Practice connection appeals to Kühl

Prof. Dr. Niklas Kühl comes to Bayreuth from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Kühl studied and completed his doctorate in Karlsruhe. After his doctorate, he worked as a lab manager at KIT and also as Managing Consultant Data Science at IBM. As Chair of Business Informatics and Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence, he has been at the University of Bayreuth since March. He also holds a leading position at the WI branch of Fraunhofer FIT. He continues to be a member at the Core Competence Centre Finance & Information Management as well as Senior Expert Artificial Intelligence at IBM.

"One of the main reasons why I chose the University of Bayreuth is the collegial environment," says Kühl. "I had the feeling that I would be working in a close, family-like community at UBT, that the official channels are short and that all colleagues strive to achieve the best possible for the university and students." He appreciates the collaboration and exchange with my colleagues, as he is convinced that collaborative and interdisciplinary work is crucial for research, teaching and innovation.

Niklas Kühl researches at the interface of machine learning and its application in innovative contexts in industry and society. His research focuses on the interdisciplinary combination of technical and human-centred methods in the development of socio-technical information systems. These include topics such as automated detection of needs in social media, machine learning across organisational boundaries, developing robust and scalable AI products, designing collaboration between humans and AI, exploring appropriate trust of humans in AI decision-making, shaping fairness in AI decision-making, and the impact and utility of AI for sustainability issues.

"Another important factor in my decision for Bayreuth was the direct connection to practice," says Kühl. "The University of Bayreuth works closely with industry and other institutions to give its students and staff the opportunity to gain practical experience and work on projects that are relevant to industry. As someone who cares about impact of research results in practice, I find this connection very appealing and it is an important reason why I want to work at the University of Bayreuth."

Niklas Kühl collaborates with several international institutions where he has regular research visits and presents the results of his research. These include the University of Warwick, the University of Auckland, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Texas at Austin.

"I am impressed by the many creative opportunities in the field of artificial intelligence at the University of Bayreuth. As someone who specialises in this field, I think it's great that the University of Bayreuth has recently launched many initiatives, courses and projects in the field of artificial intelligence," says Kühl. "This gives me the opportunity to collaboratively develop my research in this area while working with other experts in the field."