Prof. Emeritus Dr. Hans Ulrich Simon

Chair of Mathematics & Computer Science

E-Mail:
hans.simon(at)rub.de

Research Interests

We consider and analyze machine learning problems from the perspective of complexity theory. We try to determine the information or computational complexity of learning problems, and to design efficient learning algorithms. Furthermore, we investigate combinatorial optimization problems and explore the possibility of designing efficient approximation algorithms. We have a general interest in finding new programming methods and in inventing new data structures. We are furthermore interested in any results that shed more light on the famous P-NP problem.

Curriculum vitae

Scientific Curriculum Vitae

1978Diploma (roughly equivalent to Masters) in Mathematics (Univ. of Saarbrücken)
1981Doctor's degree in Computer Science (Univ. of Saarbrücken)
1989"Habilitation degree" (Univ. of Saarbrücken)
1979-1989Research Assistant at the Computer Science Department
of the University of Saarbrücken
1984-1987Scholarship for Work on Multiprocessor Scheduling
payed by the Siemens AG
intermediate stays at different institutes in the USA
stay at the Siemens Research Center in Munich, 1986
87/88Temporary Professor Position at the Univ. of Darmstadt
89Temporary Professor Position at the Univ. of Dortmund
89Temporary Professor Position at the Univ. of Saarbrücken
1990-1997Professor (tenured) at the Univ. of Dortmund
1997-2020Professor (tenured) at the Ruhr-University-Bochum
since August 2020Retired professor (Emeritus)
2025-2026Member of the Senior Program Committee of COLT 2026
2025-2026Member of the Senior Program Committee of ALT 2025 and ALT 2026

 

