Jackob Kauffmann on Føya, Tromsø
Image:
private

Jackob Kauffmann on Føya, Tromsø

Jacob Kauffmann research stay at Visual intelligence

Jacob Kauffmann, PhD student at the Machine Learning group at Technical University of Berlin, was a guest scientist at Visual Intelligence, UiT July-October 2023.

Jacob Kauffmann research stay at the Machine learning group at UiT and Visual intelligence

Jacob Kauffmann, PhD student at the Machine Learning group at Technical University of Berlin. Guest at Visual Intelligence, UiT July-October 2023.

Why did you choose Tromsø and Visual Intelligence for your reteach stay?

I visited the UiT Machine Learning group near the end of my doctorate, coming from the Technical University of Berlin. I met Michael during his research stay at TU Berlin in 2019. At the time, I was working on a framework for explainable clustering and valued his expertise in both clustering and explainable AI. At the end of his stay, he invited us to visit his group at UiT and I have stuck with the idea. The plan finally came together in the summer of 2023 and we arranged a visit from July to October.

What was the outcome of your stay?

My time at the Machine Learning group was very rewarding. I gained knowledge in clustering and identifying unique cluster characteristics. Michael and Ahcène shared their experience and provided advice. Their insights offered perspectives I could not have gained elsewhere. We started by comparing activation-maximization, relevance propagation and the reconstruction of a decoder. Our observations suggest that cluster characterization can offer insights that go beyond label accuracy. I look forward to continuing this research after my stay.

The VI Days 2023 near Oslo were a particular highlight. I enjoyed attending the VIGS event, to which I was invited. Robert gave me the chance to display a poster at VI Days, leading to a collaboration with Suaiba on disentangled explanations for mammography classification. It is well-known that classifiers tend to use statistical cues, and disentangling explanations can potentially decouple the main signal from such cues.

How was life in Tromsø?

Outside of research, a climbing session at the Klatresenter with Eirik and Teddy offered a pleasant break and the chance to connect on a personal level. I also had the opportunity to witness Tromsø in autumn — a particularly captivating experience that I wouldn't want to miss.

I am thankful to the researchers in the Machine Learning group for their warm hospitality and look forward to continuing the collaborations.

Latest news

Nordlys: Her blir KI-studentene grillet av sin «egen» teknologi

March 24, 2026

Tre av studentene i sivilingeniør i Kunstig Intelligens ved UiT skal delta i NM i KI. Slik gikk det da de ble intervjuet ved hjelp av kunstig intelligens (News article on nordlys.no).

My Research Stay at Visual Intelligence: Rami Al-Belmpeisi

March 15, 2026

Rami Al-Belmpeisi is a PhD Research Fellow in the Visual Computing section at DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark. He visited Visual Intelligence in Tromsø from November 2025 to February 2026.

Visual Intelligence inspires future students at the UiT Open Day

March 12, 2026

Visual Intelligence researchers came to the UiT Open Day to inform the students about UiT's study programme, and inspire them to pursue AI-related studies and career paths.

Dagsavisen: Hun lærer kunstig intelligens å forstå medisinske bilder

March 4, 2026

Elisabeth Wetzer forsker på hvordan maskiner kan lære å analysere medisinske bilder – og samtidig forstå hva legene faktisk ser etter (Norwegian news article on dagsavisen.no)

My Research Stay at Visual Intelligence: Artur Radzivil

February 12, 2026

Artur Radzivil is a PhD Research Fellow at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. He visited Visual Intelligence in Oslo from September to November 2025.

Centre Director Robert Jenssen meets Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education, Sigrun Aasland

February 6, 2026

Centre Director Robert Jenssen met with Sigrun Aasland, Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education, alongside UiT and Aker Nscale representatives to give an update on Aker Nscale's AI Giga Factory in Narvik, Norway.

Visual Intelligence represented at Arctic Frontiers 2026

February 4, 2026

Visual Intelligence was represented by Centre Director Robert Jenssen, Associate Professor Kristoffer Wickstrøm, and VI Alumna Sara Björk at the Arctic Frontiers side session "How can AI and satellite collaboration strengthen Arctic resilience?".

Petter Tømmeraas visits Visual Intelligence in Tromsø

February 3, 2026

Petter Tømmeraas, Director of Data Center Services at Aker Nscale, visited SFI Visual Intelligence to learn more about our research projects and AI startups established by former UiT students.

NLDL 2026 was a great success!

January 12, 2026

Attracting 280 international AI researchers, the Northern Lights Deep Learning Conference (NLDL) 2026 was successfully organized from January 5th to 9th 2026 at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, Norway.