November 17, 2025

Talk: Willi Mann and Stefan de Lorenzo

On November 04, 2025, we had the pleasure to host a talk from Willi Mann and Stefan de Lorenzo on the Celonis Process Query Language (PQL) at the Department of Computer Science.

PQL is a powerful and intuitive data query language designed specifically for business users.

Together with the audience, Willi Mann and Stefan de Lorenzo explored PQL’s core data model with tables and a cycle-free join graph, PQL’s “column-oriented” language structure to simplify data retrieval and knowledge management, and filter-related key features like decoupled filtering, late filter application, and composability. Afterwards, Willi Mann and Stefan de Lorenzo gave an outline of the implementation and the underlying architecture, including an efficient software-level caching mechanism, and concluded with an outlook on PQL’s evolution to nativ OCDM query support. Finally, Willi Mann and Stefan de Lorenzo engaged in intensive discussions with the audience to clarify open questions.

November 14, 2025

Congratulations to Manuel Widmoser on successfully defending his dissertation

On October 31, 2025, Manuel Widmoser successfully defended his cumulative Ph.D. thesis “Scaling Similarity Queries to Massive Datasets”.

Thereby, Mr. Widmoser completed his doctoral studies and received the title “Dr. techn.” (equiv. Ph.D.).

Over the last four years, Mr. Widmoser diligently worked on multiple similarity query techniques and how to efficiently execute them on very large datasets. As part of his Ph.D. thesis, Mr. Widmoser introduced the following novel techniques: (1) A robust similarity join algorithm that leverages metric properties to provide fast runtimes and low memory consumption over a wide range of different dataset characteristics. (2) The first design for distributed inverted list index under memory disaggregation (the current architectural trend for large data centers). Ultimately, this enables efficient similarity query processing in a distributed setting, i.e., if the index no longer fits into the main memory of a single machine. (3) The first graph-preserving design of the Hierarchical Navigable Small Worlds (HNSW) index under memory disaggregation that scales beyond billions of vectors while retaining near in-memory performance and high accuracy.

November 5, 2025

teampool scholarships awarded to computer science students at the University of Salzburg

On Thursday, October 23, 2025, teampool personal service gmbh awarded scholarships and prizes to two computer science students at the University of Salzburg. Two students received a new scholarship, and two scientific papers were awarded prizes of €1,000 each.

New scholarships for talented computer science students

Students Yvonne Holzer and Filip Kipman can look forward to computer science scholarships worth €1,000 per month. In addition, the bachelor’s thesis of Manuel Lankes and the master’s thesis of Anna Bolotina were each awarded €1,000. These theses are characterized by a high level of technical expertise and innovative approaches.

October 20, 2025

Filip Kipman: Computer science student receives teampool scholarship

Filip Kipman, born in 2005, is one of the most outstanding young talents in the STEM field. After graduating with honors from BG/BRG Hallein, he impressed with numerous successes in chess, mathematics, and chemistry—including winning the PULS4 chemistry show “Chemical Intelligence” at the Gamechangers Festival in Vienna (2024) and two state championship titles at the Chemistry Olympiad.

As a long-standing member of the youth performance squad and multiple state chess champion in Salzburg, he demonstrated his commitment and ability at an exceptionally early age. In addition to his computer science studies, Kipman runs his own small business and programs websites for customers and his high school class, among other things.

October 20, 2025

Manuel Lankes receives teampool award for his bachelor's thesis

Manuel Lankes, born in 2003, graduated from Rottmayr Gymnasium Laufen in Germany. He is currently working as a project assistant at the University of Salzburg while pursuing a master’s degree in computer science.

In his research, he is continuing to develop the topic from his bachelor’s thesis on accelerating Jaro-Winkler similarity joins and plans to publish the results at a conference in the near future. He has now received the prestigious teampool award for his bachelor’s thesis.

October 16, 2025

Anna Bolotina receives teampool award for her master's thesis

Anna Bolotina received her bachelor’s degree from Southern Federal University in Russia in 2018 and her master’s degree from the University of Salzburg in 2024. She is currently a doctoral student in formal methods at the University of Salzburg under the supervision of Prof. Christoph Kirsch. From 2019 to 2022, she was a research assistant at the Czech Technical University in Prague and from 2022 to 2024 at the University of Salzburg. Her research focuses on programming languages and functional programming. She has now received the prestigious teampool award for her master’s thesis.

Her thesis, “Symbolic Benchmarking of RISC-V Code,” deals with symbolic benchmarking. What exactly does that mean, and why is it relevant?