Michaela Kümpel

Research Staff

Tel: –49 -421 218 64021
Fax: –49 -421 218 64047
Room: TAB 1.79
Mail: michaela[dot]kuempel(at)cs[dot]uni-bremen[dot]de

Since 2020 I am a PhD student of the IAI group under supervision of Prof. Michael Beetz. My research focuses on creating actionable knowledge graphs, i.e. creating knowledge graphs from Web information and grounding the contained knowledge in the real world to make it actionable for users, and robots. I joined the team of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence in 2017 as a research associate and to get a specialised Master degree in the area of AI. Previously, I received a degree as Master of Science in Management Information Systems at the University of South Florida, US where I specialised in statistics and data mining as well after receiving my Bachelor of Science in Information Systems at the University of Osnabrueck, Germany.

I'm also a mother of three and part of the women's representative collective of the computer science department (Frauenbeauftragtenkollektiv des FB3).

My main research interests are
- Web Information Extraction, Knowledge acquisition and processing
- Knowledge Representation using Knowledge Graphs, the Semantic Web, Linked Open Data and connecting it to the KnowRob knowledge processing framework
- Task Parameterisation for flexible action execution on robots
- AR applications. I am developing HoloLens and Smartphone applications in different environments to showcase the use of web-based knowledge sources
- Machine Learning and Data Mining

News, talks and events

  • Our Tutorial proposal at HHAI 2024 for a Hands-On Tutorial to showcase how to extract relevant knowledge for robot action execution and how to use this knowledge to parameterise general robot action plans has been accepted!
  • Our workshop proposal for the “Workshop on Actionable Knowledge Representation and Reasoning for Robots (AKR^3)” at the Extended Semantic Web Conference 2024 got accepted! The Workshop information is accessible here: AKR^3 workshop page
  • Our cutting repository is online and ready to be used! Its openly available on github where you get access to all sources from executing actions on the real robot, querying the knowledge graph to simulation or simply trying out the querying on the fly, on the website. You can find it here: Food cutting on GitHub
  • Both papers “Trust, But Verify: Towards Trustworthiness in Digital Assistants Based on Verifiable Claims in Knowledge Graphs” (where we propose a setup for users to retrieve a trustworthiness recommendation for visualised AR content) and “Evaluation of Autonomous Shopping Assistants Using Semantic Digital Twin Stores” (where we evaluated the Shopping Assistant system proposed in the AAMAS paper) got accepted to the AIC workshop and we will present them on September 15
  • My ProductKG paper got accepted to the FOIS demonstration track. I will present the paper at FOIS virtually on September 18. In this paper I present my product knowledge graph and its many applications.
  • We are currently working on a KnowRob package as plugin for knowledge graphs (GitHub page for KnowRob_KG)
  • My colleague Daniel Bessler was so nice to present our AAMAS paper this year “Robotic Shopping Assistance for Everyone: Dynamic Query Generation on a Semantic Digital Twin as a Basis for Autonomous Shopping Assistance” (see publications list below). In the paper we present an architecture and a query template that can be used by different agents (such as robot or smartphone)for shopping assistance
  • Due to an accident and breaking my wrist I have to take a break from work (starting May 2023, probably taking about 12 weeks)
  • My ProductKG web page and application page are online: ProductKG, ProductKG Application page
  • We are starting a school project in close collaboration with the Gymnasium am Markt Achim. The school kids in grade 5 will read a book about our work in school, visit our labs to then present what they learned about robots. We are hoping to spark interest in research and in AI but also like to know what children views on AI topics are.
  • I joined the Intel4CoRo project. Looking forward to writing a great open textbook and creating lots of interactive content!
  • Our paper “The Downgrading Axioms Challenge for Qualitative Composition of Food Ingredients” got accepted at the Semantic Reasoning Evaluation Challenge
  • Our paper “Cutting Events: Towards Autonomous Plan Adaption by Robotic Agents through Image-Schematic Event Segmentation” got accepted to K-CAP where Maria and I will present it virtually. In this paper we showed how robots can adapt their plans autonomously in case of different failures (e.g. like the knife being dull)
  • Our book chapter “Semantic Digital Twins for Retail Logistics” got published. Here, we present our view of how digitisation in retail can easily be integrated in companies when using semantic Digital Twins of retail stores.
  • The Knowledge4Retail website is available online at K4R website
  • Our paper “Using Linked Data to Help Robots Understand Product-related Actions” got accepted to the Robontics workshop. The paper presents the idea to use Linked Data as a knowledge source for robotic action execution.
  • I joined the Knowledge4Retail project. I am looking forward to creating semantic Digital Twins of retail environments and showcasing their benefits in pilot applications.

