Prof. Kerschke: The orientation of the professorship appealed to me directly, as it fitted my profile very well, especially in terms of methodology. Nevertheless, I first had to look into myself to make the connection between Big Data Analytics and transport and traffic sciences. The more I thought about it, the more attractive and exciting the position became for me.

Prof. Kerschke: So far, my research has been very methodically oriented. One focus was / is optimisation. Here I am particularly interested in the improvement (increase in efficiency) of the optimisation process itself, as well as the characterisation of the underlying problems, as this results in a better understanding of the problem. I always use different methods from (statistical) data analysis and (automated) machine learning. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to find practice partners for projects, as many companies do not want to make their data available - especially not if they are to be published afterwards as part of a publication.

Prof. Kerschke: I would like to give them a first feeling for data and familiarise them with approaches for working with data. Where do I get data from? What do I do with them when I have them? How can I process them in a meaningful and profitable way? Simple and clear visualisations, supplemented by various methods and procedures from computer science and statistics, are already very helpful. I would also like to try to take away the scepticism and reluctance that often exists on these topics. Experience shows that in many cases the use and interpretation of these methods is much easier than it first appears. Of course, I personally use these methods regularly in my own projects. They help me to recognise possible patterns in the available data, to extract specific information from it and to check the plausibility of my models and results.

Prof. Kerschke: International networks and conferences are important platforms in my field for exchanging ideas and publishing new research results. I use that wherever possible. For example, I am a member of the advisory board of the international research network COSEAL, which deals specifically with the (automated) selection and configuration of algorithms. I also support the CLAIRE initiative, which aims to promote European excellence in all areas of AI.

Pascal Kerschke is a member of numerous national and international organisations and bodies such as

• the European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS)
• the ACM Special Interest Group on Evolutionary Computation (SigEVO)
• the IEEE CIS Task Force on Benchmarking
• the Society for Classification (GfKl) Data Science Society
• the Society for Informatics (GI), the German Statistical Society (DStatG)and
• CLAIRE (Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe).
• He is also a coordinating founding member of the research networks COSEAL (Configuration and Selection of Algorithms) and Benchmarking Network.