Basics of Homologation

Torsten Gärtner has been working as a simulation expert since 1997. From numerous projects he has extensive experience in the field of occupant simulation and interior safety. He is Technical Lead Engineer Safety Analytics at Opel Automobile GmbH. Before that he worked as department manager for safety with TECOSIM GmbH and spent 10 years in various management positions with carhs gmbh.

Director and Professor Andre Seeck has been Vice President of the Federal Highway and Transport Research Institute (BASt) since April 2022, where he heads the Vehicle Technology division. In this position he is responsible for the preparation of European Safety Regulations. Furthermore he represents the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport in the Board of Directors of Euro NCAP and he is the chairman of the strategy group on automated driving and of the rating system. These positions enable him to gain deep insight into current and future developments in vehicle safety. In 2017 NHTSA awarded him the U. S. Government Special Award of Appreciation.

Britta Schnottale is working as a scientific assistant in the department for "Passive Safety and Biomechanis" of the German Federal Highway and Transport Research Institute (BASt).Here she is responsible for safety issues concerning children in vehicles. This includes participation in national research projects as well as in EU projects on child safety (CHILD, CASPER). She was a member of the informal working group of the GRSP "Child Safety" on the development of UN R129. Britta Schnottale is also a member of the Euro NCAP Child Safety Working Group.

Ralf Ambos studied automotive technology at the university for technology and economy in Dresden, Germany. He has worked as a project manager in passive vehicle safety for eight years. In 2004 he was trained as an inspector for Euro NCAP. In 2009 he joined DEKRA Automobil GmbH.

Dr.-Ing. Helmut Gese founded the engineering consultancy MATFEM in 1993 (from 1999 the company has been named MATFEM partnership Dr. Gese & Oberhofer; in 2022 the legal status has changed to MATFEM Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH). MATFEM offers technical and scientific consultancy services at the intersection of material science and finite element methods. Besides performing FEM analysis projects the area of activity covers experimental and theoretical characterization of materials and the development of new material models for simulation.

For more then 44 years, Dr. Lothar Grösch has been working in vehicle safety, both passive (crash sensing and electronics, occupant protection) and active safety (surround sensors, accident avoidance). First of all working for 18 years for one of the leading OEMs in vehicle safety, another 16 years followed in automotive safety sensors and electronics at one of the major automotive suppliers. Working as a Product Director for Automotive Safety Systems in the US from 2000 through 2009, he is particularly familiar with the specific requirements of the US market, legislation and product liability. Since 2009, Dr. Groesch has been doing consulting business under the name Automotive Safety Consulting with focus on driver assistance, accident avoidance and autonomous driving. Last but not least, he is teaching automotive safety at several universities and has conducted numerous in-house seminars about automotive safety.

Stefan Kolling is Professor for Mechanics at the TH Mittelhessen University of Applied Sciences (THM). Previously he worked as a simulation engineer at the Mercedes Technology Center in Sindelfingen. He was responsible for methods development in crash simulation. In particular he was involved in the modelling of non-metal materials such as glass, polymers and plastics. Prof. Kolling graduated from the Universities of Saarbrücken and Darmstadt, from where he also received his Ph.D. He is author of numerous publications in the field of material modeling.

Dr. Maurer has received his PhD from the Department of lightweight design at Technical University Darmstadt led by Prof. Wissmann. Thereafter he has been working for several years in the technical analysis department of Adam Opel AG where he headed the crash simulation group. After a several years activity in Information Technology at Adam Opel AG and General Motors in Detroit (USA), he has been appointed in 2005 as a Professor at the University of Applied Sciences Landshut. He teaches mathematics, numerical methods and finite elements in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

Dipl.-Ing. Florian Schueler works as a responsible project engineer in the field of road safety research and biomechanics at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University Hospital Freiburg. In his research he puts the synthesis of the results of causation and collision analysis and experimental biomechanics with viable design approaches in the foreground. For his work on passive safety he received the Traffic Safety Award of the Minister of Transport in 1985. In addition to more than 30 years of experience in academic research and teaching, Florian Schueler has extensive industry experience in the vehicle predevelopment. His constant forensic work he views as a “quality control” for accident research.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Schumacher studied mechanical engineering at the universities of Duisburg and Aachen. He received his doctorate on structural optimization from the University of Siegen. Following research projects for Airbus were focused on the optimization of aircraft structures. Thereafter he worked in the CAE methods development department of Adam Opel AG as project leader for structural optimization. From 2003 - 2012 he was a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg and taught structural design, passive safety and structural optimization. Since 2012 he has been professor at the University of Wuppertal, where he holds the chair for optimization of mechanical structures.