Projects

  • WebKat-MealRobot - our meal preparation repository where you can find all necessary tools and interfaces for cutting (and performing task variations of cutting) food with robots. Soon, there will also be repositories for pouring liquids, and other actions. So stay tuned.
  • ProductKG - my product knowledge graph with API to different ontologies for consumer and robot applications in retail environments
  • ProductKG Application page - my product knowledge graph application page with different applications like a Sparklis webpage to query the knowledge graph and NutrOn, a nutritional support website for consumers
  • IntEL4CoRo BMBF project: Developing an integrated learning environment for cognitive robotics
  • Knowledge 4 Retail BMWi project: My focus in this project is the creation of Knowledge Graphs and their interfaces for retail applications
  • EASE DFG CRC: My focus in this project is the connection of robots to Semantic Web sources like wikidata for household applications

Teaching

  • Lecturer of Course at Informatica Feminale “Creating Actionable Knowledge Graphs for Agent Applications”, August 2024
  • Tutorial at HHAI Conference “Accessing Web Knowledge & Knowledge Graphs for Action Parameterisation”, June 2024
  • Tutorial at ESWC Conference “Accessing Web Knowledge & Knowledge Graphs for Action Parameterisation”, May 2024
  • Lecturer of Bachelor Course and Tutorial “Actionable Knowledge Representation”, SS 2024
  • Co-Lecturer of Course and Tutorial “Projektmanagement und Wissenschaftskultur”, SS 2023
  • Hands-On Course “Knowledge Graphs” at EASE fall school 2022
  • Hands-On Course “Knowledge 4 Retail” at EASE fall school 2021
  • Co-supervisor for Bachelor project Shopping 4.0 (WS2020/21)

Supervised Theses

2023

  • Master Thesis of Aljoscha Jacobi (Department of Applied Philosophy): “Glaubhafte Empathie? Die Rolle des Fremden und die Grenzen in der Mensch-Maschinen-Interaktion”
  • Bachelor Thesis of Simon Wallukat: “Chatbot zur Abfrage und Klassifizierung von fachspezifischem Vorwissen in einem Kurs zu kognitiver Robotik” (Design and implementation of a chatbot for acquisition and classification of subject-specific prior knowledge in a course on cognitive robotics)
  • Bachelor Thesis of Daniel Schmidt: “Standardisierung eines im Internet gescrapten Rezeptsatzes in eine Ontologie” (Standardizing a web-scraped recipe dataset into an ontology)
  • Bachelor Thesis of Timo Hoheisel and Dennis Riemer: “LAB AR: „Entwicklung einer mobilen App für die nahtlose Integration und visuelle Darstellung aufgezeichneter Roboter-Experimentdaten zur Verbesserung der Nachvollziehbarkeit mittels AR-Objekten“” (LAB AR: „Development of a Mobile App for Seamless Integration and Visual Representation of Recorded Robot Experiment Data to Enhance Traceability Using AR Objects.“)
  • Bachelor Thesis of Meike Wienholt: “Eine chemisch- und medizinisch-basierte Ontologie zur Erweiterung einer Web-Anwendung für die Erkennung von möglichen Gefahrstoffen in Produkten” (A chemical- and medical-based ontology for the extension of a web application for the detection of possible harmful substances in products.)
  • Bachelor Thesis of Fabian Jänecke: “Produktinformationen in einer Kunden-Assistenzanwendung basierend auf Ontologien” (Product information in a customer assistance application based on ontologies)
  • Bachelor Thesis of Andreas Keil: “Entwicklung eines hands-free cooking assistant auf Grundlage einer Rezeptontologie” (Development of a hands-free cooking assistant based on a recipe ontology)
  • Bachelor Thesis of Fabian Rosenstock: “Comparing the Usability of Internet and Web of Things Ontologies for Different Everyday Scenarios”
  • Bachelor Thesis of Vanessa Niemeyer: “Eine Ontologie für Lebensmittelersatzprodukte mit Smartphone-Anwendung” (A food substitute ontology with smartphone application)
  • Bachelor Thesis of Henri Bührmann: “Entwurf und Entwicklung eines Frameworks zur automatischen Klassifizierung von Produktstammdaten des Einzelhandels aus unterschiedlichen Datenquellen”

