Department of Computer Science
Time to call it a day!
Under the motto ‘Enough is enough!’, Erwin Prassler addressed the packed lecture theatre for the last time on 13 February. In addition to current students, his family, colleagues and a pleasing number of alumni of the international Master's degree programme in Autonomous Systems, which he had set up together with his colleagues Paul Plöger and Gerhard Kraetzschmar, were also present.
In an entertaining review of his 21 years of service at H-BRS, Prassler shared photos from then and now as well as some key figures such as the number of students, the number of kilometres travelled between his Bavarian home in Landsberg and Sankt Augustin (roughly once to the moon and back) and the equally impressive number of accumulated train delays in hours.
Prassler also viewed the development of artificial intelligence during his time in the service with a slightly worrying conclusion: ‘It's only statistics, but who knows what idiots can do with it! He tried to pass on his love of maths to the audience right up to the last lecture. He obviously didn't always succeed in doing this with his students, as he was able to prove with some critical comments from his lectures, but every now and then he did: Prassler's guests included two former students who now hold a professorship in robotics themselves.
One of them, Teena Hassan, gave her official inaugural lecture immediately afterwards. Teena came to H-BRS from India with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering and some initial work experience before completing her Master of Autonomous Systems here in 2014. This was followed by positions at the Fraunhofer Institute IIS and the universities of Bamberg, Bielefeld and Bremen.
In 2023, Teena returned to Sankt Augustin as a professor. From 1.3.25, she will also strengthen the Executive Board and drive forward the topics of international affairs and digitalisation as Vice President.
Her field of research is human-robot interaction. Among other things, she is intensively involved in facial recognition. In order to be able to react to human behaviour, a robot must be able to reliably interpret emotions as well as physical reactions such as pain and tiredness. In a short video showing a conversation between Pepper the robot and a scientist, it quickly became clear in an amusing way that in the field of social interaction, close is just as good as over.
After the official part, there was an opportunity for personal dialogue over food and drink in the department's study workshop.
Contact
Professor im Ruhestand / retired professor Erwin Prassler
Autonomous Systems , (retired on 28.02.2025)
Öffentlichkeitsarbeit Informatik
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Location
Sankt Augustin
Room
C 157
Address
Grantham-Allee 20
53757, Sankt Augustin
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