Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gramelsberger, Aachen
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The Computational Science Studies (CSS) was founded in 2018 with support of the Stifterverband (Digital Fellowship 2017) and the RWTH Aachen University. It is devoted to Philosophy of Computational Sciences as well as Computational Science Studies. The CSS-Lab is located at the RWTH Chair of Theory of Science and Technology.
»RWTH Computational Science Studies Lab (CSS-Lab) (external link)
Digital Transformation of Science
- Research mission: For decades now, computer-based modelling and simulation have expanded the methods of science. Today, computational departments complement their experimental and theoretical counterparts. In recent years, big data analytics and artificial intelligence, in particular machine learning, have propelled the digital transformation of science and technology. Thus, knowledge production in science and technology development have changed tremendously. Understanding these shifts is our concern.
- Research questions: The CSS Lab explores the ongoing shift from science to computational sciences. Rooted in philosophy of science and technology, the CSS Lab focuses on understanding the transformative power of digitalization for science and technology. How do scientific concepts and practices change? How are computational sciences informed by new forms of knowledge production such as computer-based simulation and machine-learning methods? How reliable, comprehensible, and reproducible are the results of computational sciences?
- Research methods: Many more questions can be posed, but what is required are methods for exploring new research methods to preserve access to the sciences as they vanish into the computer and algorithms. The CSS Lab is building an infrastructure for conducting Computational Science Studies (CSS). It explores traditional Philosophy of Science methods such as concept analysis and logical reconstruction of theories, but also Science and Technology Studies methods such as interviews, participatory observation, and text analysis for case studies. However, the main focus is on the investigation of new methods such as code and programming studies. In the process, software tools are developed in order to support Computational Science Studies.
Software Tools Development
The CSS Lab intends to establish an open science infrastructure for Computational Science Studies. We are programming software tools designed to facilitate case studies on computational sciences in the subfield of code studies. Our tools fulfil three demands:
- The CSS Tools visualize software structures in order to better analyse them;
- The CSS Tools help to conduct code genealogies as well as code comparisons;
- The CSS Tools help to analyse the scientific content of software projects.
The last of these, in particular, is an entirely new demand resulting from the requirements of conducting Computational Science Studies. However, it is not easy to extract the scientific content of software projects such as scientific models, scientific data analysis algorithms, and measurement procedures. Therefore, we are developing methods to perform scientific content analysis.
We are currently developing three tools:
- ICE Isomorphic Comment Extractor: The ICE visualizes comments for the most common programming languages such as Python, C/C++, Fortran, etc. It extracts the comments of a software project and links the comments to the code. It is rooted in the isomorphic basis of all our tools, which represents and depicts the file structure of a software project in isomorphic form.
Status: Under construction
- ICA Isomorphic Class Analyzer: The ICE visualizes the class structure of an object-oriented programmed software project. It shows the genealogy of class construction based on Git, as well as the software project's heredity of classes. The ICA tool is currently being tested using the astrophysics machine learning code to detect double-peak emission line galaxies in the SDSS catalogue written by Daniel Maschmann, CSS-Lab and Sorbonne Université, LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL research university, CNRS.
Status: Under construction.
- RCA Retrospective Code Analysis: The RCA will separate scientific code from technical code in order to ease scientific code studies. We are developing the RCA tool together with the RWTH Chair of Software Engineering. The prototype will be applied to the GemPy Software - Open-source 3D geological modeling and machine learning of the RWTH Chair of Computational Geoscience and Reservoir Engineering. The collaborative research project is funded by the DFG (2021-2024). It combines two PhD projects, one from software engineering and one from philosophy of science. The latter aims at developing a "Philosophy of (Digital) Geology."
Status: Concept phase.
CSS-Lab Projects
- Philosophy of (Digital) Geology, DFG (2021-2024)
While classical geology is a hermeneutic-historical as well as empirical-descriptive science, digital geology is a model-based, predictive science. The project will explore the methodological and the epistemic transformations from classical to digital geology.
Collaborators: Bernhard Rumpe, RWTH Software Engineering; Florian Wellmann, RWTH Computational Geoscience and Reservoir Engineering; RWTH CSS-Lab.
- Automated Reasoning, RWTH CSS Lab (PostDoc project of Daniel Wenz since 2018)
How does algorithmic thinking change mathematical thinking?
- Mind the Game!, Volkswagen Foundation (2019-2022)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominates the discourse on future society. While most of the smart cars, robots, and algorithms discussed by the broader public have yet to be developed in academic and industrial labs, the massive exposure of users to AI in computer games is part of everyday experience for millions. Thus, our main hypothesis is that AI is not a future technology, but has long since invaded the living rooms of our society, opening up an unexplored 'sociointelligent space'. Mind the Game! explores this socio-intelligent space of AI in games that interact with users theoretically, empirically, and technologically.
