Throughout human history, we have been searching for knowledge. And for many researchers, this pursuit remains the driving force. At least for Katja Hose, Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Aalborg University, who works on utilising technologies that make it easier to obtain and share accurate and reliable information and knowledge. But more on that later.

Katja Hose grew up in what she describes as the middle of Germany, in a small village less than an hour's drive from Kassel. After graduating from high school, she moved to Ilmenau where she earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Informatics, and then the plan was that she would find a good job in a company.

But things didn't work out that way. Even before she graduated from university, her thesis supervisor had spotted her talent and offered her a PhD position. The choice wasn't difficult.

Accustomed to rainy weather

With a PhD under her belt, she initially went on to the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, before landing in Aalborg in 2012. And there was a particular reason for that.

− In Germany, it’s much harder to have a research career, and as a young researcher you don’t have the security of a permanent position and are forced to move around. I needed stability, and when I saw that there were job opportunities in Aalborg, I took a chance. Aalborg had a good reputation, so I thought: why not!

At the same time, moving to Denmark as a German was not such a big leap, Katja Hose explains.

− The culture shock was minimal. I was used to rainy weather, and in many ways the language is the same, even though the Danes would rather not admit that. I usually say that, for a German, moving to Denmark is "abroad light".

Professor at thirty-eight

Fast forward nine years, and Katja Hose has settled in well in Aalborg where she lives in Klarup with her husband, who hails from England, and the couple's two children. But a lot has happened since they first arrived in the city. Having obtained a prestigious grant from the Poul Due Jensen Foundation, Katja was appointed professor at just 38, and despite her young age she has already left a noticeable mark in her field. In 2018, for example, she received a Sapere Aude grant from Independent Research Fund Denmark – a privilege that is only granted to excellent junior researchers.

When you ask Katja what her research area is, she usually says that she works at the intersection of big data, machine learning and semantic technologies. Or, more specifically, she works on utilising, creating value and extracting knowledge from the vast amount of data we constantly generate, for example, by using graph data and graph databases to structure data in the form of a graph. A graph consists of nodes that are connected by edges.  For example, the nodes can represent Aalborg and Denmark. They are connected to each other, as Aalborg is located in Denmark. This is an edge in the graph.

− We all encounter knowledge graphs every day. Like on Google. When you search Aalborg, you get a small infobox on the right side, and that information is taken from a knowledge graph where Google collects and extracts data about the city. Basically, they know that Aalborg is located in Denmark. Amazon and Ebay also have large product graphs capturing products and information about customers that can be used to display a set of items customers are likely to be interested in. There are also social graphs, like on Facebook, where  most of us are interconnected.  It's not often something we talk about much, but it's everywhere. You just don't see it, Katja explains, adding that knowledge graphs are also a popular tool for integrating and combining data across different sources and formats, such as in data lakes.

Katja is interested in the entire cycle – how to extract knowledge from text or data, and from that produce structured graphs – and integrating different information so that it still makes sense. She has also done a lot of research on query processing and optimisation, i.e. ways to ensure that the user gets a response to a query as accurately and quickly as possible via potentially different data sources.

Working with other disciplines

In recent years, she has also been interested in health data and bioscience. For example, in a new project supported by VILLUM FONDEN where, in collaboration with Mads Albertsen from the Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, she utilises knowledge about DNA sequencing, graph analysis and machine learning to map genomes from bacteria faster and better than before:

In another large project, funded by Innovation Fund Denmark, she collaborates with colleagues in a broad consortium of universities, consulting companies, builders and public sector authorities to digitalise environmental assessments. Today, many reports end up gathering dust even though they contain valuable knowledge for assessing the impact of projects on the Sustainable Development Goals. The project aims to change that.

No meetings after 4PM

The freedom to seek new pastures is something Katja really appreciates.

− I enjoy the freedom we have as researchers, having a say in what we work on. If you’re very interested in an area, no one holds you back.

She is also very conscious of the fact that being employed in Aalborg means she has better opportunities in terms of combining career and family life than if she had stayed in her home country.

− I don’t think that the Danes are really aware of how good the Danish system is when it comes to things like day care. And there is usually a general, unwritten rule that you don’t schedule meetings after 4pm and that it’s perfectly okay to head home and pick up children. I wasn’t familiar with this, and it's actually pretty special. However, it is probably important to say that the whole coronavirus situation has affected these conditions and we now need to be even more flexible.

PBL gives students special prerequisites

Like other researchers at Aalborg University, Katja Hose also spends a lot of time teaching. And although she had to get used to the Danish less formal tone between the teaching staff and the students, she is happy to work with young people because, as she says, they’re nice and they’re interested in what’s being taught.

In addition to the tone, the switch to Aalborg University also meant that Katja was introduced to the teaching method of problem-based learning (PBL). It was a new concept for her, but after nine years in Northern Jutland, she now sees significant benefits in the Aalborg method.

However, Katja would like AAU students to have more subjects so they are introduced to more topics.

− It’s not unusual for German students to have eight or nine subjects per semester. But I also know you can't have it all. The students in Aalborg are already quite busy.

Establish her own group

Busy – so is Katja. While her work calendar is full, free time is generally spent on family. And although the children and adults are juggling three languages at home – Danish, German and English – they have no plans to pull up stakes.

− We feel really comfortable in Klarup; it's a lovely town and we have nice neighbours. I really just dream about being able to keep doing what I do. But we’ll see; we're all evolving. In the longer term, I also hope to be able to set up my own research group and attract a lot of talented colleagues. So, clearly, I plan to stay!