Freiburg computer scientist advises German parliament

Computer science professor Hannah Bast of the University of Freiburg has been appointed as an expert advisor to the commission “Artificial Intelligence - Social Responsibility and Economic Potential.” She is one of 19 experts who over the next two years will be formulating recommendations to the German parliament for policies and action plans concerning artificial intelligence. The commission also includes 19 members of the Bundestag itself. “I see it as one of my tasks to provide factual information on what artificial intelligence is capable of doing right now and in the foreseeable future and what it can’t - and what the risks really are,” Bast says of the new challenge.

Bast has been Professor of Algorithms and Data Structures at the University of Freiburg since 2009. Prior to that, she headed a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken from 2000 to 2007. During a subsequent sabbatical at Google in Zürich, she developed a process which greatly speeded up the giving of directions for public transport systems and which has been used in Google Maps since 2010. Bast’s scientific work has been recognized with awards such as the Max Planck Society’s Otto Hahn Medal, the Google Focused Research Award and the Alcatel-Lucent Research Prize for technical communication. From 1 October 2018 she will be Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Freiburg.

Further information on Hannah Bast