Research Clusters

CITEC

Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology

Everything from everyday appliances to robots: researchers at the Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) at Bielefeld University develop technical systems that are intuitive and easy to operate for human users. Future technology should adapt to the human user - not the other way around.

Since 2007, researchers have been investigating the scientific principles necessary for endowing machines with cognitive and cooperative abilities. These machines should be able to interact naturally with people and adjust to changing situations, interaction partners, roles, tasks, and conditions. CITEC’s research on the basic principles of cognitive interaction technology helps to develop a deeper understanding of such systems and has been essential in establishing the corresponding research field.

More precisely, CITEC aims to investigate the overarching research topic of ‘Human-Aware Cognitive Systems in Open Worlds’ in interdisciplinary collaboration. To this end, research in five key areas is conducted: Learning in Interaction, Multimodal Cognition & Communication, Socially Intelligent Agents, Trustworthy & Sustainable AI, and Embodied Cooperative Systems. Further, a link between fundamental research and its practical application is established in designated Innovation Labs: the CoR-Lab investigates innovative applications in the field of human-centered automation, while the COSY@Home-Lab focuses on innovations in the home environment.

With around 230 members from 29 research groups, CITEC links six faculties at Bielefeld University: Biology, Linguistics and Literary Studies, Mathematics, Medicine, Psychology and Sports Science, as well as the Faculty of Technology.

CITEC is firmly anchored in renowned research alliances both nationally (Jaii, it's OWL, CoAI JRC), and internationally (e.g. Osaka University, Istituto Italiano de Tecnologia (IIT) Genova, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Indiana University Bloomington, InterACT network). Further, CITEC collaborates with strategic partners from industry, economy and social welfare and health care like the v. Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel, Miele, and the Honda Research Institute.

The research center was funded by the state and federal governments and was part of the Excellence Initiative of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) from 2007 to 2019. Today, it is a central academic institute of Bielefeld University.