Dipl.- Wirt.- Ing. Tobias Langner works as a scientific assistant in the department for "Passive Safety and Biomechanis" of the German Federal Highway and Transport Research Institute (BASt). He is project manager for Euro NCAP crash tests at the BASt. In his position as Euro NCAP inspector he analyses the post-crash vehicles together with a lead inspector of Euro NCAP.

The German Federal Highway and Transport Research Institute (BASt) has a dummy calibration laboratory on its premises in Bergisch Gladbach. The company BGS Böhme & Gehring, founded in 1986, operates this laboratory on behalf of the German Federal Highway Research Institute. Their clients are renowned automobile manufacturers, suppliers and test institutes.

Prof. Dr. Harzheim worked in the Group of Professor Mattheck on the development of the optimization programs CAO and SKO, before joining the simulation department of Opel. At Opel he is responsible for optimization, bio engineering and robustness. In this position he not only introduced and applied optimization methods but has also developed software for topology optimization. Prof. Dr. Harzheim regularly holds seminars for applied structural optimization and teaches at the Technical University of Darmstadt. He is the author of the book "Strukturoptimierung: Grundlagen und Anwendungen".

Burkhard Eickhoff studied mechanical engineering in Hannover (Germany) focusing on vehicle engineering and applied mechanics. Starting from 1999 he worked with Autoliv B.V. & Co. KG as a test engineer for sled and crash tests. Since 2003 he has been project manager in systems development (safety belt) of the same company. He was involved in the definition and assessment of new restraint systems and he conducted feasibility studies using system simulation as well as dynamical tests. Moreover he had a consultant role regarding restraint system design. He finished his doctoral thesis at the Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg in 2012 on the reduction of belt induced thorax deflection in frontal crashes. Since 2016 he has been head of the department Virtual & System Engineering, Homologation at Autoliv B.V. & Co. KG.

Maren Finck is a Project Manager at carhs.training gmbh. From 2008 - 2015 she worked at EDAG as a project manager responsible for passive vehicle safety. Previously, she worked several years at carhs GmbH and TECOSIM as an analysis engineer with a focus on pedestrian safety and biomechanics.

Ralf Reuter studied mechanical engineering and business administration at the technical universities of Darmstadt and Eindhoven. Since 1997 he has worked for carhs in various management positions. He deals with vehicle safety issues intensively, in particular with the latest developments in rules and regulations as well as consumer testing. As he is in charge of the SafetyWissen which has been published by carhs for many years, he keeps his knowledge up-to-date and profits from the inputs of carhs' trainer and expert network.

Rainer Justen has 30 years of experience in the field of vehicle safety. After his studies in mechanical engineering with a focus on automotive engineering he started his career in the automotive development at Daimler AG in 1987. Several career milestones in the fields of vehicle safety, project management, safety concepts and active safety / driver assistance systems made him an expert on all relevant topics of automotive safety. Since 2008 he is working in the field of safety for alternative drive systems. Rainer Justen is author of numerous publications and papers on this topic. In 2015 Rainer Justen received the SAE Automotive Safety Award for his work on the Safety of Li-Ion Batteries in Electric Vehicles from the American Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).

Hans-Georg Lohrmann was Manager of Reliability & Conformity of Production at ZF TRW Automotive GmbH. He has many years of experience in the field of safety, reliability and product liability in the automotive sector. Since September 2015 he has retired and is still active as a freelance consultant. He specializes in the area of restraint systems for vehicle occupant protection and supports his clients in the areas of reliability, safety planning and methods of verification and litigation support.

Nach dem Informatikstudium arbeitete Herr Sebron als Entwicklungsingenieur, Requirementsingenieur und Software Architekt. In weiterer Folge war Herr Sebron langjährig in namhaften Industrie-Unternehmen als Manager für unterschiedliche Geschäftsbereiche tätig. Seit 2010 ist Herr Sebron am Vienna Institute for Safety & Systems Engineering der FH Campus Wien als Projektteamleiter für Forschungsprojekte zum Thema Safety beschäftigt. Sein Aufgabengebiet umfasst unter anderem die Durchführung von Coachings und Trainings zur Einführung und Umsetzung funktionaler Sicherheit mit den Schwerpunkten ISO 26262 im Automotivebereich sowie IEC 61508.

