About the Centre for Cognitive Science

At the Centre of Cognitive Science we work towards a computational-representational understanding of human perception, cognition, and action through a tight integration of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. TU Darmstadt is one of the preeminent research universities in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and robotics in Germany and Europe. We develop computational and algorithmic solutions to challenging AI- and ML-problems and we also employ insight from AI and ML to psychology, movement science, and neuroscience. Furthermore, we believe that cognitive science can help to drastically improve our future interaction with and explainability of artificial intelligence.

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July 15, 2024 – WhiteBox is engaged in the science simulation game “Knowledge versus Opinion” at schools in the federal state of Hesse. The simulation game introduces pupils to the importance of science and democracy. Learn more

June 2024 – From 13-14 June 2024 the 4th Movement Academy took place in Bensheim with over 50 participants, which was mainly organized by the DFG RTG LokoAssist. The aim of the Movement Academy is to create a unique learning space for movement experts and people interested in movements, national and international, that come from a variety of backgrounds including arts, sports, medicine, therapy and science. The conference was also supported by the Centre for Cognitive Science and due to the involved topics by the LOEWE research cluster WhiteBox , among others. Learn more

April 26, 2024 – Congratulations! Susanne Trick successfully defended her dissertation “Bayesian Fusion of Probabilistic Forecasts”.
The thesis was supervised by Prof. Constantin Rothkopf, Ph.D. and Prof. Dr. Dominik Endres. Learn more

April 25, 2024 – The Centre for Cognitive Science welcomed young pupils to its research facilities as part of Girls' Day, aimed at fostering curiosity and interest in cognitive science. The participants engaged in immersive sessions exploring various topics within the field. Learn more

April 18, 2024 – Congratulations! Thea Behrens successfully defended her dissertation “Improving Research Methods for Problem Solving: The Example of Sudoku”.
The thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr. Frank Jäkel and Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Kühnberger. Learn more

April 16, 2024 – IKIDA successfully convened its 4th milestone meeting. With guests from research and industry in attendance, the meeting served as a platform to discuss advancements, challenges, and future prospects. Learn more

April 2024 – WhiteBox supports the awareness event: “Uncovered Biases: The Power of Awareness in Dealing with Unconscious Bias” on 24th of April 2024. (The event is held in German only.) Learn more

February 2, 2024 – Successful next step in the Excellence Strategy. TU Darmstadt has the opportunity to establish three Clusters of Excellence: “Reasonable Artificial Intelligence” (RAI) , “The Adaptive Mind” (TAM) and CoM2Life. Members of the Centre for Cognitive Science are involved in all three initiatives. The principal investigators of the Centre for Cognitive Science are particularly involved in RAI and TAM with main topics along Artificial Intelligence and cognitive science. Learn more

January 26, 2024 – Cognitive Science @ TU Darmstadt, supported by the Centre for Cognitive Science, hosted a Mentoring Event on career prospects for cognitive science students. With around 120 attendees, the event was a big success. Learn more

January 23, 2024 – Congratulations! Florian Kadner successfully defended his dissertation “Active vision as sequential decision-making under uncertainty”.
The thesis was supervised by Prof. Constantin Rothkopf, Ph.D. and Prof. Mary M. Hayhoe, Ph.D. Learn more

January 2024 – In a publication in the renowned journal “Nature Human Behaviour”, WhiteBox researchers investigate the properties of behavioral economic theories automatically learned by artificial intelligence. The study highlights that cognitive science still cannot be easily automated by artificial intelligence and that a careful combination of theoretical reasoning, machine learning and data analysis is needed to understand and explain why human decisions are the way they are and deviate from the mathematical optimum. Read more (in German)

December 7, 2023– In the ProLOEWE discussion format “Hessen's cutting-edge research in 45 minutes”, WhiteBox discussed with interested members of the Hessian state parliament. The topic was: “AI – more human than expected?”.Read more

July 6, 2023 – IKIDA & CCS participated in The Hessian AICon and presented current projects results.

July 4, 2023 – Hessen schafft Wissen published a new animated video on project WhiteBox.

April 27, 2023 – On Girls' Day, a group of 15 girls paid a visit to the Centre for Cognitive Science. During their time at the Centre’s labs, they were able to see robots in action, had the opportunity to test a number of visual and weight illusion experiments, and enjoyed performing motion experiments using Virtual Reality (VR) technology. Learn more

April 27, 2023 Susanne Trick was honoured by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Informatics Society (GI) as AI Newcomer of the Year. Congratulations!
Susanne is doing her doctorate at the Centre for Cognitive Science and is currently team member of the BMBF funded research group IKIDA.
Learn more

March 27, 2023 – WhiteBox and the Centre for Cognitive Science hosted the “Symposium on Explainability”. Different facets of explainability were discussed and the results of the WhiteBox project so far were presented. Learn more

January 31, 2023 – Thomas Wallis receives the highly prestigious Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for his project “SEGMENT – 3D scene understanding in two glances” Learn more

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