On July 31, 2026, SMART Master Lab Cohort 3.0 came together for its guided poster tour and send-off event. The session marked the conclusion of the current Master Lab round, which began with the kick-off day on May 4, 2026.

Over the course of the program, students worked on research questions connected to current SmallData projects. The guided poster tour gave them the opportunity to present their results, discuss methodological choices, and receive feedback from CRC members, mentors, and peers.

The event opened at 1 with remarks by the CRC speaker Harald Binder, followed by the guided poster tour. Presentation topics included:

• Clustering Healthcare Pathways: Comparing Different Methods, presented by Sian Gijo (mentor: Maryam Farhadizadeh, A02)
• Improving Cell Segmentation and Tracking via Mechanistic Models of Rod-Shaped Bacteria, presented by Moritz Steinmaier (mentor: Jelena Bratulić, B04)
• Prior-Fitted Surrogates in Population-Based Bandit Optimization, presented by Ali Jafari (mentors: Johannes Hog, B01, and M Asif Hasan, C04)
• Comparison of Mathematics and Machine Learning with Application to Population Genetics, presented by Ishant Srivastava (mentor: Carola Heinzel, C01)
• LLM-judged Triplets to Generate Ordinal Embeddings of Single-Cell RNA-Sequencing Data, presented by Arav Mendiratta (mentor: Niklas Brunn, Project F)

After the guided tour, participants continued the exchange during an open poster discussion with coffee and snacks. The informal setting created space for follow-up questions, bilateral discussion, and reflection on the different methodological approaches presented by the cohort.

Presentation Award

To recognize clear and effective science communication, Sian Gijo received the Best Poster Award for the strongest presentation of the afternoon, “Clustering Healthcare Pathways: Comparing Different Methods”. The award highlighted the clarity of her presentation and the accessible way she communicated the methodological comparison behind the project.

Thank you Cohort 3.0!

The event concluded with final remarks and a certificate ceremony led by SMART Coordinator Iván Acevedo, with thanks to the students, mentors, jury members Susanne Weber, Tim Litwin, and Jana Naue, and the wider SMART and SmallData community.

We thank all students, mentors, doctoral researchers, PIs, and CRC members who contributed to SMART Master Lab Cohort 3.0!

Stay updated on future SMART Master Lab activities here.

Marc Schumacher

Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics,
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center –
University of Freiburg