Further Activities

  • From January 1991 until June 1995: common research project with the University in Munich, Siemens AG in Munich, and the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR) about Neural Control; funded by the Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie (BMFT).
  • From September 1992 until March 1993: Sabbatical at the University of Graz.
  • From January 1995 until December 1997: common research project with the University of Milano about relations between online learning, batch learning and combinatorial optimization; funded by the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD).
  • From January 1995 until December 1998: research project about Computational Learning; funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
  • Spring 1997: Sabbatical at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at the Technion in Haifa.
  • Chairman of the Steering Committee of the 3rd European Conference on Computational Learning Theory (EuroCOLT 1997).
  • From January 1997 until December 2000: common research project with the University in Bonn, Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Technion in Haifa about supervised and unsupervised learning; funded by the German-Israeli Foundation (GIF).
  • 1998-2005: member of the DAAD-Committee which evaluates applications for research scholarships and selects the scholars (Auswahlkommission für DAAD-Stipendiaten bzw. Lektoren).
  • 1998-2005: member of the DAAD-Committee which selects projects that are funded by the Vigoni-programme.
  • Co-Chair of the Program Committee and Organization (together with Prof. Dr. Paul Fischer) of the 4th European Conference on Computational Learning Theory (EuroCOLT 1999).
  • Member of "Endrundenjury des 17., 19., 21., and 24. Bundeswettbewerbs Informatik" in the years 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2006.
  • From May 2000 until July 2003: research project about Design of New Rules for On-line Learning, Derivation of Relative Loss Bounds, and Study of Applications; funded by the Deutsche Forschnungsgemeinsachaft.
  • From October 2000 until September 2006: Member of the academic staff in the PhD-program (DFG-Graduiertenkolleg) "Mathematical and Engineering Science Methods for Secure Data Transmission".
  • From November 2002 until February 2005: research project about "Application of methods from Statistical Learning Theory to selected problems from Statistical Natural Language Processing"; funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
  • From 2003 until 2009 Member of the advising board of the Institute of Neuroinformatik at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
  • From January 2004 until February 2009: Site Manager of the "IST Programme of the European Community under the PASCAL Network of Excellence".
  • From August 2004 until June 2006: Member of the Board of Directors in the "Association for Computational Learning".
  • Co-Chair of the Program Committee for the 16'th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT 2005) together with Prof. Etsuji Tomita.
  • Co-Chair of the Program Committee for the 19'th International Conference on Computational Learning Theory (COLT 2006) together with Prof. Gabor Lugosi.
  • Summer 2006: Sabbatical at the University of Waterloo (Ontario) and at the University of Helsinki.
  • Invited Speaker at the 17'th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT 2006).
  • From August 2007 until September 2010: research project about Algebraic Methods as a Tool in Algorithmic Learning Theory; funded by the Deutsche Forschnungsgemeinsachaft.
  • 3.-7. September 2007: invited speaker (together with Nicolo Cesa-Bianchi, Gabor Lugosi, and Afra Zomorodian) at the summer school ADFOCS 2007, Max-Planck-Institut, Saarbrücken
  • From October 2007 until September 2009: Dean of the Department of Mathematics
  • From October 2009 until September 2011 and from March until September 2012: Vice-Dean of the Department of Mathematics
  • From January 2011 until December 2012: research project about Distribution-dependent and Distribution-independent Learnability; funded by the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) and by the corresponding institution in Hungary (MÖB).
  • From July 2014 until March 2016: Member of the Board of Directors of the Service Center Mathematics and Applications (SZMA).
  • July 2015: Best Paper Award at the Conference on Learning Theory (COLT 2015).
  • Co-Chair of the Program Committee for the 27'th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT 2016) together with Prof. Ronald Ortner.
  • From October 2015 until October 2016 member of the Steering Committee of the Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory.
  • From July 2012 until June 2017 : Principal Investigator in the PhD-program (DFG-Graduiertenkolleg) "Cryptography in Ubiquitous Computing".
  • Member of Program Committees of international conferences (EuroCOLT 1993, ALT 1995, EuroCOLT 1995, EuroCOLT 1997, COLT 1999, EuroCOLT 1999, STACS 2003, ALT 2005, COLT 2005, ALT 2006, COLT 2006, ICALP 2006, COLT 2007, COCOON 2009, ALT 2009, ALT 2011, COLT 2012, COCOA 2012, ALT 2012, COLT 2013, COLT 2014, ISAIM 2014,
    ICML 2015, ALT 2015, COLT 2017, CSCML 2017, LATA 2019, ALT 2019).
  • Referee for international journals and for the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
  • Occasionally member of the Peer Review Panel in connection with Priority Programmes funded by the DFG or DFG Research Units.
  • Reviewer for the "Mathematical Reviews" of the American Mathematical Society.
  • Organisor of some international research seminars about Machine Learning in Dagstuhl.
  • Invited Speaker on different international research seminars in Oberwolfach and Dagstuhl.
  • Member of the Horst Görtz Institute for Security in Information Technology at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
  • Member of different organizations of computer professionals like Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI), European Association of Theoretical Computer Scientists (EATCS), and the Association for Computing Machinery.
Courses titles
Semester
Weekly hours
Behalf of
System. ProgrammingSoSe 19832+1FB 10, Univ. des Saarl.
System. ProgrammingSoSe 19842+1FB 10, Univ. des Saarl.
SchedulingWS 1984/854+2FB 10, Univ. des Saarl.
The complexity classes NC and RNCWS 1985/862+1FB 10, Univ. des Saarl.
CryptographySoSe 19862+1FB 10, Univ. des Saarl.
Handling of NP-hard Problems on selected ExamplesWS 1986/872+1FB 10, Univ. des Saarl.,
Efficient AlgorithmsWS 1987/884+2FB 20, TH Darmstadt
Computational Geometry (Seminar)WS 1987/882FB 20, TH Darmstadt
The Complexity of LearningSoSe 19882+1FB 10, Univ. des Saarl.
CryptographyWS 1988/892+1FB 10, Univ. des Saarl.
Basics of theor. Computer ScienceSoSe 19894+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Computational LearningWS 1989/904+2FB 10, Univ. des Saarl.
ProgrammingWS 1990/914+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Computational Learning (Seminar)WS 1990/912FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Pattern MatchingSoSe 19914FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Combinatorics (Seminar)SoSe 19912FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Complexity TheoryWS 1991/924+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Recognition of Hand-Written Letters IWS 1991/924+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Recognition of Hand-Written Letters IISoSe 19924+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Efficient AlgorithmsSoSe 19924+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Pattern Matching (Seminar)WS 1992/932IGI, Univ. Graz
