#DigiWomenKA - Prof. Dr. Ina Schaefer

Female role models are important. They point out possibilities, help us to define our own goals and we can learn from their experiences. In our blog series #DigiWomenKA, Katharina Iyen meets one such role model from Karlsruhe’s digital sector once a month to find out more about them, their experiences and their commitment. Today she talks to Prof. Dr. Ina Schaefer, Professor of Software Engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

By Katharina Iyen

I meet the recently appointed KIT professor Dr. Ina Schaefer in the main computer science building at KIT. Finding her office in this large building turns out to be more difficult than I thought – and I ask a young student for directions. I am greeted warmly by Ina Schaefer, who is still in a call. I start our interview and immediately notice the relaxed, informal and casual atmosphere. We are immediately on a first-name basis – almost standard with the #DigiWomenKA.

Then I notice the fresh flowers in the office. Ina Schaefer tells me that she bought bouquets for her secretary and herself for International Women’s Day the day before. I also notice the colorful posters with cool slogans on the whiteboards – I know them from the CyberForum. “Passion never fails” is Ina Schaefer’s favorite poster .

From East Frisia to the KIT via detours

The native East Frisian was born in Emden, the daughter of a pastor and a teacher. Today, she enjoys discussing political, philosophical and theological topics with her father – or dissecting his colleagues’ sermons with him. It wasn’t always so relaxed. The computer science professor remembers: “As a pastor’s daughter, I was on a plate in the village, which is no longer the case as an adult.” Ina Schaefer studied computer science in Rostock. She tells me that the “arrival of the Internet” in her home had a major impact on this decision. She was good at math, but didn’t want to become an actuary. That, she tells me, was another reason why she went into IT.

During her studies, she spent a year in England, but returned to Germany, more precisely to Saarbrücken, for her diploma thesis. There she worked at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) before artificial intelligence (AI) really became fashionable. She completed her doctorate at the TU Kaiserslautern in 2008. She also received a scholarship for Sweden. Back in Germany, she was promptly offered a deputy professorship at TU Braunschweig. What she didn’t know at the time was that this would last for over ten years.

Drive for adventure

I want to know what drives this woman. She answers me without hesitation and smiles: “The East German adventure. I’ve always found this part of Germany exciting, just like science. Simply discovering, that’s what I love”. By that she also means inventing mathematical theories and then proving them. Creativity is very important to them. She is also at the forefront when it comes to giving her students room to develop and grow. “I want to give people space to do cool things,” she says. She believes that the right environment brings the right results. “Cooperation in science is also important,” she adds.

Quantum computing can improve software

Ina Schaefer is involved in political consulting alongside her work at the university and also works on improving software. Her specialist areas are software engineering and formal methods. Schaefer sees the improvement of software as the main purpose of her work. “Software doesn’t have to be as bad as it currently is,” she explains with a laugh. Software development for quantum computing is currently one of her most important projects. Her research can help with combinatorial optimization in particular, for example for route planning, load planning or scheduling, as quantum computers could do this work faster. To this end, she is working on design processes in the software.

I ask how a quantum computer actually works and immediately realize how passionate the new KIT professor is about her subject. She explains to me – in very simplified terms – that a quantum computer basically works with three quantum effects: The superposition, probabilistic measurement and entanglement. With the superposition, several states are calculated simultaneously. The probabilistic measurement describes several runs, which then result in a probability distribution. The entanglement combines two Q-bits in such a way that they behave in the same way.

Schaefer explains to me that these three quantum effects can be used to build algorithms that can solve difficult problems more quickly. As this all sounds very much like science fiction and future technology to me, I ask whether we will all have a quantum computer at home one day. The quantum computing expert laughs: “I don’t think so, as such a computer would need too much cooling. It is much more likely that normal computers will perhaps have individual quantum-based parts.” Another possible option is that in future we will send requests to quantum computers, which will then be processed there. This is already the case in the Amazon and Google cloud, for example.

However, the professor is driven by the desire to improve software in general. According to her, has “equally demonstrable properties”. This means that you have to think about what the program should do before developing it. “Specifications – i.e. pre- and post-conditions – have to be created and the program has to be refined step by step,” she explains to me in simplified terms.

Lots of potential for networking and promoting women

Schaefer moved to the fan-shaped city for the professorship at KIT. She appreciates the friendliness of her local colleagues and the people of Baden in general. She is also a fan of the city’s diverse cultural offerings. I find out that she has an annual pass for the zoo and a subscription to Badische Neuste Nachrichten (BNN).

When it comes to networking women in the Karlsruhe digital scene, she still sees potential for expansion. She herself is still poorly networked locally, which is not very surprising after such a short time. Nevertheless, a lot can happen in terms of promoting women, says Schaefer. Schaefer also sees development potential in women daring to seize opportunities: “There is a tendency to rethink everything instead of just getting started. Keyword: ‘The grass is always greener on the other side’. This often prevents women from simply going for it and seizing opportunities. We weigh things up too much, despite having the right skills.” Schaefer’s philosophy is to seize opportunities that arise.

#DigiWomenKA very private

I would still like to know from this #DigiWomen what she is actually not so good at. She honestly admits that she could definitely become more self-confident – which really surprises me. But she tells me with a smile that she is particularly good at remembering criticism. Sometimes she wishes she could react more quickly to inappropriate comments. Especially because she doesn’t like to publicize her successes. For example, the “Most Influential Paper Award” that she received. This prize was awarded to her in 2022 by the organizers of the “Software Product Line Conference” for a paper published in 2010. Over the twelve years since its publication, it has proven to be particularly valuable for the scientific community and has led to a series of papers based on it. For Schaefer, this shows that sometimes you have to be patient until the real benefits of scientific results become apparent.