Artificial Intelligence and Integrated Computer Systems (AIICS)

The Division Artificial Intelligence and Integrated Computer Systems is part of the Department of Computer and Information Science. The division's main focus is research and teaching in artificial intelligence, its theoretical foundations and its applications. 

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The division has around 70 employees and consists of five units (research laboratories):

  • Artificial Intelligence (AILAB)
  • Machine Reasoning (MR)
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP)
  • Reasoning and Learning (ReaL)
  • Theoretical Computer Science (TCSLAB)


For a presentation of each unit, please see below.

AIICS is established as a Centre of Excellence at LiU known as AI4X

Centres of Excellence strengthen LiU’s research

The investment in four prominent research environments, Centres of Excellence, will ensure long-term development, improved quality and deeper collaboration for LiU.

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RESIST is recruiting in cyber resilient AI

RESIST is recruiting seven PhD students and two postdocs to strengthen Sweden’s position in secure and trustworthy AI. The positions are part of the national center for cyber resilient AI.

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National initiative to protect AI systems from cyberattacks

LiU will host a new national centre aimed at developing resilient AI systems. The funding of SEK 60 million comes from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research and its director will be LiU Professor Fredrik Heintz.

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New Wallenberg Academy Fellows researching 6G and AI

LiU researchers Jendrik Seipp and Zheng Chen have been appointed as new Wallenberg Academy Fellows. The funding gives promising researchers the opportunity to tackle challenging research questions that require a long-term approach.

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Unit Artificial Intelligence (AILAB)

Research in AILAB focuses on the theoretical and practical aspects associated with the representation of knowledge and the reasoning and inference techniques associated with the processing of knowledge as used by both physical and software artifacts.

Research groups

AILAB includes three topic-focused research groups:

  • Cognitive Robotics
  • Applied Logic
  • Planning and Diagnosis

Research topics

Research topics of current interest include the following:

  • Autonomous Intelligent Systems: From our research perspective, autonomous systems are man-made physical systems containing computational equipment and software that provide them with capabilities for receiving and comprehending sensory data, for reasoning, and for rational action in their environment, which is independent of human control. The degree of independence varies relative to task and purpose. Consequently, systems can be more or less autonomous. Our focus is on studying and developing hardware, software, and algorithms for autonomous intelligent systems that interact with other agents and human operators. The AILAB has more than two decades of experience with the development of air and ground autonomous systems used as demonstration platforms for the lab’s research results.
  • Multi-Agent Systems: Research with multi-agent systems involves studying and developing AI problem-solving and control paradigms for single and multi-agent systems where issues related to interaction, cooperation, autonomy, and distribution are paramount.
  • Cognitive Robotics: Research in cognitive robotics involves studying and developing higher-level cognitive functions that involve reasoning and empirically testing such functions on deployed robotic systems. Central to the endeavour is the efficient use and representation of models of the robot and its embedding environment and the grounding of these models in such environments through sensing and perception systems. Logic is often the modeling language of choice in this respect.
  • Applied Logic: Research in applied logic involves the study and use of logic as a representational mechanism for constructing models and a reasoning mechanism for using such models in intelligent artifacts such as software agents or robotic systems.
  • Planning and Diagnosis: Research with automated planning involves studying and developing algorithms that generate strategies or sequences of actions to achieve goals. Research with automated diagnosis involves studying and developing of algorithms that capitalise on cause-effect information in a system or system environment to troubleshoot and provide explanations and remedies for faulty system or cognitive behavior.

The AILAB, formerly known as the Knowledge Processing Laboratory (KPLAB), was established in 1996. Mariusz Wzorek heads the lab. There are currently two professors, two research assistants, and three research engineers, of which one conducts his PhD studies.

Unit Machine Reasoning (MR)

Within our research laboratory, we develop machines that can reason and act in complex environments. Our primary research area is Automated Planning, which we complement with techniques from Machine Learning, Combinatorial Optimisation and Operations Research.

Research topics

Our main topics of interest include:

  • Theory of Planning: We contribute to the theoretical foundations of Automated Planning, studying the complexity of planning problems and algorithms.
  • Learning Planning Models: We develop algorithms that extract the dynamics of an observed environment to learn compact descriptions of planning tasks.
  • Efficient Planning Algorithms: We design and implement scalable planning algorithms, mainly based on heuristic state-space search.
  • Generalised Planning: We create methods for learning how to solve a whole class of tasks efficiently.
  • Planning and Reinforcement Learning: We combine the interpretability of planning with the flexibility of reinforcement learning.


In summary, we strive to create AI systems that efficiently solve intricate sequential decision-making problems, based on solid theoretical foundations and practical algorithms.

The unit is led by Jendrik Seipp, Associate professor.

Unit Natural Language Processing (NLP)

We develop and analyse computational models of human language. Our work ranges from basic research on algorithms and machine learning to applied research in language technology and computational social science.

Our current focus is on analysing and enhancing neural language models. Specifically, we are working on methods for improving model efficiency, trustworthiness, and usefulness for lesser-resourced languages. We also have a long-standing interest in work on the intersection of natural language processing and theoretical computer science.

