Prof. Dr. Birte Glimm
Since July 2011, I work at the University of Ulm within the Institute of Artificial Intelligence. I started as junior professor and became a full professor in 20217. Since 2022 I am chairing the institute. In 2019 our project "Do it yourself, but not alone: Companion-Technology for Home Improvement" was awarded a price for cooperations between science and industry (Kooperationspreis Wissenschaft-Wirtschaft). In 2017 I received a Google Faculty Research Award and I was honoured with the Mileva Einstein-Marić-Prize.
Before coming to Ulm, I was a research assistant in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford, where I worked in the Information Systems Group, mainly on developing algorithms for automated reasoning in expressive Description Logics and on the implementation of the HermiT reasoner.
I did my PhD in Manchester in the Information Management Group under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ian Horrocks and Prof. Dr. Uli Sattler and I was honoured with the Best Thesis Award from the School of Computer Science at Manchester University in 2008. From September 2001 until July 2004 I studied Computer Science in the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and I received my bachelor degree with an award for the best degree.
Before studying Computer Science, I worked for 3.5 years in Industry and did another degree in Communication Design.
Further Information
My scientific interest is mainly in knowledge representation and automatic reasoning. I develop, implement and optimize algorithms for automatic reasoning in expressive description logics and analyze their complexity. For example, I have developed various optimizations for tableau algorithms, novel procedures for combining tableau and saturation-based algorithms and algorithms for answering queries. Our new abstraction and refinement procedure allows conclusions to be drawn about knowledge bases with very large amounts of data. We are also working on providing autonomous vehicles with dynamic knowledge of map data, where a particular challenge lies in the high dynamics. Our research on the generation of explanations in natural language allows the automated derivations to be made comprehensible.
I am an editor of the SPARQL 1.1 Entailment Regimes specification, developed within the SPARQL Working Group of the W3C. Entailment regimes extend SPARQL to work with semantics other than simple entailment, e.g., RDF and RDFS semantics and OWL Direct and RDF-Based Semantics. I am also an editor of the OWL 2 Web Ontology Language Conformance specification, which describes the conditions that OWL 2 tools must satisfy in order to be conformant with the language specification.
- since 2024 Dean of Studies Cognitive Systems
- since 2023 Dean of Studies Computer Science (for BSc+Msc Computer Science, BSc+Msc Media Informatics, BSc+Msc Software Engineering, MSc Artificial Intelligence)
- since 2023 Deputy of the Exam Board Computer Science (for BSc+Msc Computer Science, BSc+Msc Media Informatics, BSc+Msc Software Engineering, MSc Artificial Intelligence)
- 2019-2023 Chair of the Exam Board Computer Science (for BSc+Msc Computer Science, BSc+Msc Media Informatics, BSc+Msc Software Engineering, MSc Artificial Intelligence)
- since 2014 Chair of the Admissions Board Cognitive Systems
- since 2022 Deputy Ombudsperson Good Research Practice
- since 2019 Deputy of the Exam Board Cognitive Systems
- seit 2022 Member Dr. rer. nat. PhD Commission
- 2019-2022 Chair of the Exam Board Cognitive Systems
- 2018-2021 Member of the Study Commission Cognitive Systems
- SoSe 2021 Member of the Study Commission Computer Science
- 2015-2018 Programme Coordination MSc Cognitive Systems
- Member of the Grants and Senate Committee on Research Training Groups, German Research Foundation (DFG), 2025--2027
- Member of the focus group Artificial Intelligence of the German Science and Humanities Council (Wissenschaftsrat), since 2024