Collaborators: Markus Rautzenberg (PI), Folkwang University of the Arts; Gabriele Gramelsberger (Co-PI), RWTH CSS-Lab; Serjoscha Wiemer, University of Paderborn; Dr. Matthias Fuchs, Leuphana University Lüneburg; Kay Bennemann, Ubisoft Blue Byte Düsseldorf.
- Society after Money. A Simulation, Volkswagen Foundation (2019-2022)
Can we simulate post-monetary, or even non-monetary economies? Research on the commons has particularly inspired our approach to a society after money. Elinor Ostrom's Nobel Prize for Economics in 2009 made clear that commons economies are possible, albeit locally restricted. Using agent-based modelling, we are experimenting with scaling up such local commons economies. This international research group of media scientists, economists and philosophers explores the collision of digital technology with the entity money.
Collaborators: Jens Schrötter (PI) and Hanno Pahl, University of Bonn; Manuel Scholz Wätckerle, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business; Stefan Meretz, Commons-Institute Bonn; Tobias Dumschat, RWTH CSS-Lab.
- Biological Transformation of Technical Systems utilizing Antifragility Management, RWTH ERS Seed Funds DFG Initiative of Excellence (2020-2021)
Antifragility differs from the concepts of resiliency (ability to recover from failure) and robustness (ability to resist failure). It can be observed in Nature as the increase in capability to thrive as a result of stressors, e.g., shocks, noise, faults. Together with production engineers and bio technology scientists we explored the possibility of transferring antifragile mechanisms from biology to engineering.
Collaborators: Daniel Trauth, Marco Becker and Thomas Bergs, RWTH Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering; Ulrich Schwaneberg, Mehdi Davari, Tetiana Kurkin, RWTH Institute for Biotechnology; Dawid Kasprowicz, RWTH CSS-Lab.
- Neuro Modelling Talk, RWTH ERS Seed Funds within the DFG Initiative of Excellence (2019-2020)
Together with computational neuro scientists we developed the basis for a graphical notation for computational modeling in neuro science to tackle the complexity barrier.
Collaborators: Johanna Senk, Sacha van Albada, Tom Tetzlaff and Markus Diesmann, Institute of Computational and Systems Neuroscience (INM-6) at the Research Center Jülich; Lisa Schüttler, RWTH CSS-Lab.
- Digital Literacy, RWTH ETS Seed Funds DFG Initiative of Excellence(2019-2020)
Together with educational scientists and engineers we explored the digital literacy of researchers, lecturers and students in mechanical engineering based on interviews. The aim was to develop a digital literacy indicator for teaching in engineering.
Collaborators: Ilona Cwielong, RWTH Institute of Educational Science; Malte Persike, RWTH CLS Center für Lehr- und Lernservices; RWTH Faculty of Mechanical Engineering; Gabriele Gramelsberger, RWTH CSS-Lab.
CSS-Lab Publications and Conference Papers
Lisa Schüttler, Dawid Kasprowicz, Gabriele Gramelsberger (2019): "Computational Science Studies. A Tool-Based Methodology for Studying Code", in: Günter Getzinger, Michaela Jahrbacher (eds.): Critical Issues in Science, Technology, and Society Studies, (Conference Proceedings STS Conference Graz 2019), Graz: Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 385-401. »Computational Science Studies (open access)
Daniel Maschmann, Anne-Laure Melchior, Gary A. Mamon, Igor V. Chilingarian, Ivan Yu. Katkov (2020): "Double-peak emission line galaxies in the SDSS catalogue. A minor merger sequence", in: Astronomy & Astrophysics 641, A171. »Double-peak emission line galaxies (open access)
Conference Papers:
- Lisa Schüttler, Birgit Kriener, Hannah Bos, Hans Ekkehard Plesser, Marc-Oliver Gewaltig, Mikael Djurfeldt, Nicole Voges, Sacha van Albada, Markus Diesmann, Gabriele Gramelsberger (2020): "NeuroModelingTalk (NMT). Approaching the complexity barrier in neuroscientific modeling", poster presentation at RWTH transparent, Aachen, 31.10202.
- Birgit Kriener, Nicole Voges, Lisa Schüttler, Gabriele Gramelsberger, Hans Ekkehard Plesser, Hans Ekkehard Diesmann, Sacha van Albada: "Systematic textual and graphical description of connectivity", poster presentation at the Bernstein Conference 2020, online (online), 29.9.-1.10.2020.
- Dawid Kasprowicz: "Von der Syntax zur Semantik. ICE-Tools für Programmcodes in den Wissenschaften", DFG Symposium Digitalität in den Geisteswissenschaften, Leuphana University Luneburg, 21 November 2019. Publication: Schüttler, Kasprowicz, Gramelsberger 2019.
- Gabriele Gramelsberger, Dawid Kasprowicz: "Computational Science Studies. Software-Tools for Philosophers", Colloquium Colloquium of the RUST Lab, Ruhr University Bochum, 28 November 2019.
