Industry experienceJune 2016 – now Topics: 3D perception of humans, human-robot interaction, 2D/3D/9DoF object detection and segmentation, broader-level 3D scene understanding, semantic SLAM, multi-view 3D computer vision, data recording and transfer learning / auto-labelling toolchains, synthetic data generation, multi-sensor calibration and time synchronization, software & hardware architecture design for autonomous mobile systems, robot simulation, real-time deployment on embedded devices, applications to intralogistics & consumer robotics and automotive use-cases Noteworthy achievements include academic collaborations with six different institutes; transfer of research results into business unit; five presentations / demonstration show-cases to top-level internal & external management at CEO level January 2022 – November 2025 Tasks: Ideation of research proposals, contracting & budget management, reporting to top-level management, organization of workshops, poster sessions & result demonstrations, alignment with stakeholders, mentoring of several PhD topics January 2021 – June 2025 January 2021 – December 2022 January 2021 – December 2021 January 2017 – December 2020 July 2010 – September 2010 April 2010 – June 2010 |
Academic experienceApril 2013 – April 2020 Thesis topic: “Multi-modal human detection, tracking and analysis for mobile robots”. Successful PhD defense in April 2020 (grade 1 = magna cum laude). Examination committee: Prof. Dr. Kai O. Arras, Prof. Dr. Wolfram Burgard, Prof. Dr. Bernhard Nebel, Prof. Dr. Joschka Bödecker. April 2013 – April 2016 February 2012 – March 2013 April 2008 – March 2010 & December 2010 – January 2012 EducationOctober 2006 – January 2012 1997 – 2006 |
Technical skills
Due to my numerous experiences in various disciplines, I possess extensive software and hardware expertise in different fields such as C++ and Python programming on Linux (e.g. Ubuntu), Windows and embedded systems, robotics, 3D computer graphics, web development, electronics and microcontrollers.
I also have profound knowledge of state-of-the-art probabilistic and deep learning methods in machine learning, 3D computer vision and tracking (e.g. convolutional neural networks, Transformers, Kalman and particle filters, multi-hypothesis tracking), as well as hands-on experiences with 3D reconstruction methods (multi-view triangulation, 3D Gaussian Splatting, NERF, photogrammetry).
programming skills: | C/C++ (22+ years) Python (12+ years) Java (5 years) C#, Oberon, Turbo Pascal, Delphi, Visual Basic |
Computer vision & machine learning: |
Expert knowledge of OpenCV, Open3D Advanced knowledge of PyTorch, Tensorflow, MxNet (GluonCV), Keras Practical experience with CNN- and Transformed-based models, ONNX, CUDA, TensorRT Foundation models (large language models, vision-language models) 3D reconstruction techniques (3D Gaussian Splatting, NERF, photogrammetry / COLMAP) Bayesian filtering & tracking (Kalman/particle filter, GNN, MHT) AutoML tools such as Hyperopt, SMAC Multi-view geometry, 3D triangulation |
robotics & autonomous systems: |
Expert knowledge of ROS1 (Robot Operating System), ROS2 basics Human-robot interaction, user interface design Electronics, mechanical assembly, maintenance of compute hardware and storage Arduino, .NET Micro Framework, CanOPEN protocol Eagle PCB editor |
sensors: | GigE/USB3 machine vision cameras Camera projection models (Kannala-Brandt, fisheye models like Double-Sphere, Mei, EUCM) Structured light & time-of-flight RGB-D sensors (Kinect v1, v2, Asus Xtion, Azure Kinect) 2D safety laser (SICK, Hokuyo, RPLidar) 3D LiDAR (Velodyne, Ouster, Livox) Camera calibration, lidar-to-camera calibration, time synchronization |
development tools: | VSCode, Github Copilot, Sublime, Eclipse SDK, MS Visual Studio, Arduino IDE Atlassian JIRA & Confluence, Jenkins, Redmine, Ant, Maven CMake, Doxygen Git, SVN |
2D/3D computer graphics: | Unreal Engine 4, basics of Unity3D OpenGL, OpenSceneGraph, OGRE, Qt rviz visualization, rqt |
operating systems: | Windows & Linux (expert) |
spoken languages: | German (mother tongue) English (fluently) – Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (Grade A) French (basics) |
Awards and honors
- Outstanding reviewer award at IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2019 in Montréal, Canada (link)
- Best student paper award for a paper on Removing Motion Blur using Natural Image Statistics I co-authored together with my Diploma thesis advisor (2014)
- Diploma (M.Sc. equivalent) in Applied Computer Sciences with highest honours, best in 2012 class
- Sparkassenpreis 2011 der Sparkasse Duisburg for excellent performance in my studies
- Scholarship of the state of Northrhine-Westfalia (2009-2011)
- 1st prize at the Newcomer Award of the German Game Developer Award (2006)
- Graduated best in class 2006 with the general qualification for university entrance (Abitur) at Franz-Haniel-Gymnasium, Duisburg
- 1st prize at the Duisburger Mathematikwettbewerb (regional round of mathematics olympiad) in my age class (2002)
Conference attendances
- 2024: CoRL
- 2023: ICCV
- 2021: CVPR, IROS, ICCV (online)
- 2020: CVPR, ICRA, IROS (online)
- 2019: CVPR, RSS, AICon
- 2018: IROS, IAS
- 2017: ICCV
- 2016: ICRA
- 2015: IROS, ICRA, CVPR
- 2014: FUSION
- 2013: ICRA