- Co-Organiser of the Dagstuhl Perspectives Seminar "Current and Future Challenges in Knowledge Representation and Reasoning"
- Steering Commitee Center for AI (C4AI) fortiss/IBM (2020-2023)
- Editor of the SPARQL 1.1 Entailment Regimes Specification
- Editor of the OWL 2 Web Ontology Language Conformance Standard
- Editor of the Special Issue "Semantic Web" of the German Journal on Artificial Intelligence
- Doctoral Consortium Co-Chair of the 14th Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR) 2014
- General Chair of the International Description Logic Workshop (DL) 2013
- Program Chair of the International Workshop on Description Logics 2017
- Program Chair of the German Conference on Artificial Intelligence (KI) 2012
- Satellite Events Chair of the International Joint Conference on Automated Reasoning (IJCAR) 2012
- Poster & Demos Chair of the International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) 2012
- Member of the steering committee of the International Description Logic Workshop (DL, 2010-2011, 2013-2016)
- Member of the steering committee KR Inc (Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Incorporated) (2017-2021)
- Scientific Advisary Board Reasoning Web Summer Schoiol 2020, Reasoning Web Summer School 2021
- Senior Program Committee member of ISWC 2020, ISWC 2016, KR2016, ISWC 2015, AAAI 2012
- Program Committee member of ECAI 2023, DL 2021, Reasoning Web 2021, KR 2021, DL 2020, KR 2020, XLoKR2020, IJCAI 2019 (Distinguished PC), DL 2019, ISWC 2019, RW 2019, DL 2018, IJCAI-ECAI 2018, IJCAR 2016, KI 2016, KR 2014, ECAI 2014, ISWC 2014, DL 2014, ISWC 2013, AAAI 2013, HT 2013, RR 2012, DL 2012, ISWC 2012, Reasoning Web 2012, WIMS 2012, ESWC 2012, KR 2012, ISWC 2011, JIST 2011, IJCAI 2011, DL 2011, ISWC 2010 Demos&Posters, AAAI 2010, DL 2009, IJCAI 2009, ISWC 2009, ESWC 2009 Poster and Demos, ECAI 2008, ISWC 2007 and DL 2007
- Reviewer for the conferences and workshops: Tableaux 2013, CADE 2011, WWW 2010, WoLLIC 2010, KR 2010, IJCAR 2010, WWW 2009, ESSLLI 2009, KR 2008, ISWC 2008, WWW 2008, DL 2008, IJCAI 2007, CADE 2007, ISWC 2007, ESWC 2007, DL 2007, RR 2007, DL 2006, CADE 2005, ISWC 2005, ESWC 2005, LPAR 2005, DL 2005, OWL ED 2005, M4M 2005, ODBASE 2005, and DL 2004
- Reviewer for the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, Journal of Web Semantics, Journal of Symbolic Computation, Journal of Logic and Computation, Journal on Data Semantics, ACM Transactions on the Web, Logical Methods in Computer Science, Information Systems, PLOS ONE, BW PostDoc Elite Programm
- Reviewer for DFG, DAAD, BMBF, Dutch Technology Foundation (STW)
Projects and seminars in the area of Semantic Web and Artificial Intelligence
Lectures
WS 2024/2025: Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence, Künstliche Intelligenz und Neuroinformatik
SS 2024: : Logik
WS 2023/2024: Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence, Künstliche Intelligenz und Neuroinformatik, AI Planning
SS 2023: Programming Concepts for Cognitive Systems, Foundations of Semantic Web Technologies
WS 2022/2023: Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence, Künstliche Intelligenz und Neuroinformatik
SS 2022: Programming Concepts for Cognitive Systems
WS 2021/2022: research semester
SS 2021: Programming Concepts for Cognitive Systems, Foundations of Semantic Web Technologies
WS 2020/2021: Web Engineering
SS 2020: Programming Concepts for Cognitive Systems
WS 2019/2020: Web Engineering, Foundations of Semantic Web Technologies
SS 2019: Programming Concepts for Cognitive Systems
WS 2018/2019: Web Engineering, Foundations of Semantic Web Technologies
SS 2018: Einführung in die Informatik, Programming Concepts for Cognitive Systems
WS 2017/2018: Web Engineering, Programming Concepts for Cognitive Systems
SS 2017: Foundations of Semantic Web Technologies, Einführung in die Informatik
WS 2016/2017: Introduction to Computer Science for Psychologists, Web Engineering
SS 2016: Foundations of Semantic Web Technologies