Basics of Theoretical Computer ScienceSoSe 19934+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Approx. of NP-hard Optimization Problems (Seminar)SoSe 19932FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Complexity TheoryWS 1993/944+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Theory of Neural Networks (Seminar)WS 1993/942FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Learning from CounterexamplesSoSe 19944+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Function Learning (Seminar)SoSe 19942FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Operations ResearchWS 1994/954+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Comb. Problems in Molecular Biology (Seminar)WS 1994/952FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Theory of Logic DesignSoSe 19954+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Approx. of Comb. Optimization Problems (Seminar)SoSe 19952FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Complexity TheoryWS 1995/964+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Computational Learning Theory (Seminar)WS 1995/962FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Basics of Theor. Computer ScienceSoSe 19964+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Computational Lerning Theory and Comb. OptimizationSoSe 19968FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Complexity TheoryWS 1996/974+2FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Computational Learning Theory and Comb. OptimizationWS 1996/978FB 4, Univ. Dortmund
Introduction to Computer ScienceWS 1997/984+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
PCP-Theorem and Applications (Seminar)WS 1997/982Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Data StructuresSoSe 19984+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Introduction to Computer ScienceWS 1998/994+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Public Key Crypto Systems (Seminar)WS 1998/992Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Efficient AlgorithmsSoSe 19994+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Algorithmic Biology (Seminar)SoSe 19992Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity TheoryWS 1999/004+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Efficient Approximation Alg. for NP-hard Optimization Problems (Seminar)WS 1999/002Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Data StructuresSoSe 20004+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Perfect Hashing (Seminar)SoSe 20002Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Introduction to Computer ScienceWS 2000/014+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity TheoryWS 2000/014Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Efficient AlgorithmsSoSe 20014+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Introduction to Cryptography (Seminar)SoSe 20012Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity TheorySoSe 20024+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Cryptography and its compl. th. Basics (Seminar)SoSe 20022Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Discrete MathematicsWS 2002/034+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Introduction to Computer ScienceWS 2002/034+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Efficient AlgorithmsSoSe 20034+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Support Vector Machines (Seminar)SoSe 20032Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theoretical Computer ScienceWS 2003/044+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Discrete MathematicsWS 2003/044+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Efficient AlgorithmsSoSe 20044+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
The P-NP Problem (Seminar)SoSe 20042Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theoretical Computer ScienceWS 2004/054+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Discrete MathematicsWS 2004/054+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Efficient AlgorithmsSoSe 20054+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Convex Optimization (Seminar)SoSe 20052Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theoretical Computer ScienceWS 2005/064+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Algorithmic LearningWS 2005/064+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theoretical Computer ScienceWS 2006/074+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Discrete MathematicsWS 2006/074+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Efficient AlgorithmsSoSe 20074+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Algorithmic LearningSoSe 20074+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theoretical Computer ScienceWS 2007/084+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity TheorySoSe 20084+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theoretical Computer ScienceWS 2008/094+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity TheorySS 20094+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Discrete MathematicsWS 2009/104+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theoretical Computer ScienceWS 2009/104+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity TheorySoSe 20104+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Communication Complexity (Seminar)SoSe 20102Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Discrete MathematicsWS 2010/114+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theoretical Computer ScienceWS 2010/114+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Discrete MathematicsWS 2011/124+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theoretical Computer ScienceWS 2011/124+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Data StructuresSoSe 20124+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Computational Learning (Seminar)SoSe 20122Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theoretical Computer ScienceWS 2012/134+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity Theory WS 2012/134+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theory of Machine LearningSoSe 20134+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Algorithmic Learning (Seminar)SoSe 20132Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Differential Privacy SoSe 20132Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Discrete MathematicsWS 2013/144+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity Theory WS 2013/144+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theory of Machine LearningSoSe 20144+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Minimization of Submodular Functions (Proseminar)SoSe 20142Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Discrete MathematicsWS 2014/154+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Algorithmic Learning (Seminar) WS 2014/152Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Data StructuresSoSe 20154+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity Theory SoSe 20154+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theory of Machine Learning SoSe 20164+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Discrete Mathematics (Seminar) SoSe 20162Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity Theory WS 2016/174+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Algorithmic Learning (Seminar) WS 2016/172Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theory of Machine Learning SoSe 20174+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Set Theory (Seminar) SoSe 20172Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity Theory WS 2017/184+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theoretical Computer ScienceWS 2017/184+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theory of Machine Learning SoSe 20184+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Data Sructures SoSe 20182Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity Theory WS 2018/194+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theoretical Computer ScienceWS 2018/194+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Data Structures SoSe 20194+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Graphs and Matrices (Seminar) SoSe 20192Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity Theory WS 2019/204+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Algebraic Graph TheoryWS 2019/204+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Theory of Machine Learning SoSe 20204+2Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Complexity of Boolean Functions (Seminar) SoSe 20202Fak. 15, Ruhr-Uni-Bochum

Former team members

To Top