Jan Simson

👋 Hi, I’m Jan! I’m currently a doctoral candidate just about to finish my degree at the Department of Statistics at the LMU Munich, with affiliations at the Konrad Zuse School for Excellence in Reliable AI and the Munich Center for Machine Learning (MCML).

My research focuses on building artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) systems that are not only powerful but also fair, reliable and ethical. A central thread of my work is a critical re-evaluation of the classical machine learning pipeline, including the potential of citizen science for informing the design of ML / AI systems. I am committed to promoting practices of open science and open source software in my work and teaching.

I graduated with a Master of Science in Psychology: Behavioural Data Science from the Universiteit van Amsterdam and just after, worked as a data analyst at PicNic, a Dutch grocery startup. Previously, I spent a year working as a research fellow at the Harvard Music Lab (now at Yale & Auckland), where we study the perception of music and with whom I still collaborate. During my PhD, I also worked as a research intern at Sony AI in Switzerland.

I enjoy solving hard problems and combine insights and methods from Data Science, Psychology and Computer Science in my work. Besides my research, I give professional workshops with a focus on technical skills such as using git effectively. If you’re interested in a workshop, please get in touch.

Before I started working at the Harvard Music Lab, I finished my Bachelor of Science in Psychology at the University of Konstanz in Germany. During my Bachelor in Psychology, I spent a year abroad at the University of Essex in the UK. Before starting my academic studies, I completed a vocational education as a Specialized Computer Scientist in Software Development at three-2-one in Germany, for whom I continued working throughout the whole of my academic studies.