Kai Golowko has been working in the area of vehicle safety since 1999. He started his career as a test engineer for passive safety at ACTS. Since 2003 he has been working as senior engineer for occupant safety and pedestrian protection. Since 2005 he has managed the department vehicle safety at Bertrandt in Gaimersheim. He has also been responsible for active and passive vehicle safety for the Bertrandt Group since 2017.

Bart Peeters Weem studied mechanical engineering at the University of Technology in Eindhoven with focus on system and control. Since 2003 he has worked at BMW on passive safety development. First as Simulation Engineer, later as team leader and project referent. Since 2015 he is head of the development of full vehicle side impact protection for BMW 1-, 2- and 3-series, MINI and BMW-i.In 2019 he was elected as Pilot of the new ACEA-Expertgroup on virtual testing of passive safety.

Stephanie Wolter studied engineering physics at the University of Applied Sciences Munich. Since 1995 she has been working at BMW AG in different functions in the field of side protection, such as pre-development, development of side airbags and as a project engineer in various car lines. Moreover, she represents BMW Group in various national and international bodies that deal with side impact and other aspects of side protection, e. g. ISO Working Groups, etc.

Joachim Peest studied Mechatronical Engineering at the Leibniz University Hannover, focussing on automation and control systems engineering. He has been working in passive safety since 2011 in different functions, starting as a test- and project-engineer, and later as a requirement- and process-developer. Since 2017, he has been working at BMW AG as a specialist in the side-crash-development of various vehicle projects.

Christian Radt began his career in the automotive industry at Opel Automobile GmbH after graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering from RWTH Aachen University and starting his career in the paper industry . He worked there for 18 years at the international development center in Rüsselsheim. With different focuses ranging from drive technology and supplier qualification for selected validation tests to GM's specification system, Mr. Radt built up a broad knowledge of complete vehicle technology. Since mid-2019, he has been utilizing his self-motivation and willingness to learn at EDAG Engineering GmbH in Fulda in the field of homologation. In the special role of an independent engineering service provider, Mr. Radt supervises very different international vehicle projects. Markets, vehicle class, number of units and role distribution vary. Customers range from traditional OEMs to new OEMs. From the assessment of concept studies for approvability to internal and external consulting for in-house complete vehicle projects. In contrast to traditional OEMs, it is often a matter of finding a creative solution for special cases or demonstrating which changes to the product could lead to approvability. This is particularly true for vehicle modifications and technological innovations. It is important to Mr. Radt to spread awareness of the legal conformity of motor vehicles within his company, as this is the only way to implement legal requirements into products in a responsible and timely manner. The basic seminar and other modules, which combine the theory and practice of homologation from an independent point of view, were developed from these tasks.

Lars Hannawald is the managing director of the Traffic Accident Research Institute at the University of Technology in Dresden and the Leader of the GIDAS expert group of database administration. He started in 1999 with the investigation of traffic accidents at VUFO direct on the spot and at the office. He was responsible for the statistical random sampling plan as well as study on accident causation for powered two-wheelers and bicycle accidents 75 the common database administration for GIDAS up to 2005. Furthermore he worked as a research assistant at the chair of automobile technology at the University of Technology and build up a data analysis group inside VUFO. He takes his doctoral degree on "Multivariate Analysis for Benefit Estimation of future Safety Systems". Since 2011 Lars Hannawald is a lecturer at the University of Applied Science Dresden and the Dresden International University. Since 2013 he leads the technical working group in the IGLAD consortium. He has a great experience in all terms of investigation, reconstruction and analysis of accident data.

After studying mechanical engineering and being awarded a doctorate at TU Darmstadt, Dr. Seiniger moved to the Federal Highway and Transport Research Institute (BASt) in 2009. Here Dr. Seiniger is involved in development and performance of tests for emergency braking systems and active safety for Euro NCAP and in developing and updating the respective legislatory framework (regulations). He was member of several Euro NCAP working groups and is Deputy Head of section “Active Vehicle Safety and Driver Assistance Systems”.

