23.08.2024
Passau computer scientist wins international research competition again
After securing first place in the Student Research Competition (SRC) at the International Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD) 2023 in Seattle, Passau computer scientist Stefan Klessinger has now won the Grand Finals for PhD students. Since 2021, Klessinger has been working at the University of Passau at the Chair of Scalable Database Systems, headed by Professor Stefanie Scherzinger, where he conducts research on recognising structures in data.
PhD student Stefan Klessinger works at the Chair of Scalable Database Systems. Picture: Christian Haasz (werbeFOTO HAASZ)
"My research focuses on the automatic recognition of dependencies in semi-structured data," explains Klessinger. "These dependencies allow us to describe the structure of the data in a schema more precisely than existing approaches." The aim is to be able to determine the quality of the data in a dataset more accurately using more precise schemas. "In times of 'Big Data' and mass data processing, this is a central challenge."
His research bridges two areas that so far have been largely explored independently: the automatic recognition of certain structures in semi-structured data on the one hand and the automated recognition of dependencies (in structured data) on the other. Following his victory in the field-specific SIGMOD SRC 2023, Klessinger has now also secured first place in the interdisciplinary "Grand Finals" in the "Graduate Track" for PhD and master's students with this research.
Chair holder Prof. Dr. Stefanie Scherzinger commented: "I congratulate Mr. Klessinger on this achievement, and as his PhD supervisor, I am of course very proud that his research has been recognised in this way.".
About the "Student Research Competition Grand Finals"
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), one of the most important international scientific societies for computer science and the organiser of SIGMOD, one of the most important conferences on database research, holds the Student Research Competition (SRC) at numerous prominent conferences in the field of computer science. The SRC is divided into an "Undergraduate Track" for undergraduate students and a "Graduate Track" for PhD and master's students. The winners of each SRC track throughout the year compete in the "Grand Finals."
In this year's cycle, the SRC took place at 21 conferences, with over 320 participants, including students from top international universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Berkeley, ETH Zurich, and MIT. Stefan Klessinger is the first participant from a European university to win the Graduate Track of the SRC Grand Finals. At the Grand Finals, participants submit a five-page scientific paper, which is evaluated by a jury of international experts to determine the rankings for each track.
About Stefan Klessinger
Klessinger has been studying at the University of Passau since 2013. In 2019, he completed his Bachelor's degree in Internet Computing and subsequently his Master's degree in Computer Science. Since October 2021, he has been working as a research assistant at the Chair of Scalable Database Systems under Professor Stefanie Scherzinger.
Professor Stefanie Scherzinger
How to bring order to large data volumes?
How to bring order to large data volumes?
Professor Stefanie Scherzinger holds the Chair of Scalable Database Systems at the University of Passau. Passau is where she had studied Computer Science and embarked on her academic career. After gaining experience in the field as a software developer with IBM and Google, she was professor at OTH Regensburg for eight years before she was offered a position at the University of Passau in April 2020.
