KCDS Virtual Open House 2025 - Spring Edition
In our KCDS Virtual Open House videos, you can find out about
- the concept of the graduate school
- how to prepare your application
- the doctoral projects in this application round
- and, last but not least, requirements for applicants.
Questions? Reach out to us at kcds∂kit.edu. We try to answer every inquiry!
Project descriptions and videos
Find out more about the doctoral projects in this application round:
Find the online application form here.
Project 01: How to achieve “entity awareness” in deep learning models for hydrological applications? (DAAD scholarship)
Project Description
Accurate prediction of hydrological processes is crucial for effective water resource management. Recent advancements in machine learning, particularly deep learning (DL), have shown great potential for modeling various fluxes and state variables in hydrological systems. One of the most successful architectures is the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network. While LSTMs often outperform traditional process-based hydrological models, their statistical properties have received limited attention. Moreover, there is evidence that LSTMs, as applied in hydrology, struggle to effectively learn from time-invariant, static information making out-of-sample predictions uncertain and challenging.
This project aims to improve the generalization of current DL models in hydrology to unseen sites. To achieve this, we propose leveraging a large dataset from process-based hydrological modeling to explore how embedding system characteristics within DL architectures can enhance the representation of structural attributes. By adopting a functional regression perspective and a mathematical analysis of the statistical properties of the equipped neural network architectures, we aim to improve the models’ understanding of how time-invariant and slowly varying features influence hydrological responses. Our overarching goal is to develop robust and generalizable DL models for Earth system sciences, with a particular focus on improving performance in unseen or changing environments.
The work program includes the development of an exemplary toy model using the process-based hydrological model as a testbed and the development of a new DL model based on mathematical principles, which leverages a functional regression perspective with the dynamic LSTM approach.
The doctorate will be in Mathematics or in Geosciences, depending on the scientific background of the candidate.
Special requirements for applicants:
- Solid mathematical background, especially in probability theory and statistics
- Either hydrological background and high motivation to implement and apply DL methods or good DL background and curiosity for hydrological applications.
Requirements for applicants
Project 01 is a scholarship funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in the DAAD Graduate School Scholarship Program.
Special requirements for applicants apply:
- Completed Master’s degree (or equivalent) at the starting date of the scholarship / preparatory German course
- Graduation no more than six years prior to nomination (exceptions apply, see DAAD website)
- No residency in Germany for more than the past 15 months before nomination ("mobility rule")
- No completed PhD degree
- Proficiency in English (German is optional)
Funding
Funding for this scholarship is provided by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
- Duration of the funding: Up to 4 years
- Monthly payments of 1,300 euros (note: this will be supplemented by KIT with a part-time job with an additional income of EUR 556 gross per month)
- Payments towards health, accident and personal liability insurance cover
- Travel lump sum (depending on country of origin)
- Annual research allowance of 460 euros
Under certain circumstances, grant holders may receive the following additional benefits:
- monthly rent subsidy
- monthly allowance for accompanying members of family (about 200 euros child allowance per child; about 275 euros marriage allowance)
| Title Name | Role at KCDS | Homepage |
|---|---|---|
| Dr. rer. nat. Loritz, Ralf | SEE Supervisor | |
| Prof. Dr. Trabs, Mathias | MATH Supervisor, member of the Steering committee | www.math.kit.edu/stoch/~trabs/ |
Project 02: Non-intrusive calculation of homogenized material properties for non-periodic and non-linear microstructures (DAAD scholarship)
Project Description
Fiber-reinforced materials are important in industrial areas with high lightweight design requirements. However, the very heterogeneous structure of such materials makes their simulation cumbersome: Fully resolving microstructures is computationally expensive or even impossible, which is why homogenization approaches are used. These approaches replace heterogeneous materials by piecewise homogeneous ones. In applied mathematics, a different approach to homogenization has become popular in recent years: Instead of computing homogenized material properties, the basis functions of a finite element method are suitably adjusted to better fit to the microstructure. The advantage of such methods is that they work under minimal assumptions on the microstructure. Their drawback is that they are intrusive: They change the basis functions, which makes the implementation of such strategies into available legacy code very complicated.
In this project, we will start from mathematically justified intrusive strategies and adjust them suitably to obtain a non-intrusive method that shall then be implemented into available code. Moreover, we will also cover non-linear material properties, where appropriate linearization strategies are required. Finally, we will compare simulation results with practical experiments to assess the quality of the novel strategy. Here, the Institute for Applied Materials (IAM) will provide additional support.
