Congratulations to Annika Sonntag on her successful PhD defense on Tuesday, June 16, 2026!
Thesis:
Methods for Sensor-Based Analysis of Stress and Attention in Adolescents with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder During Real-Life Exposure Exercises
Last Sunday, we opened our labs to the public for the HIH Open Day. It was great to see so many people stopping by and showing real curiosity about our work on brain stimulation and neural activity.
Guests could navigate microrobots, try TMS, and get a glimpse of how we study brain function in everyday research. I especially enjoyed meeting so many young visitors and future scientists who explored the experiments with such excitement. I hope this day has planted a small seed of curiosity that might grow over time.
None of this would have been possible without the Bionic Intelligence Tübingen Stuttgart (BITS) Center, which connects different disciplines and makes this kind of collaboration possible.
Many thanks to Erdost Yildiz MD PhD and Leo Werner for their energy and dedication throughout the day.
More impressions and the full programme can be found here: https://lnkd.in/e8e_Z2F3
 |
 |
Successful PhD defense of Jesse St. Amand. Congratulations! (on Wednesday, July 16th 2025)
Thesis ‘Gaussian Process Dynamical Models for Small-Data Human Motion Synthesis: From Hierarchical Models to Mixture-of-Experts Frameworks’ .
We’re proud to announce that Leo Werner received the Neuroscience Presentation Award from the Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience at the University of Tübingen for his outstanding lab rotation presentation:
“Optimizing Stability and Functionality: Microrobotic Stimulation in the Rodent Motor Cortex”
Supervised by Dr. Alia Benali (AG Giese), Leo addressed the challenge of microparticle injectability. He conducted over 500 systematic injections into self-made brain phantoms and validated his findings in animal models, in collaboration with researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems.
His project marks an important step toward translating microrobotic approaches from in vitro to in vivo applications; paving the way for future preclinical and clinical neuromodulation strategies.
Congratulations, Leo!
===============================================================================================================
Leo Werner wurde mit dem Neuroscience Presentation Award des Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience der Universität Tübingen ausgezeichnet. Gewürdigt wurde seine herausragende Präsentation im Rahmen eines dreimonatigen Lab-Rotationsprojekts zum Thema:
„Optimizing Stability and Functionality: Microrobotic Stimulation in the Rodent Motor Cortex“
Unter der Betreuung von Dr. Alia Benali (AG Giese) entwickelte Leo eine systematische Testreihe zur Injektionsstabilität mikrorobotischer Partikel. Mithilfe selbstgebauter Gehirnphantome führte er über 500 Versuche durch und validierte die Ergebnisse in Zusammenarbeit mit Wissenschaftlern des Max-Planck-Institutes für Intelligente Systeme im Tiermodell.
Seine Arbeit trägt wesentlich dazu bei, die Übertragung von Mikropartikel-Technologien aus der Petrischale in präklinische Anwendungen zu ermöglichen, ein zentraler Schritt für zukünftige neurotechnologische Therapien.
Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Leo!
The inter-university center ‘Bionic Intelligence Tübingen Stuttgart (BITS)’ was inaugurated on May 20 in Weil der Stadt, the birthplace of Johannes Kepler. As part of the scientific program, the three speakers, Syn Schmitt, Martin Giese and Sabine Ludwigs, presented current research projects of the center. In addition, two internationally leading scientists in the field of bionic intelligence from the areas of bio-inspired robotics and computational psychiatry presented their latest research work.
Das interuniversitäre Zentrum 'Bionic Intelligence Tübingen Stuttgart (BITS)' wurde am 20.5. feierlich in Weil der Stadt, dem Geburtsort von Johannes Kepler, eingeweiht. Im Rahmen des wissenschaftlichen Programms wurden von den drei Sprechern, Syn Schmitt, Martin Giese und Sabine Ludwigs aktuelle Forschungsprojekte des Zentrums dargestellt. Außerdem päsentierten zwei international führende Wissenschaftler auf dem Gebiet der Bionischen Intelligenz aus den Bereichen bioinspirierte Robotik und Computational Psychiatry ihre neuesten Forschungsarbeiten dar.