Dr. Philipp Denzel

Work at ZHAW

Position

Machine Learning Researcher, Centre for Artificial Intelligence (CAI)

Focus

• Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Computer Vision
• Generative Deep Learning, Computational Astrophysics, Cosmology
• Responsible & Trustworthy AI, Explainable AI

Professional development teaching

CAS Machine Intelligence

Experience

Research Assistant
Institute for Computational Science (UZH)
2016 - 2021

Education and Continuing education

Education

• PhD / Physics
  University of Zurich
  2016 - 2021
• Msc / Computational Science
  University of Zurich
  2014 - 2016
• Bsc / Physics (Informatics Minor)
  University of Zurich
  2010 - 2014

Network

ORCID digital identifier

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0126-0659

Social media

• Homepage
• LinkedIn

Projects

• AI-Accelerated Radiative Transfer Simulations for SKAO / Deputy project leader / ongoing
• Square Kilometre Array: Mock-observations via generative deep learning (GenAI4SKA) / Team member / ongoing
• Explainable AI for Intrusion Detection Systems  / Deputy project leader / completed
• certAInty – A Certification Scheme for AI systems / Team member / completed
• Square Kilometre Array: Mock-observations via generative deep learning / Team member / completed

Publications

Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed

• Bernardini, M., Feldmann, R., Anglés-Alcázar, D., Denzel, P., & Gensior, J. (2026). Unveiling the dark Universe with HI and EMBER-2. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, stag204. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag204
• Denzel, P., Billeter, Y., Schilling, F.-P., & Gavagnin, E. (2026). Galactic alchemy : deep learning map-to-map translation in hydrodynamical simulations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag155
• Bonaldi, A., Hartley, P., Braun, R. D., Purser, S. J. D., Acharya, A., Ahn, K., Resco, M. A., Bait, O., Bianco, M., Chakraborty, A., Chapman, E., Chatterjee, S., Chege, K., Chen, H., Chen, X., Chen, Z., Conaboy, L., Cruz, M., Darriba, L., et al. (2025). Square Kilometre Array Science Data Challenge 3a : foreground removal for an EoR experiment. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 543(2), 1092–1119. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1466
• Bianco, M., Giri, S. K., Sharma, R., Chen, T., Krishna, S. P., Finlay, C., Nistane, V., Denzel, P., De Santis, M., & Ghorbel, H. (2025). Deep learning approach for identification of H II regions during reionization in 21-cm observations - III. Image recovery. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 541(1), 234–250. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf973

Written conference contributions, peer-reviewed

• Salis, E. d., Santis, M. D., Piras, D., Giri, S. K., Bianco, M., Cerardi, N., Denzel, P., Selcuk-Simsek, M., Hess, K. M., Toribio, M. C., Kirsten, F., & Ghorbel, H. (2025). Exploring the early universe with deep learning (J. Valente de Oliveira, J. Leite, J. Rodrigues, J. Dias, & P. Cardoso, Eds.; pp. 426–438) [Conference paper]. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-05176-9_33
• Frischknecht-Gruber, C., Denzel, P., Reif, M., Billeter, Y., Brunner, S., Forster, O., Schilling, F.-P., Weng, J., & Chavarriaga, R. (2025). AI assessment in practice : implementing a certification scheme for AI trustworthiness [Conference paper]. In R. Görge, E. Haedecke, M. Poretschkin, & A. Schmitz (Eds.), Symposium on Scaling AI Assessments (SAIA 2024) (pp. 15:1–15:18). Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik. https://doi.org/10.4230/OASIcs.SAIA.2024.15
• Billeter, Y., Denzel, P., Chavarriaga, R., Forster, O., Schilling, F.-P., Brunner, S., Frischknecht-Gruber, C., Reif, M. U., & Weng, J. (2024). MLOps as enabler of trustworthy AI [Conference paper]. 2024 11th IEEE Swiss Conference on Data Science (SDS), 37–40. https://doi.org/10.1109/SDS60720.2024.00013
• Denzel, P., Brunner, S., Billeter, Y., Forster, O., Frischknecht-Gruber, C., Reif, M. U., Schilling, F.-P., Weng, J., Chavarriaga, R., Amini, A., Repetto, M., & Iranfar, A. (2024). Towards the certification of AI-based systems [Conference paper]. 2024 11th IEEE Swiss Conference on Data Science (SDS), 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1109/SDS60720.2024.00020
• Weng, J., Denzel, P., Reif, M. U., Schilling, F.-P., Billeter, Y., Frischknecht-Gruber, C., Brunner, S., Chavarriaga, R., Repetto, M., & Iranfar, A. (2024, June). Certification scheme for artificial intelligence based systems. 34th European Safety and Reliability Conference (ESREL), Cracow, Poland, 23-27 June 2024. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-30549

