Prof. Dr. Wolfram Burgard – Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies

Prof. Dr. Wolfram Burgard

University of Freiburg
Computer Science

Internal Senior Fellow
March 2019 – December 2021

E-Mail: burgard@informatik.uni-freiburg.de

Last Update: 31.08.2022

Curriculum Vitae

Wolfram Burgard is a full professor for Computer Science at the University of Freiburg where he heads the research lab for Autonomous Intelligent Systems. He studied Computer Science at the University of Dortmund and received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Bonn. Wolfram Burgard is known for his contributions to the problem of mobile robot navigation, in particular with his probabilistic approaches to the problem of simultaneous localization and mapping. Wolfram Burgard is Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He furthermore is member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. He received an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council (ERC) and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, the most prestigious German research award.

Selected Publications

N. Abdo, C. Stachniss, L. Spinello, and W. Burgard. Organizing objects by predicting user preferences through collaborative filtering. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 2016.
W. Burgard, M. Hebert, and M. Bennewitz. World modeling. In B. Siciliano and O. Khatib, editors, Springer Handbook of Robotics, chapter 36, pages 1135–1152. Springer Verlag, 2016.
F. Endres, J. Hess, J. Sturm, D. Cremers, and W. Burgard. 3D mapping with an RGB-D camera. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 30(1):177–187, 2014.

FRIAS Project

Responsible Artificial Intelligence: Normative aspects of the interaction of humans and intelligent systems

Intelligent systems capable of autonomous behavior and self-learning, whether in medical devices or self-driving vehicles, are the core technology behind the next wave of industrial innovation. In this research focus, we will investigate jointly and from different perspectives ethical, legal, philosophical and social aspects as well as benefits and risks of this impending transformation. In the legal and governance domain, for example, we will examine whether national and international legislations, regulations, treaties, soft law norms and codes of conduct adequately govern the interactions between humans and intelligent systems and adjudicate liability appropriately. We will also study algorithmic and hardware mechanisms for safeguarding users of intelligent software and robots. From a philosophical perspective, we will study the impact of these technologies on ethical theories and on concepts of agency and action. The project provides a foundational core for the interdisciplinary study of ethical, legal, social and other aspects of autonomous intelligent systems at the University of Freiburg.