On February 10-11, we launched the first cohort of the SMART Master Lab program, equipping master’s students with SmallData research skills through hands-on training and expert mentorship. The event opened with CRC Speaker Harald Binder introducing the fundamentals of SmallData, followed by SMART PI Nadine Binder and SMART Coordinator Iván Acevedo, who outlined the SMART Master Lab goals and its […]
Last night, we were excited to participate in the Digital Health Research Night at the Technical Faculty in Freiburg, where researchers and students came together to explore opportunities for graduate research and collaboration at the intersection of medicine, data science, and technology. Our team presented a poster showcasing SmallData, the SMART group, and our new SMART Master Lab Program, sparking engaging discussions […]
We were delighted to welcome members of the CRC SmallData and the public to a Bazaar Seminar on Synthetic Data today. The aim of this event is to create an opportunity for projects that are working with similar data structures or methodologies to share details of their research, with a view to identifying potential areas […]
Members of our CRC joined today for a seminar on the topic of “Similarity”, led by our principal investigators Johannes Hertel, from the University of Greifswald, and Nadine Binder, from the University of Freiburg. The goal of the session was to develop a common understanding of the concept of similarity and discuss how we approach […]
From November 13th to 15th, our doctoral researchers gathered at the Schwarzwald Lodge Rothaus for an unforgettable first SMART Retreat. Day 1: Hitting the ground running We kicked things off with parallel Write/Code/Collab/Discuss (WCCD) sessions, a structure that would continue throughout the retreat, with changing pitches each day. Doctoral researchers jumped straight into collaboratively working […]
The SmallData Symposium 2024 has concluded, and we are excited to reflect on the event’s many scientific highlights. From specialized talks delivered by our esteemed speakers to the lively discussions between panelists and participants, this symposium offered a wealth of knowledge for all attendees. The opening addresses by Stefan Rensing, Lutz Hein, and Frederik Wenz […]
We’re excited to introduce our CRC 1597 SmallData IRTG SMART mailing list! This is the best way for external participants to engage with our selected research community, stay informed about our upcoming public events and continuous education opportunities such as: How to Subscribe: Our mailing list is hosted by DFN-Listserv, a trusted email management service provided […]
In a groundbreaking Nature Genetics paper, our PIs—Anna Köttgen, Miriam Schmidts, and Johannes Hertel—along with early career researchers Nora Scherer and Daniel Fässler, have uncovered key insights into how rare damaging heterozygous variants impact gene function, traits, and disease. Our associated researcher, Pascal Schlosser, and external advisory board member, Ines Thiele, also contributed to this […]
Last night, we were excited to participate in the Digital Health Research Night at the Technical Faculty in Freiburg, where researchers and students came together to explore opportunities for graduate research and collaboration at the intersection of medicine, data science, and technology. Our team presented a poster showcasing SmallData, the SMART group, and our new SMART Master Lab Program, sparking engaging discussions […]
During the latest edition of the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), at the workshop “Long-Term Perception for Autonomy in Dynamic Human-shared Environments: What Do Robots Need?”, our PI Abhinav Valada, along with Daniele Cattaneo, showcased their work titled “Taxonomy-Aware Continual Semantic Segmentation in Hyperbolic Spaces for Open-World Perception”, for which they were awarded the Outstanding […]
The recent progress in artificial intelligence has been facilitated by big data volumes and data-driven modeling approaches. However, there is a much larger number of applications where data analysis has to be performed with a relatively small number of observations. This can be addressed with knowledge-driven approaches, such as differential equations that incorporate biomedical domain knowledge, or by adapting data-driven approaches, e.g., neural networks, or ideally by combining the two types of approaches. When developing such methods for small data settings, three key areas need to be addressed: similarity, transfer, and uncertainty. This enables combination of similar observations, e.g., from different hospitals, and more generally transfer of information, e.g., between genome screening and mechanistic models, while quantifying and reducing uncertainty. For creating comprehensive solutions that fuse such exciting emerging ideas, our Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1597 'Small Data' (SmallData), which started on October 1st, 2023, integrates contributions from computer science, mathematics, and statistics/systems modeling, with input from biomedicine. Our doctoral program SMART is key for establishing a shared language across those disciplines. We are located in Freiburg, Germany, with external partners in Bochum and Greifswald. For more details see our scientific framework and interdisciplinary approach, or have a look at the individual research projects.
Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics,
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center –
University of Freiburg
