The Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS gGmbH) was established in 2010 by SAP co-founder Klaus Tschira through his foundation, the “Klaus Tschira Stiftung”, as a private, non-profit research institute. HITS conducts basic research involving the processing structuring and analysis of large amounts of data in the natural sciences, mathematics and computer science. The research topics range from molecular biology to astrophysics. Shareholders of HITS are the “HITS-Stiftung”, Heidelberg University and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). HITS cooperates with universities and research institutes, as well as with industrial partners. The prime external funding sources are the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the German Research Foundation and the European Union.
Research groups
At the moment, HITS comprises following research groups:
The junior group Astroinformatics was founded 2013 at HITS to develop new approaches to analyze and process the increasing amount of data in astronomy. The approaches of this group are based on machine/statistical learning and assist the researchers in performing the required analyses.
The Computational Biology (CBI) group works at the interface between computer science, mathematics and the biological sciences. The research focuses on the computational and algorithmic foundations of genome biology.
The CST group works on mathematical foundations and statistical methodology for forecasting. The aim is to develop methods for probabilistic forecasts, to generate predictive probability distributions for future events and quantities. For example, probabilistic forecasts are used in weather prediction and economics. The group’s second research focus is on spatial statistics, which is concerned with the analysis and interpretation of spatially distributed data.
The research group DMQ makes use of state-of-the-art technology from the fields of High Performance Computing and Uncertainty Quantification in order to quantify uncertainties in large data sets towards reliable insights in Data Mining.
The research group “Groups and Geometry” investigates various mathematical problems in the fields of geometry and topology, which involve the interplay between geometric spaces, such as Riemannian manifolds or metric spaces, and groups, arising for example from symmetries, acting on them.
The HAC research group investigates the impact of cosmic rays on galaxy and cluster formation by modelling the underlying physics of cosmic rays, magnetic fields, and plasma waves in great detail.
This group develops simulation techniques and continuum mechanics models for identifying the force-bearing structural elements in complex biological materials and for modifying them so that they have certain desired properties. The overall goal is to investigate how proteins respond to mechanical forces and why.
With computer-aided methods and software tools, the group detects and simulates the behavior of molecules. Furthermore, they develop interactive web-based visualization tools and applications for complex molecular simulations.
The research focus lies on the semantics and pragmatics of discourse. The group develops software facilitating the multimodal dialogue between users and machines. The aim is to use the computer for understanding and generating language and texts and to make use of computers more naturally in the long term.
The research group "Physics of Stellar Objects" is conducting research on stars and stellar explosions. One of the main goals of the group is to simulate thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs, which lead to Type Ia supernovae.
The Scientific Computing (SCO) group develops methods, new software, and new computer architectures for computing phylogenies (evolutionary trees). Furthermore, it provides expertise in parallel computing and computer architecture to other research groups. It also maintains and operates the scientific computing cluster and the IT infrastructure at HITS.
The SDBV group focuses on scientific databases and on the visualization of scientific data. The objective is to consolidate knowledge scattered all over the world and to make it easily accessible to scientists.
With numeric simulations, the TAP research group investigates the Universe. The research focus is on the formation and evolution of galaxies, supermassive black holes, stars, and planets.