Bayreuth Lectures
The University of Bayreuth is offering a new series of events: the Bayreuth Lectures. It is aimed at both students and the entire university public. The Bayreuth Lectures focus on current scientific topics in the fields of sustainability, philosophy of science, digital world, gender & diversity, and entrepreneurship & innovation. The speakers come to the University of Bayreuth at the invitation of Bayreuth researchers. It is planned to include the event series in the new Studium Generale concept.
Upcoming dates
How sustainability communication succeeds at the regional level
Monday, 17.11.2025: 6 - 8 p.m. | Location: University of Bayreuth, Lecture hall 15, NW I (campus map)
Speaker: Beatrice Dernbach (Research Chair for Sustainability and Science Communication at the Ohm University of Applied Sciences Nuremberg)
The 17 major sustainability goals set by the United Nations in 2015 have been broken down to the national and municipal levels. In many cases, they are reflected in sustainability reports or monitoring. Nevertheless, they have not yet consciously entered the everyday lives of many people, even though many already live in an ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable manner. To reinforce these effects, active communication and participation by all stakeholders is necessary. This perspective will be presented and discussed using the example of citizen workshops and future councils.
Organizer: Prof. Dr. Susanne Tittlbach
Previous events
Monday, 20.01.2025: 6 - 8 p.m. | Location: University of Bayreuth, Lecture hall 15, NW I (Campus map). The lecture will be held in English, but the subsequent discussion can also be held in German.
"Challenges and Opportunities in Human-AI Collaboration"
Jakob Schoeffer is an incoming assistant professor of responsible and explainable AI at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. His research focuses on how artificial intelligence can—and cannot—help humans make better and fairer decisions.
Human-AI collaboration seeks to combine the unique strengths of both humans and artificial intelligence, while mitigating their individual limitations. Typically, this involves AI systems providing decision recommendations, with humans retaining the ability to override them. A central goal is to ensure appropriate reliance, meaning that humans should only override AI recommendations when they are incorrect. However, existing research indicates that achieving this is difficult. In this talk, I will share findings from a large study on the effectiveness of popular explainable AI techniques designed to foster appropriate reliance. I will show that, in some cases, explainable AI can unintentionally influence human decision-making in ways that hinder appropriate reliance. Drawing from these results, I will discuss the current challenges in human-AI collaboration and explore potential strategies to address them.
Organizer: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Niklas Kühl
Monday, 17.06.2024: 6 - 8 p.m. | Location: University of Bayreuth, Lecture hall 15, NW I (Campus map)
"Intersectionality as a critical category of analysis and intervention"
Peggy Piesche is an Afro-German literary scholar and co-founder of ADEFRA. She works as head of department at the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
In her lecture, Peggy Piesche talks about intersectionality as a prism and method that focuses on the complex interaction of racism, sexism and classism. Intersectionality is a category of analysis, but also an intervention that not only looks at social processes, but also seeks to shape them. In her lecture, Peggy Piesche will discuss what this can offer for academic questions and professional practices.
Organizers: Prof Dr. Susan Arndt and Prof. Dr. Kristin Skottki
Thursday, 06.06.2024: 7 - 8.30 p.m. | Location: University of Bayreuth, Lecture hall H 36, NWIII (Campus map)
Prof. Dr. Sören Schöbel-Rutschmann: "Wind energy – actively shaping citizen participation and landscape" and Prof. Dr. Petra Hutner: "Renewable energies in rural areas – scope for action for local authorities"
The energy transition is a decisive lever on the road to climate neutrality. However, there are still challenges when it comes to implementation. As an architect, Sören Schöbel-Rutschmann specialises in regional open space structures and in particular the changes to the landscape caused by wind turbines. Public participation plays a decisive role when wind power projects are to be realised. In the second part of the event, Petra Hutner will look at renewable energies in rural areas. The opportunities and challenges for local authorities to ensure a sustainable energy supply will be focussed on.
This will be followed by a discussion and the opportunity to network. The presentations will also mark the start of this year's Spring Forum, which is being organised by forum1.5 at the University of Bayreuth.
Organizer: Prof. Dr. Manfred Miosga
Monday, 22.04.2024: 6-8 p.m. | Location: University of Bayreuth, Lecture hall 15, NW I (Campus map), English lecture, subsequent discussion in German and English language
"Explainable AI with Large Language Models: opportunities, challenges and risks"
Alberto Termine is a fixed-term research fellow (collaboratore scientifico) in machine learning at Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Lugano, Switzerland.
Artificial intelligence systems based on machine learning algorithms (ML models) are often presented as black boxes, which means that it is difficult for users to understand how and why they produce their outcomes. In literature, this is usually referred to as the black box problem. Resolving this problem constitutes the fundamental objective of the recently-born research programme of Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI). One major challenge in XAI involves formulating explanations of ML models' reasoning and outcomes that are understandable to users with limited expertise in AI and related fields. This challenge requires the development of XAI tools that can scrutinise the complex low-level and sub-symbolic inferences executed by an ML model and translate them into natural language explanations that non-expert users can easily read and grasp. Next-generation large language models (LLMs), in particular chatbots based on generative pre-trained transformers, e.g., OpenAI ChatGPT, seem to be particularly suitable for this task.
