Dirk Helbing

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Dirk Helbing
Born (1965-01-19) January 19, 1965 (age 59)
Computational Social Science
InstitutionsETH Zurich (2007–)[2]
TU Delft (2015)[3]
University of Oxford (2010)[4]
(host: Peter Hedström)
Nicholas A. Christakis
)
INRETS (2004)
(host: Patrick Lebacque)[6]
TU Dresden (2000)[7]
Collegium Budapest, Hungary (2000)[8]
Tel Aviv University (1999)
(hosts: Isaac Goldhirsch, Eshel Ben-Jacob)[9]
Eötvös Loránd University (1998)
(host: Tamás Vicsek)
Xerox PARC (1998)
(host: Bernardo Huberman)[10]
Weizmann Institute of Science (1997)
(host: David Mukamel)[11]
University of Stuttgart (1996)[12]
Doctoral advisorWolfgang Weidlich
Other academic advisorsManfred R. Schroeder

Dirk Helbing (born January 19, 1965) is Professor of

Computational Social Science
at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences and affiliate of the Computer Science Department at ETH Zurich.

Biography

Dirk Helbing studied physics and mathematics at the

complex systems theory.[14]
In 1996, he completed further studies on traffic dynamics and optimization.

In 2000, he became a full professor and Managing Director of the Institute for Transport and Economics at

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2008[16] and of the World Academy of Art and Science in 2016.[17] In January 2014 Prof. Helbing received an honorary PhD from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft).[18][19] Since June 2015 he is affiliate professor at the faculty of Technology, Policy and Management at TU Delft, where he leads the PhD school in "Engineering Social Technologies for a Responsible Digital Future".[20]

Research activities

Dirk Helbing started out as a physicist. His diploma thesis focussed on pedestrian, crowd, and evacuation modeling and simulation.[21] During his PhD and habilitation in physics,[22] he helped to establish the fields of socio-, econo- and traffic physics.[23][24] He was also co-founder of the Physics of Socio-Economic Systems Division of the German Physical Society (DPG).[25] As a visiting scientist at Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute in Israel, the Eötvös University in Budapest, and Xerox PARC in California, he focused on a broad variety of complex systems - including the self-organisation of pedestrians,[26] traffic jams,[27] bacterial patterns,[28] and Mexican waves.[29] At Dresden University of Technology he became the Managing Director of the Institute of Transport & Economics,[30] worked on traffic assistant systems (i.e. early self-driving cars)[31][32] and a self-organized traffic light control system,[33][34][35] which was patented.[36] He found that crowd disasters are caused by a phenomenon called "crowd turbulence" and worked on ways to describe, reduce and respond to such disasters.[37] As professor of Sociology at ETH Zurich, he worked on evolutionary game theory[38][39] and agent-based computer simulations of social processes and phenomena.[40]

The work of Prof. Helbing has been widely cited in the media and academia and he has written more than 10 papers in Nature,[41] Science[42] and PNAS.[43] In 2012, he won the Idee Suisse Award.[44] He co-founded the Competence Center for Coping with Crises in Complex Socio-Economic Systems,[45] the Risk Center,[46] the Institute for Science, Technology and Policy (ISTP)[47] and the Decision Science Laboratory (DeSciL).[48] While coordinating the FuturICT initiative,[49][50] he helped to further develop disciplines such as data science, computational social science, and global systems science in Europe.[51] This work resulted in the establishment of the Nervousnet Platform, a smartphone app enabling users to share data to be used to achieve scientific and social goals and lay the groundwork for digital democracy.[52][53] Helbing worked for the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Complex Systems.[54] He was elected member of the External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute[55] and now belongs to the External Faculty of the Complexity Science Hub Vienna.[56] He sits in the Boards of the Global Brain Institute in Brussels[57] and the International Centre for Earth Simulation in Geneva.[58] He is also involved in the activities of "Staatslabor" (a Swiss government science initiative)[59] as well as the establishment of the Blockchain [X][60] initiative and the Blockchain Lab in Delft.[61][62] He is a member of a Swiss governmental advisory group on the societal impact of digitization[63][64] and was lead author of a "Digital Manifesto" on how to safeguard democratic values in the digital age.[65] Prof. Helbing is an adviser to the Citizen Science Center Zurich [66] and is an advocate of a European Charter of Digital Human Rights.[67]