Dr. Heidkamp studied Civil Engineering before he obtained a Ph.D. in Biomechanics. Thereafter he joined TASS, where he was in charge of occupant protection projects. In 2006 he joined TECOSIM where he worked in different areas of simulation: Crash, interiors, occupant protection and seating. As Technical Manager at TECOSIM he was in charge of the staff training in the field of simulation methods.In 2013 he joined the IAC Group GmbH as Manager CAE and is in charge for integrating CAE in product development processes.

Dr. techn. Roland Hinterhölzl has been heading the Professorship Composite Materials and the study degree program "Lightweight Design and Composite Materials" at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria since 2016. From 2010 to 2016 he was head of the numerical simulation department of the Institute for Carbon Composites at the Technical University of Munich. The focus of his work is on process simulation and structural analysis for the automotive and aviation industries. Dr. Hinterhölzl received his doctorate in 2000 at the University of Innsbruck on the simulation of the time-dependent behavior of composite materials, after he had spent several months at the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin and CRREL (USA). Subsequently, he developed innovative composite components at the aerospace supplier FACC AG and headed the structural analysis department.

Dr. Elisabeth Ladstätter is Deputy Head of the Chair for Carbon Composites at the Technical University of Munich. Dr. Ladstätter holds a Diploma of Polymer Technology from the University of Leoben and received her doctorate just there on the long term behavior of composite materials. After graduation, she worked in the automotive industry as an assistant to the production manager. Later she moved to the research and development department of an aviation supply company. Most recently she was responsible for all R & D research activities and all certification activities in materials and process technology. Since June 2009 she has worked as deputy professor in different areas, among others teaching at the Institute for Carbon Composites.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klemens Rother studied mechanical engineering at Munich University of Applied Sciences and the Department of Mechanics, Metallurgy and Materials Science at Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA. He earned his doctorate in the field of computational durability at University of Dortmund. Since 1986 he has been working in various positions in industry, e.g. more than 15 years in senior management for structural integrity and CAE consulting services. Since 2008 he is professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich, faculty of mechanical, automotive and aircraft engineering. He teaches strength, lightweight design, durability and conceptual design. He is also head of a master’s program in computational engineering. His main research focuses on CAx-supported product development and structural integrity.

Rainer Hoffmann has been involved in automotive safety throughout his career. After graduating from Wayne State University, he joined Porsche as a research associate in passive safety. Mr. Hoffmann advanced safety simulation during his subsequent tenure at ESI Group where he introduced new techniques like airbag simulation, numerical airbag folding and FE dummy modeling. As the head of the simulation department of PARS (now Continental Safety Engineering), Mr. Hoffmann led the R&D efforts for some of the first series production side airbag developments. In 1994 Mr. Hoffmann founded EASi Engineering GmbH, which in 2006 was renamed to carhs GmbH. He has authored numerous technical papers and has been granted German and international patents in the automotive safety field.

Dr.-Ing. Olaf Kolk studied Physical Engineering Science and Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Berlin and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA. His doctorate was in the area of vehicle dynamics of car body structures. In 1999, Dr. Kolk joined the research and innovation center of the BMW Group in Munich, to first work in body development. There he has been responsible for the functional design of the BMW Z4 roadster body with regard to vibrations, passive safety and durability. From 2010 to 2014, Dr. Kolk led the material data management for simulation, which is concerned with material data and material inputs for simulation. Furthermore his work dealt with the integration of sustainability, durability and fatigue issues within current BMW product lines. From 2014 to 2017, Dr. Kolk headed the functional design and integration of body structure for the large BMW product line. Since 2018 Dr. Kolk works as a concept engineer and heads technical design of body and trim during the concept phase for various BMW models an product lines.

Ir. E. Dascotte has studied civil engineering at the University of Brussels. Since 1987 he has consulted, developed software and presented courses for companies worldwide in the fields of structural dynamics, finite element model updating and design optimization. In 1994, Ir. Dascotte co-founded and became general manager of DDS, a research and development company specializing in test-analysis integration.

Andre Eggers is a researcher at BASt (German Federal Highway and Transport Research Institute) since 2006 working in the area of biomechanics, evaluation of dummies, human models and virtual testing. He studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Hamburg and Biomedical Engineering at Wayne State University. 2013 he completed his doctorate at the Technical University of Berlin. He contributed to several European research projects like IMVITER, THORAX, ASSESS, SENIORS and OSCCAR. He is representing BASt in Euro NCAP working groups related to injury criteria and virtual testing.

