of Economics and the Institute of Computer Science. The program combines economic content with methods from computer science, thereby responding to the growing demands of a data-driven and digitized economy. The application deadline is July 15.

From AI Research to Value Creation: "AI26 – The Lamarr Conference" in Bonn

At AI26 – The Lamarr Conference, computer science professors from the University of Bonn joined international experts from academia, business, and politics in Bonn to discuss current developments in artificial intelligence and their translation into innovation and societal applications.

AI Research for Climate-Resilient Agriculture

Extreme heat, heavy rain, and late frost—the effects of climate change are also impacting local agriculture. How can artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital sensor technology help farms adapt to extreme weather events? Silke Gorißen, Minister of Agriculture for North Rhine-Westphalia, learned more about this during a visit to the University of Bonn’s Klein-Altendorf campus.

ERC to fund projects moving from basic research to practical application

Three University of Bonn researchers have been awarded a Proof of Concept Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). Neuroscientist Professor Dominik Bach, chemist Assistant Professor Ala Bunescu and radiologist Professor Philipp Vollmuth (from the University Hospital Bonn) are each receiving €150,000 over a period of 18 months. This program helps researchers to take findings from their work and turn them into commercial products or services.

Prof. Matthew Smith Awarded ERC Advanced Grant

Digital technologies and security legislation shape the daily lives of millions of people. Careless or abusive use can restrict fundamental rights, fail to adequately curb online hate and abuse, or create new technological risks. To develop solutions to these ethical and technical conflicts, Prof. Dr. Matthew Smith, a computer scientist at the University of Bonn and the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics (FKIE), has been awarded a prestigious Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The European Union will provide approximately €2.5 million over the next five years to support his project.

AI26 – The Lamarr Conference: From AI Research to Innovation and Value Creation

AI26 – The Lamarr Conference will bring together international experts from academia, business, and politics in Bonn on July 7 and 8, 2026, to discuss current developments in artificial intelligence and their translation into innovation and societal applications.

University of Bonn Students Triumph with Autonomous Racecar

LamarRacing, a student AI and robotics project at the University of Bonn, won an award at the RoboRacer Competition held as part of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2026 in Vienna. In the time trial competition, the Bonn-based LamarRacing team posted the best performance of the entire field and won the time trial classification by a wide margin. For this achievement, the team received the “Best Performance Overall” award. In the subsequent 1-on-1 race format, LamarRacing finished in fourth place.

University of Bonn continues to offer a Career-Building Programme for female STEM students

FEMTEC, the nationally established career-building programme for female STEM students, will continue and be further developed. For more than 25 years, FEMTEC has supported numerous young women on their path to taking on responsibility, fostering innovation, and assuming leadership roles - and has built a strong network of committed universities, companies, and alumnae. The University of Bonn has been a partner university since 2023 and welcomes the programme’s continuation.

Bonn Science Night: Diagnosing the Future with AI

How will artificial intelligence transform the medicine of the future? What role will it play in addressing societal challenges such as education, caregiving, and managing natural hazards? These questions were the focus of the 15th Bonn Science Night on May 21 and 22, 2026, under the theme “Diagnosis: The Future.” The theme tied in with the 2026 Year of Science, “Medicine of the Future,” while also focusing on technological developments that extend far beyond the healthcare sector. Universities, research institutes, and scientific organizations from the region presented current research on Bonn’s Münsterplatz and invited the public to engage in direct dialogue.

Colloquium: Talk by Lori Glover on 19 June

Topic: Academic-Industry Partnerships for Win-Win Impact

New ELLIS AI unit starts under coordination of Prof. Dr. Jürgen Gall

North Rhine-Westphalia will become home to a new unit within the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), one of Europe’s leading networks for artificial intelligence research. The newly approved ELLIS Unit NRW brings together leading AI researchers and large-scale computing infrastructure across the region to advance open-source foundation models, trustworthy machine learning and AI applications for real-world environments.

Robotics Research from Bonn at the German Robotics Conference 2026

At the 2nd German Robotics Conference in Cologne, the University of Bonn presented the latest robotics and AI research from the Department of Computer Science; at the same time, the Bonn-based NimbRo team achieved success at the RoboCup German Open 2026.

Philosopher Assistant Professor Dr. Amrei Bahr Visits the Department of Computer Science

What factors shape academic careers, and how can they be made fairer and more inclusive? Philosopher Dr. Amrei Bahr spoke at the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Bonn about the challenges facing the academic system and discussed ways to create a more equitable work culture.

+++ RESEARCH TICKER UNIVERSITY OF BONN: Artificial Intelligence for Drug Design +++

In the search for new drugs, artificial intelligence in the form of diffusion models is being used in drug design. What exactly does AI do in this context? Dr. Andrea Mastropietro and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bajorath from Life Science Informatics at the University of Bonn and the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence have investigated this.