WS 2015/2016: Introduction to Computer Science for Psychologists
SS 2015: Foundations of Semantic Web Technologies
WS 2013/2014: Einführung in die Informatik, Semantic Web Grundlagen
SS 2013: Algorithmen in der Wissensrepräsentation
WS 2012/2013: Semantic Web Grundlagen
SS 2012: Algorithmen in der Wissensrepräsentation
WS 2011/2012: Semantic Web Grundlagen
| 2023 | Best Paper Nominee, Nathan Gruber and Birte Glimm, Extended Semantic Web Conference |
| 2020 | Best Paper Award, Haonan Qiu, Adel Ayara and Birte Glimm, International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development |
| 2020 | Best Paper Nominee, Haonan Qiu, Adel Ayara and Birte Glimm, International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems 2020 |
| 2020 | Best Research Track Senior Programme Committee Member, International Semantic Web Conference |
| 2019 | Kooperationspreis Wissenschaft-Wirtschaft |
| 2019 | Best Reproducibility Award, Andreas Steigmiller and Birte Glimm, International Semantic Web Conference |
| 2019 | Best Research Paper Award runner-up, Andreas Steigmiller and Birte Glimm, International Semantic Web Conference |
| 2017 | Google Faculty Research Award |
| 2017 | Mileva Einstein-Marić-Preis |
| 2016 | Best Resources Paper, B. Parsia, N. Matentzoglu, R. S. Goncalves, B. Glimm and A. Steigmiller, International Semantic Web Conference |
| 2015 | OWL Reasoner Evaluation Competition, 6 Tracks (Reasoner Konclude: 4 × 1. and 2 × 2. prize, Reasoner HermiT: 1 × 2. and 4 × 3. prize) |
| 2014 | ISWC Best Reviewer Research Track, International Semantic Web Conference |
| 2014 | Kurt Gödel medal, 1. FLoC Olympic Games |
| 2014 | OWL Reasoner Evaluation Competition, 6 Tracks (Reasoner Konclude: 5 × 1. and 1 × 2. prize, Reasoner HermiT: 1 × 2. and 1 × 3. prize) |
| 2013 | OWL Reasoner Evaluation Competition, 9 Tracks (Reasoner Konclude: 3×1., 2×2. and 2 × 3. prize, Reasoner HermiT: 1 × 1., 2 × 2. and 1 × 3. prize) |
| 2011 | Best Programme Committee Member Finalist, International Semantic Web Conference |
| 2010 | Best Research Paper Nominee, Birte Glimm, Ian Horrocks, Boris Motik and Giorgos Stoilos, International Semantic Web Conference |
| 2008 | Steve Furber Medal for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in Computer Science |
| 09.04–09.07 | Doctoral scholarship of the Foundation of German Business |
| 09.04–09.07 | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council studentship |
| 2004 | Best computer science degree in 2004 at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences |
| 04.02–07.04 | Scholarship of the Foundation of German Business |
- BMBF project "2LIKE - Artificial Intelligence for Individualised Learning Path and Processes" (2021-2025)
- Transfer project T3 "Do it yourself, but not alone: Companion-Technologie für die Heimwerkerunterstützung" within the Collaborative Research Center SFB/TRR 62 "A Companion-Technology for Cognitive Technical Systems" (2016-2019)
- DFG Project: Processing of Large Amounts of Data in Ontologies via Abstraction and Refinement (2015-2019)
- Project A2 "Knowledge Modelling" within the Collaborative Research Center SFB/TRR 62 "A Companion-Technology for Cognitive Technical Systems" (2013-2017)
- DAAD Programme des Projektbezogenen Personenaustauschs (PPP) "Automatic Generation of Description Logic Knowledge Bases" with the National Technical University of Athens (2013-2014)
- KMU-innovativ project GraphScale in collaboration with derivo GmbH (2012-2014)
- Dynamic Query Planning for Querying Ontologies (2012)
- Joshua Hirschbrunn (2023-)
- Michael Welt (2022-)
- Moritz Illich (2021-)
- Haonan Qiu (2018-2022)
- Andreas Steigmiller (finished 2016, summa cum laude, dissertation award Thomas Gessmann-Stiftung)
- Ilianna Kollia (external at the National Technical University of Athens, finished 2014)
Publications
2023
Challenges on Deriving Planning Problems from Ontologies
Proceedings of the PLanning And onTology wOrkshop (PLATO)
2023
Comparative Research in Stream Reasoning