Heiko Haupt started his career in the area of system support / airbag development at Autoliv. He later took on international service and training tasks for a 3D printer manufacturer and worked as a Scrum Master in software development. Since 2021, he has been building up the Training division at MESSRING and has headed the Technical Communication group since 2023. In this role, he trains customers, sales partners and employees in the use of crash test equipment.

Alexander Martellucci began his professional career in physical laboratories in the pharmaceutical industry. Since 1992 he is involved in the testing of components for vehicle safety. Until 1995 he worked in the steering wheel laboratory and until 1998 he headed the airbag testing at TRW. Since 1998 he has been with ACTS GmbH & Co. KG until 2002 as head of the component laboratory, and since then as manager Technology.

Remy Willinger has been leading a research group focusing on head & neck impact biomechanics at the University of Strasbourg since 1990. The research activity of this lab focuses on experimental characterization of biological tissue, head and neck FE modeling and injury mechanisms investigation via accident simulation. Development of injury criteria and protection systems modeling and optimization are also part of his skills. This group contributed to ten EU projects and conducted no less than 100 contracts with public institutions and private companies.

John Creamer is the founder of GlobalAutoRegs.com and a partner in The Potomac Alliance, a Washington-based international regulatory affairs consultancy. In his client advisory role, Mr. Creamer is regularly involved with meetings of the UN World Forum for the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29). Previously, he has held positions with the US International Trade Commission and the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (representing the US automotive supplier industry), as the representative of the US auto parts industry in Japan, and with TRW Inc. (a leading global automotive safety systems supplier).

Dr. Thomas Kinsky completed his studies in automotive engineering at the TU Dresden in 1991 and received his doctorate at the TU Graz in 2015. From 1991 to 1995 he worked as an officially certified expert at TÜV Rheinland and then took over the management of the vehicle construction department at a small medium-sized company. From 1999 to 2018 he was employed at Opel Automobile GmbH in the area of vehicle regulations. Last as a senior expert, he was responsible for the development of legislation on passive vehicle safety and represented Opel in discussions with authorities and associations. Since 2018 he has been Director Business Development at Humanetics Europe GmbH. In this role he is Humanetics' representative for all topics regarding dummy development as well as for the requirements of passive and active safety.

Since 2010, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Fabian Duddeck is the head of the research group on optimization and robustness at the Technical University of Munich (TUM, Chair of Computational Mechanics, www.bgu.tum.de/cm). His research is focusing on numerical methods for optimization of structures with respect of crashworthiness, NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness), durability, and other disciplines. In this framework, new methods for stochastic modeling and robustness assessments for different types of uncertainties (aleatoric and epistemic) are included. Besides standard approaches using probabilistic theory, possibilistic and special methods for early phase design are developed and applied for problems in automotive, aerospace, and civil engineering.

Dr. Thomas Karall studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Vienna and received his PhD as Assistant Professor at the University of Leoben in the field of fibre-reinforced plastics and the calculation by finite elements. From 2006 to 2010 he was head of department at the Austrian Research Institute for Chemistry and Technology in Vienna in the field of mechanical and thermal testing / fibre composites, and Secretary General of the Austrian Working Group for reinforced plastics. From 2010 to 2015 he worked as Lead Researcher for lightweight design at Virtual Vehicle Research Center in Graz. He was also a lecturer at the Technical University of Graz and lecturer at the FH Joanneum Graz. Since 2015 he has been Professor at the Engineering Department of the Hof University. His areas of work include lightweight design, fibre-reinforced composites and the finite element method.

Wolfgang Hahn has a long-standing carreer in automotive engineering. He started in 1977 as a development engineer for vehicle safety at Sachsenring. From 1992 to 2013 he served in multiple positions at GM in Germany, Sweden and China. His roles included Director of GME Safety and Director Vehicle Integration, Safety & Vehicle Architecture at PATAC. He held external assignments as Industry Expert for China Fuel Economy Regulation, China NCAP and China Safety Regulations, Chairman of ACEA Working Group Passenger Car Safety, Chairman of Working Group Pedestrian Protection of German Automobile Manufacturer’s Association VDA and he has been a member of EEVC WG17. He is the author of numerous congress papers and is a sought-after keynote speaker at international conferences.