Other publications

• Denzel, P., Weiss, M., Gavagnin, E., & Schilling, F.-P. (2026). Optimization of deep learning models for radio galaxy classification. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.04773
• Bonaldi, A., Hartley, P., Braun, R., Purser, S., Acharya, A., Ahn, K., Resco, M. A., Bait, O., Bianco, M., Chakraborty, A., Chapman, E., Chatterjee, S., Chege, K., Chen, H., Chen, X., Chen, Z., Conaboy, L., Cruz, M., Darriba, L., et al. (2025). Square Kilometre Array Science Data Challenge 3a : foreground removal for an EoR experiment. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2503.11740
• Frischknecht-Gruber, C., Denzel, P., Forster, O., Billeter, Y., Iranfar, A., Repetto, M., Reif, M. U., Schilling, F.-P., Weng, J., & Chavarriaga, R. (2025, January 28). Assessment tool for trustworthy AI systems : operational workflows for compliance assessment with regulatory requirements. AI Days @ HES-SO, Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland, 27–29 January 2025. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-32422
• Bianco, M., Giri, Sambit. K., Sharma, R., Chen, T., Krishna, S. P., Finlay, C., Nistane, V., Denzel, P., De Santis, M., & Ghorbel, H. (2024). Deep learning approach for identification of HII regions during reionization in 21-cm observations : III. image recovery. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2408.16814
• Denzel, P., Schilling, F.-P., & Gavagnin, E. (2023, October 30). Map-to-map translation for SKA mock observations and cosmological simulations. Hammers & Nails 2023 - Swiss Edition, Ascona, Switzerland, 29 October - 3 November 2023. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-29047
• Denzel, P. B., Schilling, F.-P., & Gavagnin, E. (2023, January 11). Deep learning the SKA : the Square Kilometer Array project. Datalab Symposium, Winterthur, Schweiz, 11. Januar 2023. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-27219

Oral conference contributions and abstracts

Denzel, P., Brunner, S., Luley, P.-P., Frischknecht-Gruber, C., Reif, M. U., Schilling, F.-P., Amini, A., Repetto, M., Iranfar, A., Weng, J., & Chavarriaga, R. (2023, November 2). A framework for assessing and certifying explainability of health-oriented AI systems. Explainable AI in Medicine Workshop, Lugano, Switzerland, 2-3 November 2023.

Publications before appointment at the ZHAW

• Bridging the gap between simply parametrized and free-form pixellated models of galaxy lenses: The case of WFI 2033-4723 quad. The Open Journal of Astrophysics, 4
• The lens SW05 J143454.4+522850: A fossil group at redshift 0.6? Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 506(2), 1715–1722
• A new strategy for matching observed and simulated lensing galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 506(2), 1815–1831
• Time delay lens modelling challenge. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 503(1), 1096–1123
• Denzel, P., Coles, J. P., Saha, P., & Williams, L. L. R. (2021). The Hubble constant from eight time-delay galaxy lenses. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 501(1), 784–801
• Denzel, P., Mukherjee, S., Coles, J. P., & Saha, P. (2020). Lessons from a blind study of simulated lenses: Image reconstructions do not always reproduce true convergence. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 492(3), 3885–3903
• Denzel, P., Diemand, J., & Angélil, R. (2016). Molecular dynamics simulations of bubble nucleation in dark matter detectors. Physical Review E, 93(1)

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