Proceedings of the 20th European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2023)fromLecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher: Springer-Verlag
2023
Computing Minimal Unsolvable and Maximal Solvable Abstractions of Planning Problems via Hitting Set Trees
Proceedings of the Workshop on Knowledge Engineering for Planning and Scheduling (KEPS 2023)
2023
2022
Computing Concept Referring Expressions for Queries on Horn ALC Ontologies
Proceedings of the 31st International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the 23rd European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-ECAI 2022)
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
2022
| File: | /fileadmin/website_uni_ulm/iui.inst.090/Publikationen/2022/IlGl22a.pdf |
Computing Concept Referring Expressions with Standard OWL Reasoners
In Ofer Arieli and Martin Homola and Jean Christoph Jung and Marie-Laure Mugnier, Editor, Proceedings of the 35th International Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2022)Volume3263fromCEUR Workshop Proceedings
In Ofer Arieli and Martin Homola and Jean Christoph Jung and Marie-Laure Mugnier, Editor
Publisher: CEUR-WS.org
2022
| File: |  https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3263/paper-14.pdf |
Concept Abduction for Description Logics
In Ofer Arieli and Martin Homola and Jean Christoph Jung and Marie-Laure Mugnier, Editor, Proceedings of the 35th International Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2022)Volume3263fromCEUR Workshop Proceedings
In Ofer Arieli and Martin Homola and Jean Christoph Jung and Marie-Laure Mugnier, Editor
Publisher: CEUR-WS.org
2022
| File: | https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3263/paper-11.pdf |
Current and Future Challenges in Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (Dagstuhl Seminar 22282)
Dagstuhl Reports, 12 (7) :62—79
2022
| DOI: | 10.4230/DagRep.12.7.62 |
| File: | https://doi.org/10.4230/DagRep.12.7.62 |
SAT-Based Axiom Pinpointing Revisited
In Ofer Arieli and Martin Homola and Jean Christoph Jung and Marie-Laure Mugnier, Editor, Proceedings of the 35th International Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2022)Volume3263fromCEUR Workshop Proceedings
In Ofer Arieli and Martin Homola and Jean Christoph Jung and Marie-Laure Mugnier, Editor
Publisher: CEUR-WS.org
2022
| File: | https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3263/paper-10.pdf |
2021
Do It Yourself, but Not Alone: Companion-Technology for Home Improvement — Bringing a Planning-Based Interactive DIY Assistant to Life
Künstliche Intell., 35 (3) :367—375
2021
| DOI: | 10.1007/s13218-021-00721-x |
| File: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s13218-021-00721-x |
Do It Yourself, but Not Alone: Companion-Technology for Home Improvement – Bringing a Planning-Based Interactive DIY Assistant to Life
Künstliche Intelligenz – Special Issue on NLP and Semantics
2021
| Weblink: | https://rdcu.be/cmGwb |
| File: | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13218-021-00721-x |
HDT Bitmap Triple Indices for Efficient RDF Data Exploration
Proceedings of the 18th European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2021)fromLecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher: Springer-Verlag
2021
Ontology-Based Map Data Quality Assurance
Proceedings of the 18th European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2021)fromLecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher: Springer-Verlag
2021
Parallelised ABox Reasoning and Query Answering with Expressive Description Logics
Proceedings of the 18th European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2021)fromLecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher: Springer-Verlag
2021
Query Answering and Scaling Extensions of Konclude
In Gunjan Singh and Raghava Mutharaju and Pavan Kapanipathi, Editor, Proceedings of the Semantic Reasoning Evaluation Challenge (SemREC 2021)Volume3123fromCEUR Workshop Proceedings, Page 37—43
