Max Planck Institut fur Informatik

Germany

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Foundation: 1993

Mission: We regard informatics as a field that strives towards grounding the use of computational resources on thorough understanding of the underlying principles of computational methods. This involves reasoning mathematically and/or formally about the behavior of algorithms wherever possible. Consequently, much of our fundamental research is of a fairly rigorous mathematical character. Some of that research lies in established fields of theoretical computer science (algorithms and complexity, programming logics). Before a concrete application background, many computational problems are so complex that their in-depth formal treatment is not feasible. Therefore, in these cases, our analysis of the involved algorithms is more experimental, usually in the form of systematic validation based on carefully curated application data and specially developed statistical models and, last but not least, of real life systems use in the application field. In fact, many problems in complex application areas are fuzzily stated or ill-formed, at first, such that modeling, i.e., giving a rigorous definition of a problem is a major aspect of the research. We test the value of our ideas by integrating new algorithms into systems and assessing their utility in realistic settings. This experience is useful in the short term in refining our designs and invaluable in the long term in advancing our knowledge. Most of the major advances in informatics and algorithms research have come through this combination of new theoretical insights and experimental validation. We provide a stimulating environment for junior researchers that enables them to develop their own research programs and build up their own groups. The institute runs an active fellowship program on both the PhD and postdoc level and, since the establishment of the institute, a large number of researchers have spread out over other institutions, many of them taking tenured positions. We are also strongly committed to communicating our results. Exposing and testing our ideas in the research and development communities leads to improved understanding. We actively seek publication of our results and findings in professional journals and conferences, and we use our internet pages to make our results widely available to the community. We seek users for our prototype systems among those with whom we have common interests, and we encourage collaboration with researchers from academia and industry alike. We encourage our junior researchers to build their own research programs and to spread out over other institutions.

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