WiDS Regensburg 2023

10:00 am: Opening Remarks

10:30 am: Explaining the story behind data with Causal Inference by Clara Cullmann-Petroll (e:fs TechHub GmbH)

Structural causal models (SCMs) and causal inference offer a transparent way to model data-generating processes. Together with counterfactual queries, it is possible to explain complex systems. Learning SCMs from purely observational data has theoretical limitations and to obtain a more reliable model, both expert knowledge and interventional data can be incorporated. This talk focuses on an industry point of view on modeling SCMs, causal inference methods and how they can be applied in real-world problems in order to ensure the safety of systems.

11:00 am: Revolutionizing Design of Experiments using Bayesian Optimization by Dr. Lavinia Israel (ams OSRAM)

Bayesian optimization is a sequential strategy to optimize objective functions that are unknown and expensive to evaluate. It builds a surrogate model – usually a Gaussian process – for the objective and quantifies the uncertainty in that surrogate. It then uses an acquisition function defined from this surrogate model to decide where to evaluate next. At ams OSRAM we have many processes where process parameters need to be optimized to improve quality and efficiency. These processes do not have a functional representation and in general evaluations (= measurements) are expensive and time-consuming. The well-established method Design of Experiments has some drawbacks which we try to overcome by using Bayesian Optimization. In first projects we showed that we achieve optimal results with very few measurements.

11:30 am: Coffee break

11:45 am: Easily build machine learning applications using Gradio by Merve Noyan (Hugging Face)

Libraries like Gradio make it very easy to build UIs and serve it in minutes. It’s a library one can use to build interfaces to their data or ML apps using already existing input-output components and more. It reduces workload of data professionals that want to showcase their work with a neat UI, leaving them more time to improve their model or analysis. In this demo, I will walk the audience through how to easily build and demo machine learning applications using Gradio.

12:30 pm: Possibilities and limits of telepresence robotics and teletherapy in the context of the digital divide in society by Prof. Dr. Sonja Haug (OTH Regensburg)

The digital divide means that parts of the population are more or less included or excluded when areas of society become increasingly digitized. In the healthcare sector, digitization has not progressed very far in Germany; however, digitization is currently being increasingly discussed and promoted here as well. The paper presents results of a study in which patients with stroke test the possibility of additional care and therapy applications with a telepresence robot and therapy apps. Measures of technology affinity, technology competence, technology use, and technology acceptance among elderly and stroke patients are presented. Comparative information is also provided on other stakeholders such as relatives and therapy staff. The digital divide is considered based on differences in technology acceptance by age, gender, and education level. Chances and limitations of telepresence robotics and teletherapy are discussed against the background of societal developments, such as urban-rural differences.

1:00 pm: Lunch break