The doctorate will be in Mathematics.
As a candidate, you should have:
- a solid background in applied mathematics
- knowledge of the finite element method and its theoretical investigation
- basic programming skills (in any programming language)
- interest in working in an interdisciplinary environment
Requirements for applicants
Project 02 is a scholarship funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in the DAAD Graduate School Scholarship Program.
Special requirements for applicants apply:
- Completed Master’s degree (or equivalent) at the starting date of the scholarship / preparatory German course
- Graduation no more than six years prior to nomination (exceptions apply, see DAAD website)
- No residency in Germany for more than the past 15 months before nomination ("mobility rule")
- No completed PhD degree
- Proficiency in English (German is optional)
Funding
Funding for this scholarship is provided by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
- Duration of the funding: Up to 4 years
- Monthly payments of 1,300 euros (note: this will be supplemented by KIT with a part-time job with an additional income of EUR 556 gross per month)
- Payments towards health, accident and personal liability insurance cover
- Travel lump sum (depending on country of origin)
- Annual research allowance of 460 euros
Under certain circumstances, grant holders may receive the following additional benefits:
- monthly rent subsidy
- monthly allowance for accompanying members of family (about 200 euros child allowance per child; about 275 euros marriage allowance)
| Title Name | Role at KCDS | Homepage |
|---|---|---|
| Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kärger, Luise | SEE Supervisor | |
| TT-Prof. Dr. Maier, Roland | MATH Supervisor | www.math.kit.edu/ianm_jrg_numpde/~roland.maier/en |
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Project 03: Doctoral Project in the group of André Platzer, the Alexander von Humboldt Professor for Logic of Autonomous Dynamical Systems (doctoral position, employment at KIT)
Project description
The group of André Platzer, the Alexander von Humboldt Professor for Logic of Autonomous Dynamical Systems, in the Computer Science Department at KIT, Karlsruhe, is recruiting a PhD Student / Doctoral Researcher (full-time, about €4200-€4800 gross by TVL E13 depending on experience). Exceptionally qualified applicants for Postdoc positions may be considered as well.
Our research group develops the logical foundations for cyber-physical systems and practical theorem proving tools such as KeYmaera X for analyzing and correctly building such systems. Our techniques are used to analyze the safety of autonomous cars, airplanes and collision avoidance systems in aerospace applications, robotics, and train control as well as for provably safe AI. Your exciting research can have a direct impact on making the world a better place!
Successful applicants to the Alexander von Humboldt Professor group bring the following:
- Excellent master's degree in computer science, mathematics or related subjects.
- Strong demonstrable commitment to research.
- Strong background in proof-based sciences such as logic, mathematics, theorem proving, formal methods, or programming language principles.
- Strong background in mathematics, physics, or engineering.
- Proficiency in English, excellent speaking and writing skills.
- Experience in software development projects is a plus.
- Exceptionally qualified bachelor students, especially from 4 year programs may apply for a fast-track program.
The successful candidate shows initiative and is able to quickly get into new research areas and will be responsible for actively engaging in novel research questions, publishing and communicating research results, advising junior students, implementation of research results in formal methods or theorem proving tools, demonstrating their applicability in cyber-physical systems applications.
Faculty / Division: Alexander von Humboldt Professor group on Logic of Autonomous Dynamical Systems, KIT Department of Informatics
Group: The Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, Germany's most highly endowed international research award, is endowed with up to five million euros. With this award, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation honors internationally leading researchers of all disciplines.
Institute: Institute of Information Security and Dependability (KASTEL)
Institute for Reliability of Autonomous Dynamical Systems (VADS)
of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany
Funding
This is a 1 full-time equivalent "E13 TV-L" position under applicable regulations of KIT according to the public sector salary system at German universities and research centers. It means a yearly gross income of more than 57.000 € and results in more than 35.000 € net income after taxes, own contributions to health insurance, pension insurance, unemployment insurance etc.
| Title Name | Role at KCDS | Homepage |
|---|---|---|
| Prof. Dr. Platzer, André | MATH Supervisor | logic.kastel.kit.edu/andre.html |
Project 04: Replacement of chemistry simulation by machine learning in an Earth system model (doctoral position, employment at KIT)
Project description
Earth system modeling plays a central role in climate change research. Earth system models (ESMs) describe processes such as the change in atmospheric dynamics and temperatures and the distribution of aerosols and chemical substances and their interaction with climate change. One of the most computationally intensive processes in ESMs is the calculation of chemistry.
