Ellis Unit Jena

ELLIS is a pan-European AI network of excellence. It builds upon machine learning as the driver for modern AI and aims to secure lasting international leadership of AI made in Europe by connecting top researchers in this field and by creating a multi-centric AI research laboratory. Founded in 2018, ELLIS has grown into a network that counts 43 ELLIS units at world-class institutions in 17 countries, 16 ELLIS programs and a pan-European PhD program. The members of ELLIS are committed to shaping the future of AI in Europe by pushing the scientific and technological boundaries for human-centered, beneficial and safe AI. The ELLIS unit Jena is involving the Friedrich Schiller University (FSU) Jena, the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC) and the Institute of Data Science of the German Aerospace Center (DLR IDW) at the interface between climate/environmental science and machine learning with an emphasis on scientific knowledge integration in and knowledge generation from machine learning approaches. The goal of the ELLIS Unit Jena is thus to combine fundamental development in machine learning with challenges concerning spatio-temporal environmental and climate dynamics for a better understanding of the Earth system and its components. An important aspect here is the integration of knowledge into machine learning methods as appropriate assumptions – this can be qualitative knowledge about causal relationships („causal modeling“) or quantitative knowledge about functional relationships, which can be „cast“ into physical, chemical, biological or geo-ecological formulas („hybrid modeling”). The ELLIS unit Jena will also strive to help AI to best serve sustainable development via links to politics, business and civil society.