On May 4, 2026, SMART Master Lab Cohort 3.0 came together for its kick-off day at IMBI.
The program opened with SMART PI Nadine Binder, who introduced the SmallData / SMART context, followed by SMART Coordinator Iván Acevedo, who outlined structure, goals and timeline of the program.
A central part of the day was the exchange between students and SMART doctoral researchers. Through short project presentations, students were introduced to current work and methods by Maryam Farhadizadeh (A02), Johannes Hog (B01), Jelena Bratulić (B04) Carola Heinzel (C01), M Asif Hasan (C04) and Niklas Brunn (Associated ECR).
The afternoon moved from introduction to practice, featuring hands-on activities organized by the doctoral researchers on interpreting Large Language Models and building cell models from biological literature using LLM-powered code agents.
Beyond the formal agenda, the kick-off fostered a valuable space for exchange and interaction among both students and doctoral researchers. Master’s students engaged with current methodological challenges and research approaches addressed in SMART. Doctoral researchers had the opportunity to translate complex methods into accessible formats and engage with students at the beginning of their research journey.
Thank you to all students, mentors, PIs and organizers involved. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – German Research Foundation.
Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics,
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center –
University of Freiburg