Dirk Helbing is known for the

social force model,[68] in particular its application to self-organising phenomena in pedestrian crowds.[69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76] Besides the slower-is-faster effect,[75][77] he introduced the freezing-by-heating effect [78] and the phase diagram of congested traffic states.[79][80][81] Helbing also proposed a microscopic foundation of evolutionary game theory[82] and has studied self-organized behavioral conventions.[83] His work has applied the principles of collective intelligence and self-organized control to the optimization of urban [84] and freeway traffic.[85] He has conducted research into norms and conflict, and the role of success-driven motion for the establishment of cooperation among selfish individuals,[86] socio-inspired technology and techno-social systems,[87][88] the spread of disaster [89][90] and crisis management.[91]

Living Earth Simulator

Helbing was the Principal Investigator on a project named FuturICT Knowledge Accelerator and Crisis Relief System, a computing system working on big datasets, conceived as sort of a crystal ball of the world.[92] The core of the system is the Living Earth Simulator, a computing machine attempting "to model global-scale systems — economies, governments, cultural trends, epidemics, agriculture, technological developments, and more — using torrential data streams, sophisticated algorithms, and as much hardware as it takes".[92] However, the project lost in the final round of the application for funding from the European Commission of €1 billion.[92] Despite this, the ideas developed by the group have influenced international research programs.[93] Since 2017, the FuturICT 2.0 project is being funded by the European Commission's FLAG-ERA program.[94]

Noteworthy projects and presentations by Dirk Helbing's research teams in Dresden, Zurich and Delft

  • Derivation of the replicator equation in evolutionary game theory[95] and of the self-organization of behavioral conventions from behavioral imitation.[96]
  • Creation of an electronic traffic assistance system to reduce traffic jams on freeways (an early algorithm for self-driving cars).[97]
  • Invention of a patented[98] self-organized traffic light control system for cities.[99]
  • Semiconductor logistic project with Infineon Technologies increasing throughput by 30%.[100]
  • Development of the "social force model", frequently used for pedestrian and crowd simulation.[101]
  • Establishment of an expert team to improve the safety of pilgrimages.[102]
  • Data-based agent-based simulation study on the Middle Eastern conflict in Jerusalem.[103]
  • Publication "How to save human lives: What complexity science and information systems can contribute".[104]
  • Patent: "Interaction Support Processor" - Ethically aligned design for information systems.[105]
  • Nervousnet App - the Internet of Things as a Citizen Web (in development).[106]
  • Grippenet App for anonymous cooperative health monitoring (in development).[107]
  • Speech at the Out of the Box Conference with World Thinkers and the Dalai Lama on May 16, 2012.[108]
  • Declaration of "Digital Democracy" at the Falling Walls Conference in Berlin on November 9, 2015.[109]
  • Talk at the "Build Peace" Conference in Zurich on September 11, 2016: "A New Paradigm for World Peace Is Possible".[110]
  • BIOTS - Blockchain and Internet of Things School at ETH Zurich, founded in 2016.[111]
  • Co-founded Zurich Hub for Ethics and Technology in (2016).[112]
  • Article in Nature, "Sustainable development: Turn war rooms into peace rooms", Dirk Helbing and Peter Seele, September 28, 2017.[113]
  • Interview at "Petersberger Gespräche" 2017 (Bonn, German) on September 16, 2017: "Artificial Intelligence - from feasibility and superintelligence to planning and envisioning the future".[114]

Controversies

Allegations of inappropriate presentation content

In February 2022, during a lecture Professor Dirk Helbing presented a slide that some students from ETH Zurich considered inappropriate and insensitive to the Chinese community.[115][116] The students raise their concerns both to Professor Helbing and the ETH Zurich Ombudsman and Respect Advice Center, the latter of which provides services related to inappropriate behaviours, discrimination, bullying or allegations at the Institute. A group of Chinese students also wrote open letters to ETH Zurich to address this issue.

