Data Science Day 2026
Date: May 6, 2026
Time: 1:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Location: Auditorium, Main Building, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Fürstengraben 1, 07743 Jena
Registration: https://indico.rz.uni-jena.de/e/dsdj2026
Welcome to the Data Science Day Jena 2026!
Organized by the Interactive Inference Project at the Institute of Computer Science, this event brings together data science professionals from academia and industry for a day of exchange, inspiration, and collaboration.
The Data Science Day aims to create a space for sharing knowledge, presenting innovative approaches, and discussing current challenges and opportunities in data science.
What to Expect
- Expert Talks – Insights from leading voices in the field
- Company Exhibition – An overview of new developments and solutions from industry
- Networking – Opportunities to connect with professionals across disciplines
The event is designed for a broad audience, including practitioners, researchers, educators, and decision-makers from development, management, science, and education.
Thanks to the generous support of the Gerlind & Ernst Denert Foundation and the Carl Zeiss Foundation, Data Science Day Jena 2026 is free of charge for all participants, including companies and poster presenters.
Program
13:00 – 13:05
Welcome
Joachim Giesen
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
13:05 – 14:00
Keynote (TBA)
Sören Laue
University of Hamburg
14:00 – 14:45
Company Exhibition
Participating Companies
- Jena Digital
- Accenture Technology Solutions GmbH
- INTERSHOP Communications AG
- d-fine GmbH
- Spleenlab GmbH
- dotSource SE
- Inverso GmbH
14:45 – 15:10
Diversifying the R Ecosystem – New Approaches for Package Binaries & Content Publishing
Patrick Schratz
devXY, Switzerland
Abstract: Patrick’s talk explores the motivation behind rpkgs.com, a new open-source approach for building architecture-agnostic R package binaries on Linux (including Alpine). He also demonstrates how these are integrated into ricochet (ricochet.rs), a new app for publishing static and dynamic content for R, Python, and Julia.
15:10 – 15:35
Data-driven Digital Evolution of Modern Laboratories
Marta Dembska
German Aerospace Center
15:35 – 16:00
Applied Data Science in Software Consulting: Trench Detection and Location Clustering
Sebastian Wuttke & Paul Kahlmeyer
TNG Technology Consulting
Abstract: Software consulting presents unique data science challenges where problems often lack the precise formulations common in academic settings. This talk presents two case studies from TNG that demonstrate how practical solutions emerge through domain-driven problem structuring.
The first case addresses trench path extraction from large-scale LIDAR point cloud data for an infrastructure project. Without an explicit mathematical model for trench detection, the approach relies on geometric assumptions such as elevation contrast, local density, linearity, and global tree topology. These are translated into a robust processing pipeline that operates within strict runtime constraints.
The second case tackles venue optimization for a distributed workforce, examining Affinity Propagation, the metric k-Median problem, and strategic search space reduction. Together, these examples highlight a key insight from applied data science: effective solutions often emerge not from optimizing predefined objectives, but from carefully introducing domain-specific structure to complex, ambiguous problems.
16:00 – 16:45
Company Exhibition
16:45 – 17:30
Capstone (TBA)
Thomas Wolfers
Friedrich Schiller University Jena / University of Tübingen
17:30 – 19:30
Get-together
Snacks and drinks
