Wolfgang Bible

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Wolfgang Bible (r.) In conversation with CAR Hoare (2006)

Leonhard Wolfgang Bibel (born October 28, 1938 in Nuremberg ) is a German computer scientist who is one of the founders of the field of artificial intelligence in Germany and Europe.

Bible built up the necessary institutions, conferences and scientific journals and provided the necessary research programs so that the field of artificial intelligence could establish itself. He was the founding president of the European Artificial Intelligence Association (EurAI) and on April 23, 2018 started the events that led to the launch of the CLAIRE initiative, which aims to strengthen AI research in Europe.

Bible was professor of intellect in the computer science department of the Technical University of Darmstadt and worked mainly in the field of automatic deduction. His scientific contributions include the connection method he developed, which enables computers to draw correct logical conclusions in a very compact manner. In 2006 he received the Herbrand Award for his scientific achievements .

The Gesellschaft für Informatik honored him as one of the ten leading figures in German AI research.

Career

Wolfgang Bibel was born in Nuremberg as the son of Hans and Johanna Maria Bibel, grew up there and went to school until he graduated from high school. In the period from 1944 to 1947 he had to move to Georgensgmünd because of a war-related evacuation . After graduating from high school, he wanted to study physics at the University of Erlangen. Due to a decree, he did not have to do his military service. Before studying, he had to have industrial experience, which is why he completed an internship at the large Franken power plant . Finally, in 1958, he began studying mathematics and physics with a focus on physics at the University of Erlangen . The first year of study was a challenge for the Bible, as the content was unknown to him in contrast to his fellow students who came from science schools. During the lecture-free time, he did another internship at Siemens-Schuckertwerke . On May 4, 1961 he received his intermediate diploma . From 1962 he completed part of his studies at Heidelberg University . When he changed his focus to mathematics, he moved to the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , where he studied until 1964 and obtained his diploma in mathematics. His diploma thesis dealt with the proof of Remmert's mapping theorem. He then worked as a scientific worker at the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich, which was then headed by Werner Heisenberg. At the Max Planck Institute he met Peter Mittelstaedt , who offered him a scholarship and support for his doctorate. Mittelstaedt suggested the Bible as a doctoral thesis to work out the solution to the inversion problem in scattering theory, but it later became known that the solution had long been found. Mittelstaedt was not aware of this at the time. Later it turned out that Mittelstaedt had accepted a professorship at the University of Cologne. Bible moved with Mittelstaedt to the University of Cologne, where he worked as a research assistant. The solution that had already been provided, the professorship von Mittelstaedt suddenly accepted and the distance to his girlfriend at the time led to his resignation from his position after a short time. In 1968 he received his doctorate under the supervision of Kurt Schütte with cum laude in mathematical logic. His dissertation was "Cut elimination in a subsystem of simple type logic".

