Philosophy

Prof. Dr. Ulla Wessels

Prof. Dr. Ulla Wessels

Principal Investigator

Ulla Wessels is Professor of Practical Philosophy at Saarland University. She works in several areas of practical philosophy, mainly in theoretical and applied ethics: on practical reasoning, welfare, the value of life and societal desiderata for intelligent systems.

Prof. Dr. Lena Kästner

Prof. Dr. Lena Kästner

Principal Investigator & Project Lead

Lena Kästner is Professor of Philosophy, Informatics, and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bayreuth. She works in philosophy of mind and philosophy of science. Her background is in cognitive science and neuroscience. Her main research foci are scientific explanations and discovery, causation and causal reasoning, models of mental disorders, and explainable AI.

JProf. Dr. Eva Schmidt

JProf. Dr. Eva Schmidt

Principal Investigator

Eva Schmidt is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at TU Dortmund. She works in epistemology, the philosophy of action, and philosophy of mind. Her main interests are epistemic reasons and reasons for action; explainable artificial intelligence; and the epistemology and nature of perception.

Kevin Baum

Kevin Baum

Associated Researcher

Kevin Baum is a philosopher (M.A.) and computer scientist (M.Sc.). His research interests are normative ethics, applied ethics (especially computer ethics), and logic. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy on the problem of collective action for act-consequentialism, and in computer science on the connection between machine explainability and machine ethics.

Dr. Astrid Schomäcker

Dr. Astrid Schomäcker

Postdoctoral Researcher & Project Coordinator

Dr. Astrid Schomäcker is a philosopher with additional training in the cognitive sciences. In her PhD-thesis she worked on conceptual change and the Hard Problem of consciousness. Her research interests include conceptual developments, implicit biases and the interplay between technology and human autonomy.  

Timo Speith

Timo Speith

Postdoctoral Researcher

Timo Speith is a philosopher (B.A.) and computer scientist (M.Sc.). His research interests are philosophy of science, applied ethics (especially machine ethics), metaphysics, and ancient philosophy. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy on the connection between machine ethics and machine explainability.

Sara Mann

Sara Mann

PhD Student

Sara Mann graduated in philosophy and political science (M.A.). Her research interests include epistemology, philosophy of science and political philosophy. In her PhD project, Sara explores the conditions for understanding opaque AI systems by means of post hoc explainability methods.
Sarah Sterz

Sarah Sterz

Associated Researcher

Sarah Sterz is a computer scientist (B.Sc.) and philosopher (M.A.). Her research interests include decision theory, rationality, and ethics (especially computer ethics), but also logic, argumentation theory, and philosophy of language. Sarah’s PhD-project is about the normativity of rationality.

Barney Crook

Barney Crook

PhD Student

Barney Crook is a philosopher (M.A.). He is interested in the philosophy of cognitive science and the philosophy of biology; especially in how inquiry and explanation work in those domains. His PhD project concerns the use of machine learning models in explanations of cognitive phenomena.

Thorsten Helfer

Thorsten Helfer

PhD Student

Thorsten Helfer is a philosopher (M.A.). His research interests include theories of well-being, ethics, rationality and normativity in general, but he has also a keen interest in logic and argumentation theory.
Thorsten’s PhD-project is about the concept of desires and theories of well-being.

Daniel Oster

Daniel Oster

PhD Student

Daniel Oster was a philosopher. His research interests included philosophy of science, philosophy of language and logic, and epistemology. Daniel was especially interested in machine explainability and the ethical implications of the use of artificial systems. He is sorely missed. 

IT Law

Prof. Dr. Georg Borges

Prof. Dr. Georg Borges

Principal Investigator

Georg Borges is Professor of Law at Saarland University and Director of the Institute of Legal Informatics. His current research is related to autonomous systems and artificial intelligence, German and European data protection law, Internet of Things and cloud computing.
Dr. Andreas Sesing

Dr. Andreas Sesing

Postdoctoral Researcher

Andreas Sesing is a lawyer and research associate at the Institute for Legal Informatics at Saarland University. His research area is civil law, his special research interests include in particular the legal handling of new technologies – both with regard to the application of the law and to further regulation.

Computer Science

Prof. Dr. Holger Hermanns

Prof. Dr. Holger Hermanns

Principal Investigator

Holger Hermanns is Professor of Computer Science at Saarland University. His research interests include perspicuous computing systems and proactive algorithmic accountability, as well as modelling and verification, energy informatics and space informatics.

Kevin Baum

Kevin Baum

Associated Researcher

Kevin Baum is a philosopher (M.A.) and computer scientist (M.Sc.). His research interests are normative ethics, applied ethics (especially computer ethics), and logic. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy on the problem of collective action for act-consequentialism, and in computer science on the connection between machine explainability and machine ethics.

Timo Speith

Timo Speith

Postdoctoral Researcher

Timo Speith is a philosopher (B.A.) and computer scientist (M.Sc.). His research interests are philosophy of science, applied ethics (especially machine ethics), metaphysics, and ancient philosophy. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy on the connection between machine ethics and machine explainability.

Sarah Sterz

Sarah Sterz

Associated Researcher

Sarah Sterz is a computer scientist (B.Sc.) and philosopher (M.A.). Her research interests include decision theory, rationality, and ethics (especially computer ethics), but also logic, argumentation theory, and philosophy of language. Sarah’s PhD-project is about the normativity of rationality.

Hanwei Zhang

Hanwei Zhang

Postdoctoral Researcher

Hanwei Zhang is a computer scientist. Her research interests mainly focus on trustworthy AI, which involves deep learning, image processing, and optimization under the context of interpretability, fairness, security, adversarial attack, and defense.

Psychology

Prof. Dr. Markus Langer

Prof. Dr. Markus Langer

Principal Investigator

Dr. Markus Langer is an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist with an interdisciplinary focus on the areas of psychology and computer science. His research interests cover the relation of humans and artificial intelligence in contexts such as human resource management or medicine, explainable AI, trust in AI, and hybrid human-AI decision making.

Veronika Lazar

Veronika Lazar

PhD Student

Veronika Lazar graduated in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (M.Sc.). Her research interests include human-AI interaction, explainability of artificial intelligence and effects of explainability approaches but also trust in AI and reactions to algorithm-based decision making.

Tim Hunsicker

Tim Hunsicker

PhD Student

Tim Hunsicker is an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist. His research interests include human-AI-interaction in different use contexts, explainable artificial intelligence, trust in AI, and the dynamics of psychological effects in the context of AI-based systems and explainability.

Felix Kares

Felix Kares

PhD Student

Felix Kares graduated in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (M.Sc.). His research interests include human-AI interaction, explainability of artificial intelligence, trust in AI as well as antecedents of and reactions to algorithm-based decision-making in high-stakes contexts such as HR, politics or medicine.

Student Assistants