2022

  • Bachelor Thesis of Karin Doberstein: “Eine Lebensmittelallergene Ontologie zur Erweiterung einer Mobilgeräte-Applikation mit Zweck der Erkennung enthaltener Allergene in Produkten” (A food allergen ontology to extend a mobile application for detecting allergens in products)
  • Bachelor Thesis of Toni Aleksandrov Kozarev: “Developing a Mobile Application for Product Finding in Digital Twins of Retail Stores using Augmented Reality”
  • Bachelor Thesis of Andrew-Adair Saunders: “Augmented Reality Linked Data Recipe Finder”
  • Bachelor Thesis of Nazmi Ahmad: “Generierung von Episodic Memories in einem Virtual-Reality-Modell” (Generation of Episodic Memories in a Virtual-Reality-Model)
  • Bachelor Thesis of Callum Jänicke: “The Wikidata Use Case: Analyzing the usability of Wikidata Knowledge for Software Agents”
  • Bachelor Thesis of Jan-Andree Pangritz: “Erzeugung einer Ontologie für eine Anwendung in der Trennung von Produktverpackungen” (Ontology creation and application for package separation)
  • Bachelor Thesis of Naser Azizi and Sorin Arion: “Eine Nährwert Ontologie mit Web-Anwendungen für benutzerspezifische empfohlene Nährwertzufuhr” (A nutrition ontology with web interface for customer specific dietary recommendations)
  • Bachelor Thesis of Klaus Prüger: “Visualisierung von virtuellen Gedächtnissen in Augmented Reality” (Visualization of virtual memories in Augmented Reality)
  • Master Thesis of Jonas Dech: “A Knowledge Based Shopping Assistant in a Retail Environment using VR Tracking”

2021

  • Bachelor Thesis of Luca Barre: “Ontologie-basierte Sprachauswahl eines AR-Shopping Assistenten” (Ontology-based speech selection in Augmented Reality Shopping Assistance)
  • Bachelor Thesis of Maik Daniel Klause: “Evaluation of Linked Data in Cognitive Robot Control for kitchen scenarios”

2020

  • Master Thesis of Anna de Groot (collaboration with VU Amsterdam): “Knowledge Graph Enabled Virtual Reality in the Kitchen Domain”

Publications

Journal Articles and Book Chapters
[1]Kümpel, Michaela and Mueller, Christian A. and Beetz, Michael, "Semantic Digital Twins for Retail Logistics", Chapter in Dynamics in Logistics: Twenty-Five Years of Interdisciplinary Logistics Research in Bremen, Germany, Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 129–153, 2021. [bibtex] [url] [doi]
Conference Papers
[2]Dhanabalachandran, Kaviya, Hassouna, Vanessa, Hedblom, Maria M., Kümpel, Michaela, Leusmann, Nils and Beetz, Michael, "Cutting Events: Towards Autonomous Plan Adaption by Robotic Agents through Image-Schematic Event Segmentation", In Proceedings of the 11th on Knowledge Capture Conference, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, pp. 25–32, 2021. [bibtex] [url] [doi]
[3]Krieg-Brückner, Bernd, Nolte, Mark Robin, Pomarlan, Mihai and Kümpel, Michaela, "The Downgrading Axioms Challenge for Qualitative Composition of Food Ingredients", In SemREC 2022, 2nd Semantic Reasoning Evaluation Challenge 2022, vol. 3337, pp. 6-15, 2022. [bibtex] [pdf]
[4]Michaela Kümpel, Jonas Dech, Alina Hawkin and Michael Beetz, "Robotic Shopping Assistance for Everyone: Dynamic Query Generation on a Semantic Digital Twin as a Basis for Autonomous Shopping Assistance", In Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2023), London, United Kingdom, pp. 2523–2525, 2023. [bibtex] [pdf]
[5]Kümpel, Michaela and Beetz, Michael, "ProductKG: A Product Knowledge Graph for User Assistance in Daily Activities", In Ontology Showcase and Demonstrations Track, co-located with FOIS 2023, 19-20 July, 2023, vol. 3637, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada, 2023. [bibtex] [pdf]
Workshop Papers
[6]Kümpel, Michaela, de Groot, Anna, Tiddi, Ilaria and Beetz, Michael, "Using Linked Data to Help Robots Understand Product-related Actions", In JOWO 2020, The Joint Ontology Workshops, vol. 2708, 2020. [bibtex] [pdf]
Other Publications
[7]Michaela Kümpel and Michael Beetz, "Realizing Trustworthiness in Linked Data Applications Based on Individual Data Source Trust Assessment.", 2021. [bibtex] [pdf]





Prof. Dr. hc. Michael Beetz PhD
Head of Institute

Contact via
Andrea Cowley
assistant to Prof. Beetz
ai-office@cs.uni-bremen.de

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