In Gunjan Singh and Raghava Mutharaju and Pavan Kapanipathi, Editor
Publisher: CEUR-WS.org
2021
| File: | https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3123/paper5.pdf |
2020
A Knowledge Architecture Layer for Map Data in Autonomous Vehicles
Proceedings of the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC 2020)
Publisher: IEEE
2020
| File: | /fileadmin/website_uni_ulm/iui.inst.090/Publikationen/2020/QiAG20a.pdf |
A Knowledge-Spatial Architecture for Processing Dynamic Maps in Automated Driving
, Proceedings of the ISWC 2020 Posters & Demonstrations TrackVolume2721fromCEUR Workshop Proceedings
Publisher: CEUR-WS.org
2020
| File: | https://www.uni-ulm.de/fileadmin/website_uni_ulm/iui.inst.090/Publikationen/2020/QiAG20c.pdf |
New Developments for Robert – Assisting Novice Users Even Better in DIY Projects
Proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS 2020), Page 343--347
Publisher: AAAI Press
2020
| File: | https://www.uni-ulm.de/fileadmin/website_uni_ulm/iui.inst.090/Publikationen/2020/Behnke2020DIYAssistant.pdf |
Ontology-based Processing of Dynamic Maps in Automated Driving
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development (KEOD 2020)
Publisher: SciTePress
2020
| File: | /fileadmin/website_uni_ulm/iui.inst.090/Publikationen/2020/QiAG20b.pdf |
Was that successful? On Integrating Proactive Meta-Dialogue in a DIY-Assistant System using Multimodal Cues
Proceedings of 22nd ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (ICMI 2020)
Publisher: ACM
2020
| File: | /fileadmin/website_uni_ulm/iui.inst.090/Publikationen/2020/KSBB20a.pdf |
2019
9th International Workshop on Spoken Dialogue Systems
In Rafael Banchs and Luis Fernando D'Haro and Haizhou Li, Editor from Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering
Chapter A Multimodal Dialogue Framework for Cloud-Based Companion Systems
Publisher: Springer
2019
| File: | https://www.uni-ulm.de/fileadmin/website_uni_ulm/iui.inst.090/Publikationen/2019/Kraus2019CloudCompanion.pdf |
Absorption-Based Query Answering for Expressive Description Logics
In Chiara Ghidini, Olaf Hartig, Maria Maleshkova, Vojtěch Svátek,Isabel Cruz, Aidan Hogan, Editor, Proceedings of the 18th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2019) Band 11778 aus Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Page 593--611
In Chiara Ghidini, Olaf Hartig, Maria Maleshkova, Vojtěch Svátek,Isabel Cruz, Aidan Hogan, Editor
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham
2019
| ISBN: | 978-3-030-30793-6 |
| File: | /fileadmin/website_uni_ulm/iui.inst.090/Publikationen/2019/StGl2019-ABQA-ISWC.pdf |
Absorption-Based Query Entailment Checking for Expressive Description Logics
Proceedings of the 32nd International Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2019) Band 2373 aus CEUR Workshop Proceedings
Publisher: CEUR-WS.org
2019
| File: | http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2373/paper-25.pdf |
Alice in DIY wonderland or: Instructing novice users on how to use tools in DIY projects
AI Communications, 32 (1) :31-57
2019
Publisher: IOS Press
| DOI: | 10.3233/AIC-180604 |
| File: | https://www.uni-ulm.de/fileadmin/website_uni_ulm/iui.inst.090/Publikationen/2019/Behnke2019bosch.pdf |
An Ontological Model for Map Data in Automotive Systems
Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Engineering (AIKE 2019), Page 140--147
Publisher: IEEE
2019
| File: | /fileadmin/website_uni_ulm/iui.inst.090/Publikationen/2019/SQAG19a.pdf |
Classical Algorithms for Reasoning and Explanation in Description Logics
In Markus Krötzsch and Daria Stepanova, Editor, Reasoning Web. Explainable Artificial Intelligence - 15th International Summer SchoolVolume11810fromLecture Notes in Computer Science, Page 1-64
In Markus Krötzsch and Daria Stepanova, Editor
Publisher: Springer
2019
| DOI: | 10.1007/978-3-030-31423-1_1 |
| File: | /fileadmin/website_uni_ulm/iui.inst.090/Publikationen/2019/GliKaz19Classical.pdf |