Social-media comments and death threats

This allegations by the students were mentioned on LinkedIn and received a lot of comments from students and researchers worldwide.[117] In addition, it was mentioned that Professor Dirk Helbing received death threats.[118]

Investigation and closure

Following an investigation and discussion with the ETH Zurich Ombudsman and Respect Advice center, Professor Dirk Helbing presented an apology statement on Twitter[119] and LinkedIn Accounts.[120] The ETH Zurich Twitter account also mentioned the apology[121] from Professor Dirk Helbing. Despite the persistent controversies and ongoing expressions of disappointment from the society, ETH Zurich proceeded to close the issue.

Footnotes

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  4. ^ "Professor Dirk Helbing, "Cooperation, Norms and Conflict: Towards Stimulating the Foundations of Society"". Oxford Martin. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  5. ^ "Previous Guest Researchers". www.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-10-26. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
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  14. ^ "NZZ Podium: Dirk Helbing". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  15. ^ "Mitarbeiter der Professur Ökonometrie und Statistik, insb. im Verkehrswesen". TU Dresden. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  16. ^ "Mitgliederverzeichnis". www.leopoldina.org (in German). Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  17. ^ "World Academy of Art & Science: General Listing". www.worldacademy.org. Archived from the original on 2019-03-28. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  18. ^ "Honorary Doctorates - Delft Outlook". Delft Outlook. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
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  20. ^ "PhD Program in Engineering Social Technologies for a Responsible Digital Future". TU Delft (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  21. SSRN 2413177
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  42. ^ "Dirk Helbing Publications in Science - Google Scholar" (in German). Retrieved 2017-05-10.
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  44. ^ www.inware.ch. "Golden Idea Award" (in German). Retrieved 2017-05-10.
  45. ^ "Competence Center for "Coping with Crisis in Socio-Economic Systems"" (in German). ETH. Retrieved 2017-05-10.
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  49. ^ "Dr Seldon, I presume". The Economist (in German). 2013-02-23. Retrieved 2017-05-10.
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  88. ^ Zwitter, Dirk Helbing, Bruno S. Frey, Gerd Gigerenzer, Ernst Hafen, Michael Hagner, Yvonne Hofstetter, Jeroen van den Hoven, Roberto V. Zicari, Andrej. "Will Democracy Survive Big Data and Artificial Intelligence?". Scientific American. Retrieved 2017-05-12.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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  98. ^ WO 2006122528, Helbing, Dirk & Laemmer, Stefan, "Method for coordination of concurrent processes for control of the transport of mobile units within a network", published Jan 25, 2007 
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  116. ^ Roth, Jonas (12 March 2022). "Cancel-Culture an der ETH: Ein Professor erhält Morddrohungen wegen einer Vorlesungsfolie". Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG. Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  117. ^ "Professor Dirk Helbing issues apology after receiving death threats over lecture taken out of context". www.reddit.com. 28 February 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  118. ^ Enz, Ursina (24 March 2022). "Vorlesungsfolie sorgt für Rassismusvorwürfe an der ETH". Zürcher Studierendenzeitung. Zürcher Studierendenzeitung. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  119. ^ Helbing, Dirk. "My apologies! I am really very sorry for what happened". www.twitter.com. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  120. ^ Helbing, Dirk. "I would like to apologise!". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  121. ^ ETH, Zurich. "Prof. Helbing apologizes for offending people; this was never his intention". Retrieved 3 March 2023.

External links

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