The goal of this doctoral research is to show that the simulation of chemistry within an ESM can be replaced by an AI model. By combining domain knowledge from earth sciences with state-of-the-art ML techniques, the project seeks to develop novel hybrid ESM models that incorporate physical laws and KI driven approaches. Classical climate models use complex partial differential equations (as e.g. Navier-Stokes equations, continuity equations, radiative transfer equations, thermodynamic energy equations, or tracer transport and diffusion equations) to simulate the state of the atmosphere and ocean. More recent ESMs integrate additional processes to the classical climate models, as for example the simulation of chemistry, which is based on a stiff set of ODEs. We aim to replace these difficult and expensive (in terms of computing time) to solve equations by neural networks that conserve the physical constrains of the system. Thereby we aim to train all chemical tracers of the ESM with the help of an AI model and integrate afterwards a neural network into the ESM.
It will be investigated and evaluated if this enables a realistic simulation and thus improves the performance of the ESM.
The work involves an interdisciplinary approach and includes mathematics, atmospheric science and computer science. Corresponding contact persons are available.
The doctorate will be in Mathematics.
Tasks of the thesis include:
- Performance analysis of the Earth System model code at different resolutions on a High Performance Computing (HPC) system
- Creation of a concept for replacing the chemistry simulation with a suitable AI model (such as Transformer, LSTM, CNN) including the identification of suitable features dimension reduction, and hyperparameter tuning
- Implementation and evaluation of the procedure and investigation of suitable metrics
- Evaluation of the AI model integrated into the Earth System Model (including parallelization)
Necessary requirements:
- Completed studies (master) in mathematics
- Knowledge of current deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch or Tensorflow)
- Programming skills (e.g. Fortran, C++, Python)
- Ability to work and publish in a targeted and scientific manner.
- Good communication and presentation skills and willingness and ability to work a team
- Good writing and oral communication skills in English
Optional requirements:
- Experience in working with climate/earth system models
Funding
This is a 0.75 full-time equivalent "E13 TV-L" position under applicable regulations of KIT according to the public sector salary system at German universities and research centers. It means a yearly gross income of more than 43.000 € and results in more than 27.000 € net income after taxes, own contributions to health insurance, pension insurance, unemployment insurance etc.
| Title Name | Role at KCDS | Homepage |
|---|---|---|
| Prof. Dr. Frank, Martin | Scientific Speaker, MATH Supervisor | |
| Dr. Hörter, Jasmin | ||
| Dr. Kirner, Oliver | MATH Supervisor | www.scc.kit.edu/personen/oliver.kirner.php |
| Dr. Meyer, Jörg | SEE Supervisor | www.scc.kit.edu/en/staff/joerg.meyer.php |
Requirements for applicants
General requirements
For all applicants, the following requirements apply:
-
We are looking for excellent graduates holding master degrees, received by the start of their doctoral studies at the latest, in mathematics or the SEE disciplines (natural sciences, engineering, economics), who have sufficient proficiency in mathematics and are interested in joint research that revolves around computational methods such as mathematical models, simulation methods and data science techniques.
-
As an international research school, we require our doctoral researchers to have good writing and oral communication skills in English (German is optional).
Requirements for DAAD Graduate School Scholarships
Project 1 and 2 are scholarships funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in the DAAD Graduate School Scholarship Program.
Special requirements for applicants apply:
- Completed Master’s degree (or equivalent) at the starting date of the scholarship / preparatory German course
- Graduation no more than six years prior to nomination (exceptions apply, see DAAD website)
- No residency in Germany for more than the past 15 months before nomination ("mobility rule")
- No completed PhD degree
- Proficiency in English (German is optional)
Requirements for doctoral positions (employment at KIT)
Project 3 and 4 are doctoral positions (according to the public sector salary system at German universities and research centers), with the type of position specified in the project description.
The following requirements apply:
- Completed Master’s degree (or equivalent) at the starting date of doctoral position
- No completed PhD degree
- Proficiency in English (German is optional)
- These positions are also open to candidates with residency in Germany (no "mobility rule"). For these positions, we welcome applications of both international candidates and candidates with residency in Germany!