Meet people at II - Sergej Stoppel

That is a part of what Sergej's research is about. To put it simple, he teach computers to understand what you want to do and the computer helps you to achieve the goals. Also he teach a robot to draw your portrait!

Sergej chose to apply for a position here at Department of Informatics because he sees the visualization research group in Bergen as one of the strongest in the world, while being so small. Experiencing a new culture for a few years is also something he wanted to do. 

Sergej studied mathematics in Berlin before he came to UiB. Initially he specialized in Infinite dimensional dynamics but he dropped the almost finished thesis and started a new one in visualization after an introduction course in that topic.

- What is the essence of your PhD project? - My thesis can be described with two words, interaction and aesthetics. I develop interaction techniques that understand what the user wants and take care of those needs for the user or make the interactions simpler and faster. Many of my algorithms are designed for non expert users, so that complex tasks could be performed without or with minimal training. The aesthetics part is rather a hobby that became a part of my PhD. I started experimenting with a plotter and now I develop algorithms that allow the plotter to draw in various styles.

- What is the best about being here? - I enjoy the support of the university to be able to travel. As a young researcher it is important to develop an international network. This is possible to do at UIB because we have the financial support to travel to some conferences even without a paper presentation.

- Any “culture-shock- experiences” you would like to share? - Coming from Germany the beer prices took me hard by surprise.

You can see and hear Sergej tell about his research in the video.