- Lisa Schüttler, Dawid Kasprowicz: "Coding, Valuing and Knowing: Intersections in the Practice of Programming", Conference Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies, Technical University of Graz, 6 to 7 May 2019.
- Gabriele Gramelsberger: "Philosophy of Computational Sciences", Conference on Computational Engineering, Technical University Darmstadt, 8 April 2019.
- Gabriele Gramelsberger: "Mark-up languages as tools for standardizing modeling in science", Workshop Philosophy and Technologies for Simulation, Politecnico di Milano, 22 to 23 November 2018. Publication: Gabriele Gramelsberger (2020): "Emotion Mark-up Language - Die Maschinenlesbarkeit menschlicher Expressivität", in: Martina Hessler (ed.): Technikemotionen, Paderborn: Schöningh, 385-397.
- Gabriele Gramelsberger: "Base-calling Algorithmen. Epistemische Folgen der Automatisierung der Gensequenzierung in den 1970ern und 1980ern auf den Gen-Begriff", Workshop Algorithmische Wissenskulturen? Der Einfluss des Computers auf die Wissenschaftsentwicklung, Deutsches Museum München, 12 to 14 October 2017. Publication: Gabriele Gramelsberger (2017): "Big Data-Revolution oder Datenhybris? Überlegungen zum Datenpositivismus der Molekularbiologie", in: NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin, 25(4), 1-25.
CSS/HLRS Colloquium on "Philosophy of Computational Science"
Conjoint colloquium of the RWTH CSS-Lab together with the Philosophy of Science & Technology of Computer Simulation Department (headed by Andreas Kaminski) of the High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS). The colloquium takes place on Thursdays during the lecture period from 3 to 6 p.m., in case of guest lectures (events) from 4 to 6 p.m. Location: Online via Zoom.
Selected colloquium talks:
- "Cultivating epistemic routines for navigating toxic epistemic environments", Axel Gelfert, TU Berlin
- "Ampliative Deductive Proof in Mathematical Practice: Lessons from Kant and Frege", Danielle Macbeth, Haverford College
- "The optimist, the curious and the sceptic: Three earth scientist perspectives on machine learning", Uwe Ehret, Erwin Zehe, Jan Cermat, all Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
- "Kant's Cognitive Architecture", Richard Evans, Imperial College London/Google Deep Mind
- "How to Model Artificial Sociality: A Proposal", Johanna Seibt, Aarhus University
- "Fairness in Machine Learning", Samira Samadi, MPI for Intelligent Systems Tübingen
- "Explainable Artificial Intelligence and the Problems of Philosophy", Carlos Zednik, TU Eindhoven
- "The status and limits of scientific learning by machine", Ben Jantzen, Virginia Tech
CSS-Lab Workshops
- Workshop "Operator & User Empowerment in Times of AI", 9. July 2020, Interactive Virtual Online Workshop (Frank Piller, Gabriele Gramelsberger and Thomas Bergs, RWTH ProdE)
- Workshop "Modeling Trust in AI. An AI lie detector (iBorderCtrl)", 26. June 2020, Andreas Kaminiski, HLRS Stuttgart, Keeley Crockett, Computational Intelligence Lab at University of Manchester, James O'Shea, Computational Intelligence Lab at University of Manchester, Bernd Lahno, University of Konstanz
- Summer School "Infrastructures of Science", 15.-19. July 2019, IDEA League Summer School 2019 (organized by Gabriele Gramelsberger, RWTH CSS-Lab, together with the Chair for History of Technology at the ETH Zurich)
- Workshop "Embodied AI / Exbodied Mind", 4.-5. July 2019, Jaana Parvianien, University of Helsinki, Leon de Bruin, Universities of Nijmegen and Amsterdam, Irene Mittelberg, RWTH Aachen University, Alexander Gerner, University of Lissabon, Philipp Wicke, University of Dublin, Dawid Kasprowicz, RWTH CSS-Lab
- Workshop "Machine Learning in Research", 16. May 2019, RWTH Physics, RWTH Cognitive Robotics, RWTH Cybernetics Lab IMA, RWTH Computational Geoscience and Reservoir Engineering, RWTH CSS-Lab
- Workshop "Many Faces of Logic", 19.-20. November 2018, Prof. Johan van Benthem, Universities of Amsterdam/Stanford/Tsinghua and RWTH CSS-Lab
- Workshop "Code Studies", 14. December 2018, Daniela Zetti, ETH Zurich, Ricky Wichum, ETH Zurich, Dawid Kasprowicz, RWTH Aachen University, Gabriele Gramelsberger, RWTH CSS-Lab
- Workshop "Digital Humanities. Zukunft der Geisteswissenschaften?", 15. December 2017, Petra Gehring, TU Darmstadt, Erich Steiner, University of the Saarland, RWTH CSS-Lab
For further information: »RWTH Computational Science Studies Lab (CSS-Lab) (external link)