Dr.-Ing. Zeyd Boukhers

Lead of FAIR Data & Distributed Analytics Group

Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT)

Institute for Medical Informatics, University Hospital of Cologne

I believe that AI and data science should be both powerful and trustworthy. My research develops machine learning, semantic web technologies, knowledge management, and FAIR data infrastructure that work reliably across domains—from healthcare and biodiversity to scholarly data and cultural heritage. With dual appointments at Fraunhofer FIT and University Hospital of Cologne, I build systems that enable researchers in any field to harness AI, semantic interoperability, and data science responsibly, transparently, and effectively.

Dr.-Ing. Zeyd Boukhers

Research Interests

Leading the FAIR Data & Distributed Analytics Group at Fraunhofer FIT

FAIR Data

Data management, FAIR principles, data spaces

Machine Learning

Deep learning, neural networks, AI applications

NLP

Natural language processing, text mining

Data Sovereignty

Data governance, privacy, security

Research Topics

Explore my research areas - click to see related publications

Recent News

August 30, 2026

Evolutionary Soups Accepted at EMNLP 2026

Our paper "Evolutionary Soups: Evolving Mixture-of-Experts for Multi-Objective LLM Alignment" has been accepted to the EMNLP 2026 Main Conference. The work introduces an evolutionary mixture-of-experts approach for controllable multi-objective alignment of large language models.

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July 07, 2026

New DFG-Funded Project on Synthetic Health Data

Our project "Synthetic Data as a Bridge Across Health Data Silos: Evaluating Privacy, Fidelity and Utility for Cross-Domain Patient Journey Analysis" has been approved for funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of its Exploration Phase. The project investigates how synthetic health data can bridge fragmented healthcare data environments while preserving privacy and supporting meaningful cross-domain patient journey analysis. The work will evaluate synthetic data along three key dimensions: privacy, fidelity, and utility, in collaboration with the Institute for Biomedical Informatics in Cologne and Berlin University of Applied Sciences.

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August 14, 2026

Paper Accepted at ICPR 2026

Our paper "Enhancing RL Generalizability in Robotics through SHAP Analysis of Algorithms and Hyperparameters" has been accepted at ICPR 2026. The work studies how reinforcement-learning algorithms and hyperparameters influence cross-environment generalization using SHAP-based explanations.

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Recent Publications

  1. 2026 Conference Paper

    Autonomous FAIR Digital Objects: From Passive Assertions to Active Knowledge

    Zeyd Boukhers , Oya Beyan , Cong Yang , Christoph Lange

    The 25th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2026)
  2. 2026 Conference Paper

    Evolutionary Soups: Evolving Mixture-of-Experts for Multi-Objective LLM Alignment

    Lingxiao Kong , Steffen Staab , Cong Yang , Oya Beyan , Zeyd Boukhers

    Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP 2026)
  3. 2026 Conference Paper

    Automated Construction of FAIR Digital Object Knowledge Graphs from Flat Cultural Heritage Records

    Zeyd Boukhers , Lingxiao Kong , Xenophon Zabulis , Georgios Toubekis

    Proceedings of the 35th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM 2026)
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Upcoming Events & Talks

Oct
25
2026
Talk

ISWC 2026 - Presenting Autonomous FAIR Digital Objects

The Nicolaus Hotel

Presenting our paper 'Autonomous FAIR Digital Objects: From Passive Assertions to Active Knowledge' at the 25th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2026), introducing an operational framework for FAIR Digital Objects that can autonomously validate evidence, apply policies, communicate updates, and reconcile conflicting knowledge.

TBA Bari, Italy
Event Details
Nov
03
2026
Project Meeting

ARGUS Final Project Meeting and Final Conference

Divani Palace Acropolis

Participating in the final ARGUS project meeting from 3-5 November 2026, concluding the Horizon Europe project on non-destructive, scalable and smart monitoring of remote cultural heritage. The internal project meeting will be followed by the ARGUS Final Conference on 4-5 November, presenting the project's results on remote sensing, sensor networks, AI, digital twins, data integration, risk assessment, and preventive conservation.

TBA Athens, Greece
Event Details
Nov
07
2026
Talk

CIKM 2026 - Presenting FAIR Digital Object Knowledge Graphs for Cultural Heritage

Auditorium Parco della Musica

Presenting our short paper 'Automated Construction of FAIR Digital Object Knowledge Graphs from Flat Cultural Heritage Records' at CIKM 2026. The work investigates how flat Europeana cultural heritage metadata can be transformed into machine-actionable FAIR Digital Object knowledge graphs using CIDOC-CRM, persistent identifiers, controlled vocabularies, and large language models.

TBA Rome, Italy
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