PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Andreas Bulling

Computer scientist Andreas Bulling researches AI systems that can anticipate people’s intentions and adapt computer interaction. He studied computer science at KIT and earned a PhD in information technology and electrical engineering from ETH Zurich in 2010. His earlier work included eye-movement analysis for visual-memory recognition, Pupil’s open-source mobile eye-tracking platform, and ANTICIPATE; he received the ETRA Emerging Investigator Award in 2016, ETRA Best Paper and Best Presentation awards in 2018, and a €1.5 million ERC Starting Grant in 2018. At Stuttgart, he helped found ELLIS Unit Stuttgart in 2021, became a Henriette Herz Scout in 2024, and joined the IEEE TVCG editorial board in 2025. As of October 2026, he is Professor for Human-Computer Interaction and Cognitive Systems and Acting Director of VIS, and a Unit Director and Fellow of ELLIS Unit Stuttgart.

Works
765
Citations
17,015
h-index
62
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2010

    An ETH Zurich doctorate

    He studies computer science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and earns a PhD in information technology and electrical engineering from ETH Zurich in 2010.

  2. 2011–2016

    Visual memory, Pupil and ETRA

    In 2011, he and Daniel Roggen show that eye-movement analysis can distinguish familiar from unfamiliar abstract pictures with an 84.3% top recognition rate. In 2014, he coauthors the Pupil paper on open-source mobile eye tracking and gaze-based interaction. He receives the ETRA Emerging Investigator Award in 2016.

  3. 2013–2018

    Saarland research leadership

    From 2013 through 2018, he leads an independent research group at Saarland University’s Cluster of Excellence on Multimodal Computing and Interaction and serves as a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics.

  4. 2018

    ANTICIPATE and an ERC grant

    He joins the University of Stuttgart as Professor for Human-Computer Interaction and Cognitive Systems in 2018. The ERC awards him a €1.5 million Starting Grant in 2018 for ANTICIPATE, which aims to establish foundations for interfaces that predict future input from users’ attention and intentions. In 2018, he receives ETRA’s Best Paper and Best Presentation awards.

  5. 2021

    Founding the Stuttgart ELLIS unit

    He becomes one of two founding directors of ELLIS Unit Stuttgart in 2021. The unit advances learning and intelligent systems research across interactive systems, natural and programming language processing, learning theory, and robot learning.

  6. 2024

    A Henriette Herz Scout

    The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation appoints him a Henriette Herz Scout in 2024. He aims to give intelligent assistance systems a Theory of Mind that can help them recognize people’s needs, goals, and intentions.

  7. 2025

    TVCG Associate Editor

    He joins the IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics editorial board as an Associate Editor in 2025.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and ELLIS director

    He is Professor for Human-Computer Interaction and Cognitive Systems and Acting Director of VIS at the University of Stuttgart. He leads the Collaborative Artificial Intelligence group and serves as Unit Director and Fellow of ELLIS Unit Stuttgart; in September 2026, he and Ingo Steinwart discuss the unit’s future.

Career

  1. Since 2021European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent SystemsFounding Director; Unit Director and Fellow
  2. Since 2018University of StuttgartProfessor for Human-Computer Interaction and Cognitive Systems
  3. 2013–2018Saarland UniversityLeader of an Independent Research Group
  4. 2013–2018Max Planck Institute for InformaticsSenior Researcher
  5. 2013–2018Max Planck Society
  6. 2010–2013University of Cambridge
  7. 2010–2015Lancaster University

Education

  1. 2010ETH ZurichPhD
  2. Karlsruhe Institute of TechnologyComputer Science

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. A tutorial on human activity recognition using body-worn inertial sensors2014 · ACM Computing Surveys · 1,662 citationsWith Bernt Schiele
  2. Appearance-based gaze estimation in the wild2015 · IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition · 838 citations
  3. Pupil2014 · 766 citations
  4. Eye Movement Analysis for Activity Recognition Using Electrooculography2010 · IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence · 718 citations
  5. MPIIGaze: Real-World Dataset and Deep Appearance-Based Gaze Estimation2017 · IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence · 592 citationsWith Mario Fritz

From OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

  1. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.
  2. 44% of AI career moves go from one university to anotherIncludes European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems. We estimate how 12,774 AI career moves link universities, companies, labs and government research centers, with net flows and the most common paths.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Stuttgart. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 3% to 32%Includes University of Stuttgart. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 3% in 1975–1979 to 32% in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. “Working towards anticipatory computers” | University of Stuttgart uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 18 October 2026.
  2. Recognition of Visual Memory Recall Processes Using Eye Movement Analysis | Collaborative Artificial Intelligence collaborative-ai.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  3. [1405.0006] Pupil: An Open Source Platform for Pervasive Eye Tracking and Mobile Gaze-based Interaction arxiv.org. Checked 18 October 2026.
  4. Prof. Dr. Andreas Bulling | Institute for Visualization and Interactive Systems | University of Stuttgart vis.uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 18 October 2026.
  5. Prof. Andreas Bulling receives ERC Starting Grant | University of Stuttgart visus.uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 18 October 2026.
  6. Artificial Intelligence Researchers at the University of Stuttgart Join European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) vis.uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 18 October 2026.
  7. Stuttgart | European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems ellis.eu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  8. A new level of human-machine interaction f05.uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 18 October 2026.
  9. Andreas Bulling Joins Editorial Board of TVCG visus.uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 18 October 2026.
  10. Five years of ELLIS Stuttgart: Shaping the next generation of intelligent systems uni-stuttgart.de. Checked 18 October 2026.