Two Years of the Marvin Supercomputer: High-Performance Computing Opens New Paths in Research

Two years after it went online, the Marvin supercomputer has become a central research infrastructure at the University of Bonn. The Institute of Computer Science, in particular, has played a key role in this development: At the community event, Prof. Dr. Maren Bennewitz, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Gall, and Prof. Dr. Petra Mutzel highlighted the importance of high-performance computing, AI, and data-driven methods for research in Bonn.

Bonn’s domestic service robots defend their title

The NimbRo@Home team from the Institute of Computer Science confidently defended its championship title in the @Home League at the 2026 RoboCup German Open — finishing well ahead of the runner-up. From March 10 to 14, the assistive robots demonstrated their capabilities in everyday environments in Cologne. The household robots understood complex voice commands from people in need of assistance, navigated safely through a simulated apartment and an unfamiliar restaurant, delivered orders, and removed laundry from the washing machine.

The Institute of Computer Science is participating in the new Max Planck School for Biomedical AI

The Institute of Computer Science is strengthening Bonn’s role in interdisciplinary AI research through its participation in the new Max Planck School of Biomedical Artificial Intelligence. Prof. Dr. Zorah Lähner from the Geometry in Machine Learning group is contributing methodological expertise to the network of 24 partners. The program offers attractive opportunities for doctoral students and promotes practical applications in biomedicine.

Robot solves ancient puzzle – Bonn research team involved in EU project in Pompeii

Archaeologists could only dream of this for a long time: an “intelligent robot” is piecing together broken ancient wall paintings from Pompeii, piece by piece. A research team led by Prof. Dr. Maren Bennewitz from the University of Bonn taught the robot how to do the puzzle. It is part of the European joint project RePAIR (“Reconstructing the Past: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Meet Cultural Heritage”), which was recently completed.

JUPITER selects first AI projects – Bonn research team led by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Gall among the winners

Only ten teams nationwide will receive exclusive access to the European exascale supercomputer. With the HoMe project, AI research in Bonn is sending a strong signal in the fields of vision, robotics, and generative AI.

RiverMamba: New AI architecture improves flood forecasting

Extreme weather events such as heavy rain and flooding pose growing challenges for early warning systems worldwide. Researchers at the University Bonn, the Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), and the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence have developed RiverMamba, a new AI model that can predict river discharges and flood risks more accurately than previous methods. The research paper has been accepted for NeurIPS 2025 – a sign of scientific excellence in Bonn-based research. RiverMamba thus makes an important contribution to climate adaptation and risk prevention – topics that are receiving special attention worldwide, particularly around UN World Tsunami Awareness Day on November 5th.

Colloquium: Research Talk by Prof. Dr. Andreas Nüchter on November 07

Topic: Mixed-Media – Towards Precise 3D Scanning and Photogrammetry from Air into Water

Colloquium: Research Talk by Dr. Felix Govaers on November 4

Topic: From Classical Fusion to Quantum-Inspired Tracking: Advances in State Estimation and Information Fusion

Colloquium: Research Talk by Dr. Pia Bideau on October 23.

Topic: Action-Informed Perception – Learning visual representations through interaction with the environment

Colloquium: Research Talk by Prof. Dr. Michael Möller on October 2

We cordially invite you to the colloquium of Prof. Dr. Michael Möller on October 2!

ERC Starting Grant for Prof. Dr. Lucie Flek

Great success for the Computer Science Department: Prof. Dr. Lucie Flek, Professor of Data Science and Language Technologies at the Institute of Computer Science and the Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology (b-it), has been awarded one of the highly coveted ERC Starting Grants. The award is endowed with €1.5 million and will enable her to carry out her own research project over the next five years. With the Starting Grant, the European Research Council (ERC) supports excellent scientists at the beginning of their careers. Prof. Flek prevailed in the highly competitive selection process and will provide important impetus in computer science with her research. In addition to her, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Amelie Schiprowski (economics) and Dr. Moritz Lürig (evolutionary biology) from the University of Bonn also received ERC Starting Grants.

EGOI 2025: Europe's young female IT talents are guests at Institute of Computer Science

Creativity, lines of code and bright minds: at EGOI 2025, Europe's best young female computer scientists came together in Bonn for a week full of algorithmic challenges, debates about diversity and inspiring encounters. The kick-off event on the Campus Poppelsdorf showed why diversity in Computer Science is not an option, but a requirement.

Fending Off Cyberattacks in Healthcare

Artificial intelligence (AI) is designed to make our health system even more efficient. Yet cyberattacks are capable not only of jeopardizing patient safety but also impairing medical devices and hindering the work of emergency responders. With the “SecureNeuroAI” project, researchers from the University of Bonn, University Hospital Bonn and FIZ Karlsruhe – the Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure are aiming to develop secure, AI-powered methods for detecting medical emergencies in real time using the example of epileptic seizures, although their findings should be applicable to many other areas. The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) is providing almost €2.5 million in funding over a three-year period.

News Reports

Press Contact