Researcher profiles
The Department of Information Technology facilitates research into an immeasurable number of exciting questions and areas. Below we present interviews with a few of the fantastic individuals behind that research.
Nataša Sladoje
Nataša is a professor in computerized image analysis. She develops algorithms which enable to efficiently and reliably, by using computers, extract and interpret information from digital images.
- Development of methods that enable automated analysis of the huge, and rapidly growing amount of visual data which are acquired by an abundance of different sensors in a variety of application fields, is not only essential for the advancement of these fields, but is also naturally attractive to humans. We simply like to teach our computers to “see” what we can see ourselves, Nataša says.
Elisabeth Larsson
Elisabeth Larsson is a senior lecturer in scientific computing. Her research is about making numerical models and producing simulations of how for example muscles or the financial market work. She makes calculations that save both resources and lives.
- What I love with scientific computing is all these collaborations in different directions because it means that I get to learn different areas - statistics, medicine or finance, Elisabeth says.
Matteo Magnani
Matteo Magnani is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Department of Information Technology at Uppsala University. His research is about developing methods for analyzing online data in order to gain a better understanding of society. Matteo wants to be part of solving problems in society. One of them is the current troublesome political situation, with the spread of populism.
- Good democracy needs good communication - that is what we want to contribute with in our research - an increased understanding of how communication is used online and affects society, Matteo says.
Ingela Nyström
Ingela Nyström is a professor of visualization. Her research concerns mathematics and information technology meeting the medicine. Thanks to her research, in the future, surgeons will be able to perform the surgery on the computer before they open the patient. On scanned three-dimensional images of the injured patients, models are made in the computer that give the surgeon better control over how the injury actually looks. What before was invisible under the skin is made visible.
Thomas Schön
Thomas Schöns research is about Machine Learning - building mathematical models based on data and giving the computer an ability to learn things that it is not specifically programmed for. As a professor of Automatic Control at the Department of Information Technology at Uppsala University Thomas has built a succesful research team. Within the team it seems to boiling with activities.
- The biggest challenges are finding staff and time. I am constantly looking for competent researchers to recruit, Thomas says.
Read the full interview with Thomas here
Anders Arweström Jansson
Research in human-computer interaction is about how to make people and technology work together. Anders Arweström Jansson, Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at the Department of Information Technology in Uppsala, wants us to develop computer systems so that those who work with different types of traffic or in the process industry have the right computer support when doing their jobs. One challenge is to get technological development and knowledge about how people work to go hand in hand. In order to develop technical systems, one has to understand the role of human beings in the systems and the role of human beings is underestimated.
Read the full interview with Anders here
Åsa Cajander
Åsa Cajander is a researcher in human-computer interaction and maintains that the architects of IT systems need to become better at taking into account the interaction between technology and society.
Read the full interview with Åsa here
Alexander Medvedev
Alexander Medvedev is Professor of Automatic Control at the Department of Information Technology. His mathematical computer models replace uncertain assumptions with automatic decisions. One example of this is automatic dosage of medication in general anesthesia or diseases such as Parkinson’s.
Read the full interview with Alexander here
Gunilla Kreiss
Gunilla Kreiss is more than happy to zero in on mathematical algorithms, but she also needs to know that her models will come to practical use. Through calculations of physical phenomena, she aims to merge ideas with reality.
- It’s true that the numerical calculations I make on the computer come out as digits, but those digits don’t have anything to do with real life until someone else uses them, says Gunilla Kreiss, Professor of Numerical Analysis.
Read the full interview with Gunilla here
Edith Ngai
More and more devices are developed into sensors interacting with products, environments and services, not least humans. Time has come for information technology to more closely fit people's needs on both an individual and societal level, says Edith Ngai, researcher in computer systems.
Read the full interview with Edith here
Carolina Wählby
How do various drugs affect cells? What genetic alternations are hidden in the tissue of tumours? Using new image processing methods, researchers are able to analyse large amounts of samples faster and more efficiently than ever before. One of the most advanced tools in image analysis is built on the research of Carolina Wählby, Professor of Quantitative Microscopy.