Failed habilitation at the Technical University of Munich

From 1969 to 1987 he was a research assistant / senior assistant at the Institute for Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich . Originally, the Bible intended to do his habilitation at the university . In December 1974 he submitted his habilitation thesis for examination. His habilitation thesis was "Programming in the Language of Predicate Logic". His supervisor was Klaus Samelson . However, surprisingly, Friedrich Ludwig Bauer , who was head of the institute at the time, vetoed his habilitation, which meant that he was denied aptitude for it, which was unusual given the achievements of the Bible. Bauer recommended that he research for another five years before considering a habilitation. Outside of the Technical University of Munich, however, his achievement was recognized, which is why he tried to initiate a habilitation process without understanding Bauer, as Bauer vehemently opposed it. In the academic year 1975/1976 he was appointed lecturer in the computer science department at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich. In the 1975 summer semester he also represented Jacques Loeckx's chair at Saarland University and was called upon by the dean of the Mathematics / Computer Science Department at Paderborn University to apply for a professorship. The chairman of the habilitation commission was Karl-Heinz Hellwig , who appointed reviewers who could not demonstrate any knowledge in his subject Automatic Evidence. Bib then turned to the then President of the Technical University of Munich, Ulrich Grigull , but unsuccessfully. According to Bibel's impression, Grugull said that tradition did not need explanations and that he should have listened to Bauer. Bible held other positions during that time, including at Duke University , received international support, and obtained additional reviews that were positive. These included reports from Bruno Buchberger and Woody Bledsoe , but in 1977 his motion was rejected with 31 votes against and 3 abstentions. Out of desperation, he tried to withdraw the application. He only knew a few reasons for his rejection from indiscreet discussions. However, he could not infer the full reasons for the rejection from the reports. A request to inspect the documents also failed, which is why he filed a lawsuit, in which he found errors in the content of the reports. However, the lawsuit was dismissed in 1982 because the habilitation process was formally correct and the content could not be checked, so that after seven years his habilitation process ended and he was therefore not allowed to teach at the TU Munich. In the course of time, the attitude of his colleagues to him changed, which he himself described as hostile. In 1978 he asked for another habilitation because there was a change in the law that enabled senior assistants to take on a professorship. However, this was also rejected in 1980 on the grounds that there was no need in his subject. The Bible describes the entire event in such a way that attempts were made to "[...] liquidate him academically." And he explained it by saying that, in his opinion, Bauer was obsessed with power and did not support people on the basis of professional qualifications, but strived for power . Bauer and his colleagues could not identify themselves professionally with the Bible either and rejected the subject and Bibel's scientific approach. Bauer was an advocate of imperative programming with ALGOL , while the Bible relied on logical programming with PROLOG . It was only later that Bauer recognized the functional and object-oriented programming with LISP , which was represented by Wahlster . Above all, Bauer did not believe in the future of the field of artificial intelligence. At the time, the negative attitude towards the field of artificial intelligence was not only based in Munich, but extended beyond. Wahlster also described Bauer's approach as being driven by ideology . In the same year in which the habilitation failed, the German Research Foundation sponsored the project "Use of Evidence Procedures in Programming" at a request from Bible. In terms of content, the topic was shaped by the topic of the failed habilitation, which is why Bauer was outraged about the funding, so that biblical access to the computers of the TU Munich was blocked. The problem could only be solved with the intervention of the then DFG President. However, Bibel found international support and some professors at the Technical University of Munich also support him, including Eike Jessen , who was later responsible for the biblical working group, and Josef Heinhold , who, on his own initiative, obtained external opinions with two other professors failed. Jessen was the first professor to be appointed completely independently of Bauer's opinion. This was thanks to Grigull's successor, Wolfgang Wild , who pursued a different appointment policy. According to the Bible, Bauer became known not because of his scientific contributions, but as a science politician, and Samelson made the greatest contribution to the basement principle, which is associated with the names Samelson and Bauer . Eickel, who was one of the reviewers and Bauer's group, received his habilitation, although at the time he only had one publication with three other authors, so Bauer's approach should ultimately have led to a decline in the academic level at the university. In Bibel's opinion, the procedure resulted in no large IT companies such as SAP , Software AG and Scheer AG emerging from the Technical University of Munich. So Anyway Andy Bechtolsheim been challenged and upset, he is why the Carnegie Mellon University has changed. The story got around and made life difficult for the Bible, because Bauer had a great influence on computer science in Germany at that time. Bible wrote 26 unsuccessful applications. In the following years, Bibel tried to keep his time in Munich to a minimum. The event shaped the Bible and the assessment of Bauer and his colleagues turned out to be wrong.

During this period he was visiting professor at Wayne State University , Detroit, USA (1970–1971), the University of Karlsruhe (1978–1979), the University of Rome (1983), Duke University , Durham NC, USA (1985) and the Technical University of Darmstadt (1985–1986).

Time after the Technical University of Munich

After the failed habilitation, he was professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada from 1987 to 1988 . It was the first professorship for life that he held. In 1989, Bibel became Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia, an honorary title that the university awarded him before he moved to TU Darmstadt.

In the winter semester 1985/1986, Bibel first took the chair in the computer science department of the Technical University of Darmstadt , to which the university later appointed him. Hans-Jürgen Hoffmann was committed to the substitute professorship. He accepted the offer at the TU Darmstadt on October 1st, 1988 and became professor of intellect in the computer science department of the TU Darmstadt. At that time, the bible was already 50. The TU Darmstadt was the 16th employer and also the last of the bible. It was also the first stable work environment for Bible in which he could work normally. For the academic year 1991/1992 he took over the position of dean of the computer science department of the TU Darmstadt. During that time he chaired three appointment committees. Among them were Oskar von Stryk and Karsten Weihe . During his time, he also built up his research group and made the TU Darmstadt one of the leading universities for artificial intelligence worldwide. The scientifically most outstanding project was the national priority program Deduction funded by the German Research Foundation. The project led Germany to take a leading position in artificial intelligence. In the end he was a C4 professor and has been professor emeritus since 2004 . He gave his farewell lecture on February 13, 2004.

At the request of Wolfgang Bibel, Wolfgang Wahlster received his first honorary doctorate from TU Darmstadt and John Alan Robinson received the Humboldt Prize in 1994, which included a six-month stay at the Technical University of Darmstadt. As of 2017, twenty-five of his doctoral students or employees were professors, so that the majority of today's German AI researchers were his students. His students also include Holger H. Hoos , who was made a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) in 2015 , and Gerhard Brewka , whose dissertation was supervised by Bibel and also by the Gesellschaft für Informatik, one of the formative minds of the German AI research is counted. He has published over 250 scientific publications, including 20 books, in the fields of artificial intelligence and cognitive science .

Bible is married and has three children.