These models can be easily trained to recognize inferences made by black-box AI systems and explain them via natural language texts that are easily comprehensible to users. The quality of these explanations might also be improved through reinforcement learning mechanisms that leverage users’ feedback. However, the use of LLMs as XAI tools introduces unexpected risks and presents us with new challenges. Unlike conventional XAI techniques, LLMs themselves are equally, if not more, opaque than the ML models they should explain. This raises an additional “meta” black-box problem: how can one places trust in an explanation provided by an LLM-based XAI tool if one does not understand how this explanation has been generated?
In his lecture, Alberto Termine will explore more in-depth the challenges and risks raised by the use of LLMs for XAI purposes. He will particularly focus on the phenomenon of hallucination, i.e., the tendency of LLMs to produce explanations that seem reliable but, in reality, include a plethora of false and potentially misleading information. He will contend that hallucination severely undermines the reliability of LLMs as XAI tools, and that addressing this issue constitutes the primary challenge in the development of safe, fair, and trustworthy LLM-based XAI systems.
Organizers: Prof. Dr. Lena Kästner and Prof. Dr. Mirco Schönfeld
Monday, 6 November 2023: 6-8 p.m. | Location: University of Bayreuth, Lecture hall 15, NW I (Campus map), in German
„Nachhaltige Produktinnovationen, und Geschäftsmodelle“
Gründerin Romy Lindenberg von Shavent
Wie entwickelt man erfolgreich ein eigenes Produkt von der Idee bis zur Patentierung und zum Markteintritt? Wie überzeugt man in der „Höhle der Löwen“ Investoren? Wie kann sich ein nachhaltiges Startup gegenüber globalen Konzernen behaupten? Wie meistert man Herausforderungen im Alltag als Gründer*in?
Diese Fragen werden wir gemeinsam mit Gründerin Romy Lindenberg von Shavent diskutieren und herausfinden, wie sie einen plastikfreien Rasierer ohne Wechselklingeln entwickeln und patentieren konnten, wie sie prominente Investoren gewinnen konnten und wie man mit den Erfolgen und Herausforderungen einer Unternehmensgründung umgeht.
Organizers: Prof. Dr. Rebecca Preller and Prof. Dr. Eva Jakob
Monday, 12 June 2023: 6-8 p.m. | Location: University of Bayreuth, Lecture hall 15, NW I (Campus map), in German
„Enkelfähige Zukunft? Wie zwei Gründer*innen mit Urnen und Storytelling nachhaltig wirtschaften und wirken.“
Kristina Steinhauf von urnfold und Philipp Exler von ForStory
Philipp Exler (Ko-Gründer von forstory) und Kristina Steinhauf (Ko-Gründerin von urnfold) werden über ihre Erfahrungen in der Gründung berichten und wie sie dabei mit sozialen und ökologischen Herausforderungen umgehen. Philipp Exler wird darüber berichten wie forstory Filme erschafft, die vermitteln wie Organisationen eine zukunftsfähige Welt gestalten. Kristina Steinhauf wird davon erzählen, wie sie mit ihrer Ko-Gründerin dazugekommen ist, den Markt der Bestattung umzukrempeln und nachhaltige sowie individuelle Urnen erschafft. Im Anschluss gibt es eine Diskussionsrunde und die Möglichkeit, sich mit den Gründerinnen und Gründern sowie anderen Akteurinnen und Akteuren zu vernetzen. Freigetränke und Snacks sind inklusive, solange der Vorrat reicht. Die Anmeldung ist unter diesem Link möglich.
Organizers: Prof. Dr. Eva Jakob and Prof. Dr. Rebecca Preller
Monday, 15 May 2023: 6-8 p.m. | Location: University of Bayreuth, Lecture hall 15, NW I (Campus map), in German
"Dynamiken Sozialer Medien und ihre gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen"
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Pfeffer, Professur für Computational Social Science and Big Data, Technische Universität München
Täglich verwenden weltweit Milliarden Menschen soziale Medien, um sich mit Informationen zu versorgen und sich mit anderen Menschen zu vernetzen und auszutauschen. Gleichzeitig mehren sich aber die Anzeichen, dass diese Systeme auch negative Dynamiken hervorbringen und Fake News, Polarisierung und die Verbreitung von Hassnachrichten prägen die Auseinandersetzung auf Sozialen Plattformen. In diesem Vortrag werden wir die sozio-technischen Grundlagen von Dynamiken in sozialen Netzwerken erörtern und mögliche Lösungsansätze diskutieren, um deren negative Auswirkungen zu limitieren.
Organizer: Prof. Dr. Mirco Schönfeld
Monday, 07.07.2025: 6 - 8 p.m. | Location: University of Bayreuth, Lecture Hall 15, NW1 (Campus map)
"Changing sport to be sustainably fair"
with ZamBam Sports founder Frederik Hornung.
How can football be combined with sustainability? How to design products in a circular way, how to use bio-based materials and functions? How to change the production of sporting goods in a fair way and bring transparency to the supply chain through digitalisation? And how can we establish fair and innovative cooperation with production partners in Africa and Europe?
ZamBam Sports, a start-up founded by students, offers solutions to all of these challenges. Find out more about the example products shin guards and football at the Bayreuth Lectures on 7 July 2025.
Organizer: Prof. Dr. Rebecca Preller