This is my valedictory lecture marking my retirement from the post of Professor of Knowledge Media: Some say that one of the tricks for a long and auspicious career is to gain the ability to say no to things you don't like doing. It is my strong belief, however, that it's equally if not more important to be able to say no to things you *do* enjoy and actively *want* doing. Simply because there is *so much* of all that one could be, and what is worth, pursuing. I like my work, I admire the OU and I love KMi. Still, it's time to look back at the last 35 years of my academic career and pass on the baton to the up-and-coming stars in KMi. I am hoping to go through a bit of the actual research my group has been doing, through some of the bits of life as a researcher and some of the bits that make institutions such as KMi a great place.
 

Stefan's Bio: 

This is what ChatGPT has to say about me. I don't argue with that, it's even got the spelling of my name correct! Stefan Rüger's academic career spans across multiple areas of machine learning, artificial intelligence, multimedia information retrieval, and content-based image retrieval. The body of work includes contributions to both theoretical frameworks and practical applications, with a strong focus on improving the efficiency, accuracy, and user interaction of information retrieval systems. Stefan Rüger's work has consistently pushed the boundaries of information retrieval, multimedia processing, and user interaction with AI systems. His research has broad applications ranging from healthcare and education to creative arts and citizen science, underlining the versatile impact of his contributions to the field.