About Me

• My name is Tim and I am a PhD student at Saarland University, Germany. I am broadly interested in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Ultimately, I would love to contribute to the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) systems.
  
  I have a vast theoretical foundation in machine learning, covering general principles, deep learning, reinforcement learning, optimization, trustworthiness, and explainability. I also have some basic knowledge of structural causal models, causal discovery, and variational inequality methods (e.g., used in multi-agent systems and GANs). On the symbolic side of AI, I know about heuristic exploration of search spaces, SAT and SMT solving, deductive verification, and model checking. Regarding programming, I have extensive experience in Python, especially in PyTorch, and related libraries like PyTorch Lightning and Weights & Biases. I have also used languages like C, C++, Java, and JavaScript throughout my studies.
  
  Currently, I am working with Prof. Isabel Valera and Prof. Jilles Vreeken on event sequences, time series analysis, and attention-based models.

Education

• Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
  PhD student in Machine Learning under Prof. Isabel Valera | 2025 – now

• Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
  Computer Science, M.Sc. (Graduate School Student) | 2023 – 2025
  Thesis: SeqRuleNet: Neuro-Symbolic Discovery of Sequential Rule Sets (supervised by Prof. Isabel Valera and Prof. Jilles Vreeken)
  Final GPA: 1.0 with distinciton (best: 1.0, worst: 4.0; American: 4.0)

• Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
  Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, B.Sc. | 2020 – 2023
  Thesis: What makes you say that? Explaining Transformers using Rule Mining and Input Prototyping (supervised by Prof. Jilles Vreeken)
  Final GPA: 1.0 (best: 1.0, worst: 4.0; American: 4.0)

Teaching

• Course Assistant, Machine Learning (Core Lecture)
  Saarland University, Germany | Apr. 2026 – Sep. 2026

• Course Assistant, Elements of Machine Learning (Advanced Lecture)
  Saarland University, Germany | Oct. 2025 – Mar. 2026

• Instructor, Advanced Time Series Analysis (Seminar)
  Saarland University, Germany | Apr. 2025 – Sep. 2025

• Lecturer & Coach, Programming 2 Preparatory Course
  Saarland University, Germany | Apr. 2025

• Instructor, Tutor Didactics Seminar
  Saarland University, Germany | Oct. 2024

• Lecturer & Coach, Math Preparatory Course
  Saarland University, Germany | Sep. 2023 – Oct. 2023

• Teaching Assistant, Machine Learning (Core Lecture)
  Saarland University, Germany | Mar. 2023 – Sep. 2023

• Head Teaching Assistant, Programming 1 (Basic Lecture)
  Saarland University, Germany | Oct. 2022 – Mar. 2023

• Head Teaching Assistant & Lecturer & Coach, Math Preparatory Course
  Saarland University, Germany | Sep. 2022 – Oct. 2022

• Teaching Assistant, Programming 2 (Basic Lecture)
  Saarland University, Germany | Mar. 2022 – Sep. 2022

• Teaching Assistant, Programming 1 (Basic Lecture)
  Saarland University, Germany | Oct. 2021 – Mar. 2022

• Teaching Assistant, Math Preparatory Course
  Saarland University, Germany | Sep. 2021 – Oct. 2021

Scholarships

• Konrad Zuse School of Excellence in Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELIZA)
  Preparatory Phase (Master) Scholarship | Oct. 2024 – Sep. 2025

• German Academic Scholarship Foundation
  In German: Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, Student Scholarship | Mar. 2023 – Sep. 2025

• Graduate School of Computer Science
  Preparatory Phase (Master) Scholarship | Nov. 2023 – Sep. 2024

Publications

• Koyuncu, B., Bauerschmidt, T. N., and Valera, I. E-ProTran: Efficient Probabilistic Transformers for Forecasting. In ICML 2024 Workshop on Structured Probabilistic Inference & Generative Modeling, 2024.