Christian Fröhlich
Data Scientist, Optimax Energy GmbH
PhD student, Foundations of Machine Learning Systems (FMLS, Robert Williamson), Tübingen AI Center
What is your connection to Tübingen, Christian?
After doing both my undergraduate studies (cognitive science) and graduate studies (computer science) in Tübingen, I was planning to move to a larger town. But then I heard that Bob Williamson will move to Tübingen, and after one chat with him, it was clear to me that I needed to stay. So from 2021 until 2025 I was a PhD student with Bob in the"Foundations of Machine Learning Systems (FMLS) group", a wonderful group of people that left a deep impact on me.
Is there a memory from your time here that had a lasting positive impact on you?
Perhaps surprisingly, what comes to my mind is the time during covid, where I made new friends while we were writing our master's theses in the MOML group. We made the best of the circumstances I guess.
If I could give one piece of advice to incoming PhD students, it would be to pursue a problem-oriented mindset instead of focusing on any method.
Christian Fröhlich
Where has your career taken you since, and did your time in Tübingen play a role? If so, how?
After the PhD, I switched from the very far theoretical end of the spectrum to the very applied end: after studying the mathematical and conceptual foundations of uncertainty & risk, I am now involved in short-term electricity trading, which is as practical as things can get. What might surprise people is just how useful I find the theoretical background in doing this. Many problems I face in practice directly connect to questions that the FMLS group has studied. In particular, my problems are quite different from the well-behaved "typical ML problems" that popular benchmarks center on. Somewhat ironically, I think that my theoretical background now helps me more than if I had done a more "methods"-focused PhD. If I could give one piece of advice to incoming PhD students, it would be to pursue a problem-oriented mindset instead of focusing on any method.years ago.