Alisa Rupenyan has headed a research group for Advanced Control and Automation at inspire, the strategic partner of ETH Zurich for knowledge and technology transfer in the field of production technology, since 2018. In this role, she leads research projects on process optimisation, industrial control and machine learning for applications linked closely to production. She also holds the position of Head Scientist at the Automatic Control Laboratory of ETH Zurich and is an Expert at Swiss innovation agency Innosuisse. In a previous role as Head of Application Development at Qualysense, a Swiss robotics and agricultural engineering start-up, she oversaw the development of industrial sorting solutions for three years. After completing her Master’s in Laser Physics at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria, Alisa Rupenyan gained her doctorate at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, before receiving a two-year post-doctoral scholarship at ETH Zurich.

The new endowed professorship at the ZHAW’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence will have a particular focus on the development and application of principled, neuro-symbolically inspired learning in conjunction with processes in production and service. This combines machine learning with knowledge-based systems. The professorship will also offer basic and in-depth modules for the Computer Science and Data Science programmes, along with a Master’s of Science in Engineering. A separate research group is to be created for this purpose.

The professorship will be funded by the Rieter Group and the Johann Jacob Rieter Foundation on a 50/50 basis for a period of six years with an annual sum of CHF 300,000.