The AI-professor who fell for Luleå
One summer day in 2017, Marcus Liwicki from Germany landed at Luleå Airport. He was invited to visit Luleå University of Technology, where he was applying for a professorship in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Already when the airport bus started rolling, Luleå had made a good first impression.
– Everything went so smoothly. We got off the plane, the bags arrived immediately, soon the bus rolled into town. It was neither crowded nor stressful.
Three years later, the family bought a house in Södra Sunderbyn and had two children. Life in Norrbotten feels like an obvious future.
In the spring of 2017, Marcus Liwicki was busy. He had a full-time position as head of research at a company in Berlin where he worked on AI and digitization. Good pay, a great apartment with a view of the city skyline and a job he enjoyed. He had almost forgotten that two years earlier he had sent in an application for a professorship at Luleå University of Technology. At a conference in Alaska, he met a researcher from Luleå and was reminded of his application – and the same day the phone call came. The department wanted to invite Marcus to Sweden so that he could familiarize himself with the workplace and the city.
– I was actually quite satisfied with life in Berlin then, I wasn't looking for a new job anymore. But we have moved often and are open to new opportunities, so I wanted to know more and took my wife with me on the trip to Sweden. If nothing else, it would be an exciting vacation, I thought.
Luleå was the right place
The first evening in Sweden they had dinner at Hemmagastronomi, a well-known restaurant in central Luleå where the family are now regulars. They talked about their impressions and Marcus especially remembers that his wife, Fotini Simistira Liwicki, was already sure that Luleå was right for them. Fotini comes from Greece and, like Marcus, has tried living in several cities and countries around the world. Today, she also works at the university, where she leads Sweden's first civil engineering program in applied artificial intelligence.
Marcus Liwicki returned to Luleå a couple of months later, in the middle of winter. He is a person with an eye for details and this time he noticed other things:
– People in northern Sweden are fantastic at working with lighting, both homes and workplaces have many small lights that make them cozy during the dark season. To go for a walk and see all the illuminated houses in December, they look like in a fairy tale!
"Luleå is a good place for children to grow up in"
In February 2018, Marcus was offered the position of professor of AI and machine learning at the Department of Systems and Space Engineering, and in the summer of 2018 they left Berlin. They found a temporary home in a villa in Sinksundet and were impressed by the location, by the water and close to town. After a couple of months, they found their dream house in Södra Sunderbyn in a similar location with a view down to the river. They got on well with the previous owner and moved into the house two days before he moved out – something the realtor had not previously been involved with.
- When we found the house, I knew for sure, we will stay in Luleå for the rest of our lives.
Since moving to Sweden, the couple has adopted two children who are now six and four years old.
- Luleå and Södra Sunderbyn are good places for children to grow up, it feels good that they grow up in such an open society. In the big cities where we previously lived, the apartment can feel like a prison with lots of security devices, here we have a large plot and they can move freely.
Colleagues from all over the world
At the university, the work environment is open and non-prestige with colleagues from all over the world. During Vårt Luleå's short visit, we have time to meet colleagues from India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Iraq. Marcus highlights that the department where he is manager feels like a family and talks passionately about his job.
– My entire career is focused on machine learning and pattern recognition, trying to teach machines to see the world the same way a human does. My doctoral thesis was about teaching machines to read human handwriting, but it can also be about teaching machines to understand what is in photos or drawings, technology that is used both in smart phones and by, for example, Google today.
We are doing most of the interview in English, but Marcus has started learning Swedish and is getting better every day. He shows the way to an auditorium where we will see part of the presentation he usually uses in international contexts to talk about Luleå and LTU. He lights up the hall, folds down the projector screen with the push of a button and connects his computer to Wi-Fi. Soon a slide appears on the white screen.
– This is what I love about Sweden, that everything just works, it's like launching a spaceship! Wifi, the projector, the lighting in the hall - it might sound strange, but it really hasn't been like that in my previous workplaces. This is what I appreciate about everyday life now, all the little details together, it becomes so easy when they just work.
Luleå offers quality of life and career
Since moving to Luleå, Marcus has recruited over 25 people to his team, people from all over the world who all have different specialist skills in AI and machine learning. Today, in addition to being a professor, he is also vice-rector of the department, which means that he often holds external meetings. Right now he is planning for a big event this autumn, a conference on deep learning with over 300 international guests. Marcus intends to take the chance to inspire and build his recruitment base for the future.
– Luleå and Norrbotten have so much to offer when it comes to quality of life and career. It may not be the highest salaries internationally, but LTU is a workplace where you really get to develop, travel and learn more. Simply the best of the university world. I hope that my journey can inspire more people to dare to move here!
Text: Frida Mörtsell
Photo: Jimmy Edlund, Burban Studios