We are participating in several national and international research collaborations, including the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP), the EU-funded project TrustLLM – Democratize Trustworthy and Efficient Large Language Model Technology for Europe, and the Swedish Excellence Centre for Computational Social Science (SweCSS).

Our teaching portfolio comprises courses and degree projects in natural language processing and text mining at the basic, advanced, and doctoral levels.

The unit is led by Marco Kuhlmann, Professor.


Unit Reasoning and Learning (ReaL)

The Reasoning and Learning (ReaL) AI Lab does fundamental AI research on algorithms, techniques and methods for machine reasoning, machine learning, and the integration of reasoning and learning. Our emphasis is on AI that is trustworthy, robust and transparent. Beyond theoretical contributions, the ReaL AI Lab addresses high-impact technical and societal challenges, producing practical AI advancements for real-world applications.

Research topics

Our research topics include:

  • Combinatorial Assignment
  • Generative AI for time-series
  • Large Language Models
  • Reasoning and Learning
  • Reinforcement Learning
  • Stream Reasoning and Learning
  • Synthetic Data Generation
  • Effective Autonomous Systems

ReaL leads many of the AI activities at Linköping University, including one of the four EU-funded networks of AI research excellence centers (TAILOR), the TrustLLM EU project developing trustworthy and factual large language models, and the Wallenberg AI and Transformative Technologies Education Development Program (WASP-ED).

Funding

The research is funded by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW), Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP), Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation (MAW), WASP Humanities and Society (WASP-HS), Vinnova, Horizon 2020, ELLIIT, Trafikverket, Graduate School in Computer Science (CUGS, LiU), and Zenith (LiU).

Collaboration

The ReaL AI Lab collaborates with and actively supports Swedish industry, the government and both the public and private sector. ReaL provides broad and deep AI expertise necessary to take full advantage of modern, trustworthy AI. Our focus is on AI solutions for decision support that are not only useful and reliable but also proven effective in real-world applications.

We make AI practical, reliable, and real. We make it ReaL.

The unit is led by Fredrik Heintz, Professor.

Unit Theoretical Computer Science (TCSLAB) 

Research at AIICS

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ELLIIT - a network for Information and Communication Technology

ELLIIT is a network organization for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) research at Linköping, Lund, Halmstad and Blekinge. The objective is scientific excellence in combination with industrial relevance and impact.


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TAILOR – A European network of AI excellence centres

TAILOR is a European project coordinated by Linköping University, with the aim to build the capacity to provide the scientific foundations for Trustworthy AI in Europe. TAILOR is also a network of research excellence centres.

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RESIST - Resilience and Security for Trustworthy AI Systems

Our vision is to make Sweden a role model in secure trustworthy AI by pioneering cyber resilience across the AI lifecycle.

European online Master's programme with LiU as a partner

Latest publications

2026

Kostiantyn Kucher, Magnus Bång, Jonas Lundberg (2026) Human-AI Interaction and Visualization Perspectives on ADR Artificial Intelligence, Data and Robotics: Foundations, Transformations and Future Directions, p. 621-647 (Chapter in book) Continue to DOI
Ambroise Baril, Miguel Couceiro, Victor Lagerkvist (2026) Improved Bounds for Twin-Width Parameter Variants with Algorithmic Applications to Counting Graph Colorings Theory of Computing Systems, Vol. 70, Article 12 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Daniel de Leng, Aya Rizk (2026) Applied AI Compass: A decision-support method and toolkit for developing applied AI education
Paul Höft (2026) Computing Perfect Cost Partitioning Heuristics for Classical Planning
Hugo-Henrik Hachem, Tanya Osborne, Sahara Sadik, Mattias Wiggberg, Wei Li Fu, Yong Qing Ho, Fredrik Heintz (2026) Two peas in two pods? Comparing Sweden and Singapore's lifelong learning policy and practice response to AI skills demands Journal of Adult and Continuing Education (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Konrad K. Dabrowski, Peter Jonsson, Sebastian Ordyniak, George Osipov (2026) Algorithms and complexity of difference logic Journal of computer and system sciences (Print), Vol. 159, Article 103780 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Ehsan Doostmohammadi (2026) Toward Understanding and Enhancing the Training and Evaluation of Language Models: A Study on Vision, Instruction Tuning, and Retrieval Augmentation
Ali Cheaitou, Anwar Hamdan, Fakhariya Ibrahim, Sadeque Hamdan, Jonas Lundberg, Imad Alsyouf, Magnus Bång, Karljohan Lundin Palmerius, Amir Shikhli, Billy Josefsson, Zain El Abideen Tahboub, Erik Junholm, Jimmy Johansson Westberg (2026) Optimizing and visualizing dynamic service performance for airspace users to enable safe and efficient urban air mobility in Dubai Annals of Operations Research (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Anna Akerfeldt, Linda Mannila, Susanne Kjallander, Fredrik Heintz (2026) How Do Swedish Primary Teachers Introduce Programming in Their Classrooms, and What Strategies Are Used? ACM Transactions on Computing Education, Vol. 26, Article 1 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI
Sanjay Chakraborty, Ibrahim Delibasoglu, Fredrik Heintz (2026) Scaling transformers for time series forecasting: do pretrained large models outperform small-scale alternatives? Artificial Intelligence Review, Vol. 59, Article 62 (Article in journal) Continue to DOI

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