Contribution to Artificial Intelligence in Germany and Europe

Contrary to the difficulties at the Technical University of Munich, he continued to research in his field. 1975 can be seen as the starting shot for artificial intelligence in Germany. Gerd Veenker called a meeting in Bonn, in which Wolfgang Bibel and Wolfgang Wahlster also took part. As a result of the meeting, they established the newsletter KI, which the Bible later converted into the specialist journal KI. The first issue appeared in 1987. The first six issues were issued by Hans-Hellmut Nagel. From the seventh edition, Bibel took over for two years until 1998. During that time, he received no support from the Technical University of Munich, which is why he had to take on all the work. At the meeting it was also decided to set up a subcommittee for artificial intelligence in the specialist committee for cognitive systems in the Gesellschaft für Informatik , of which Bibel was a member from 1975. The first chairmanship was held by Hans-Hellmut Nagel, who at the time was the only professor at the top level who committed himself to artificial intelligence. This committee coordinated the establishment of artificial intelligence as a scientific discipline in Germany. Bible later took over the role. He also held this position the longest. In 1975 he organized a workshop on automatic proof, which found international acclaim in science and business. The workshop was a precursor to today's German Conference on Artificial Intelligence . In 1982, together with Jörg Siekmann , he founded the two-week KI Spring School (KIFS) because the research results have not yet reached the students. This resulted in one of the first books on artificial intelligence in Germany, which brought students closer to the topic. Today the school is a permanent establishment. In 1985 he also offered the first Advanced Course on AI (ACAI) , the equivalent of KIFS for Europe. Another book emerged from this. In 1979, the bible wanted to found a European organization for artificial intelligence. 1982 saw the first European Conference for Artificial Intelligence and the establishment of the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence , today's European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI) . He became their first president. During the whole time he had no professorship and no support from the Technical University of Munich because they refused.

In 1975 the German Bible Research Foundation approved an application for research grants for the "Use of Evidence Methods in Programming" project, which began funding in 1977. The content of the topic was shaped by the topic of the failed habilitation. Bible also acquired several research projects for the TU Darmstadt, including the national priority program Deduction, funded by the German Research Foundation and approved in autumn 1991. The project led Germany to take a leading position in artificial intelligence.

At the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) in 1977 he and Nagel presented the situation of artificial intelligence in Germany for the first time. From 1986 to 1992 he was on the board of IJCAI and from 1987 to 1989 its president. Bibel's influence at the time also led Japan to launch a decade-long research program called the Fifth Generation Computer Systems (FGCS) Initiative. The research program caused a sensation, which is why political figures attended the 1979 conference in Japan. Bible represented Germany at the conference. The conference was followed by other major research programs such as the European Strategic Program for Research and Development in Information Technology and the Information Technology program funded by the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology (BMFT).

In 1984, Bibel turned to Franz Josef Strauss to point out the growing importance of artificial intelligence. In 1988 this led to the establishment of a Bavarian Research Center for Knowledge-Based Systems (BayWiss). At the same time, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence was founded at the federal level in 1987 and an Institute for Application-Oriented Knowledge Processing (IAW) was established in Baden-Württemberg in the same year .

On April 23, 2018, he started the events that led to the start of the CLAIRE initiative. CLAIRE stands for Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe and is an initiative of the European AI community that aims to strengthen AI research in Europe.

After retiring, he worked as an expert for the EU Commission to develop a funding program that would later become known as Horizon 2020 .

Intellect instead of artificial intelligence

Wolfgang Bibel advocated that the field of Artificial Intelligence should be called intellect, since Artificial Intelligence is only the goal and AI researchers are concerned with intelligence in general. Artificial intelligence is a central term, but this term has become the name for an entire subject area that deals with intelligent behavior and intelligent systems. This designation falls out of the ordinary with its designation if one compares the designation with designations for other subject areas.

Honors

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bible, Wolfgang. (1974). Programming in the language of predicate logic.
  2. ↑ Leonhard Wolfgang Bible: Reflections before reflexes - memoirs of a researcher . 1st edition. Cuvillier Verlag, Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-7369-9524-6 .
  3. ↑ a b Laudation on Wolfgang Bible on his 80th birthday by Wolfgang Wahlster
  4. ↑ Bible, Wolfgang. (2004). Intellect and computer science in concert of the sciences. 10.13140 / RG.2.2.31867.31520.
  5. ↑ Comments from EurAI on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Wolfgang Bibel
  6. ^ Bible, Wolfgang (December 1980). "" Intellect "instead of" AI "". Newsletter of the Artificial Intelligence Section in the Society for Computer Science : 15–16.
  7. ↑ GI selects ten formative minds and technologies in German AI research. Retrieved August 15, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Honorary Members. Retrieved May 21, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Bible, Wolfgang
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bible, Leonhard Wolfgang (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German computer scientist
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg , Germany