Dr. Liying Zhang is an Associate Professor of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Wayne State University. She received BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and her PhD in Biomechanics from Wayne State University in 2001. Her areas of expertise include injury biomechanics, mechanisms of traumatic head/brain injury in blunt impact and blast wave, helmet performance, and computational modeling of human and animal bodies using finite element techniques. Her research efforts focus on the prediction, mitigation, and prevention of trauma in automotive, military, and sports applications. Dr. Zhang is the PI of the head model center of excellence of the Global Human Body Models Consortium, a global endeavor to create an advanced standard finite element model of the human body for trauma prediction. She currently serves on the U.S. Department of Defense expert panels on Brain Injury Computational Modeling and Biomedical Basis for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Environmental Sensor Threshold Values. She is on the helmet standard technical committee of American Society for Testing and Materials. Dr. Zhang has been a principal investigator on research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, National Football League Charities, National Nature Science Foundation China, and US and international automotive industries.

Thomas Frank joined the passive safety department of LEAR Corporation in 2002 after graduating from the Technical University of Berlin in physical engineering sciences. At LEAR Thomas Frank initially worked as a test engineer in crash testing, later he developed head rests. Today he is expert for head restraints and low speed rear impact safety. In his position he guides the seat development with respect to meet whiplash protection requirements in regulations and consumer tests.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alexander Zopp studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt. He received his PhD in 2000 in the field of finite elements in acoustics. He then joined Adam Opel AG to work in the Vehicle Simulation Department. In the NVH group he analyzed vehicle vibration and vehicle acoustics with the FEM. Later, Mr. Zopp introduced the Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) in the development process of Opel to expand the detectable frequency range in the simulation. He was responsible for the global simulation methodology in the high frequency range in the GM group. Since 2011, Mr. Zopp served as Group Head of NVH simulation at Opel. Since 2013 he has been a professor at the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences and lectures in the subjects finite elements, engineering mechanics, machine dynamics and NVH.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dietmar Jennewein studied mechanical engineering at the University of Kaiserslautern. He received his PhD in 1998 in the field of vibration technology. He then joined the Adam Opel AG in the "Vehicle Simulation" department and worked in the NVH group on the analysis of vehicle vibration and vehicle acoustics using the FEM. Since 2001, Mr. Jennewein was responsible as a group leader for all NVH simulation activity at Opel. He also led a multidisciplinary team for the metrological validation of the calculation procedure. Since 2011 he has been a professor at the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt and lectures in the subjects of engineering mechanics, control and automotive engineering.

Silke Sommer studied Physics at the RWTH Aachen University and obtained her PhD degree at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology about modelling of the deformation and failure behaviour of spot welds. She has been working at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg since 2000 in the field of damage and failure modelling of materials and joints for crash simulation. Since 2013 she is a group leader for joining and joints.

Professor Harald Bachem has been in charge of teaching and research in vehicle safety at the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences since 2011. Prior to joining the university he held various management positions in industry where he was in charge of development and testing of vehicle safety functions. His last management position was head of cab body development at MAN Truck & Bus AG. Prof. Bachem is chairman of the Wolfsburg Institute for Research, Development and Technology Transfer e. V.

Timo Baumgärtner studied process engineering at the FH Mannheim. Since 1997 he has worked in various development functions in the automotive sector. Throughout his professional career, he worked intensively on ergonomics, vehicle safety, manufacturing and assembly processes of plastic components for car interiors. He has worked at OEMs as well as for tier 1 and 2 suppliers. Currently he is working at csi entwicklungstechnik GmbH. Here he is responsible for projects of a sports car manufacturer in the interior area (Cockpit, center consoles, door panels, greenhouse, etc.).

studied Electro & Media Technology at the Deggendorf Institute of Technology, has been working as Sales Manager for high-speed cameras in passive car safety application at PCO AG for six years

Max Ernst leitet die Entwicklung von Lichtsystemen bei Messring. Mit mehr als 12 Jahren Erfahrung in digitaler Bildverarbeitung für Crashtest Analyse und 3D Punktverfolgung kennt er die Anforderungen, die beim Testing erfüllt werden müssen.

Dr. André Backes studied Mathematics at the University of Duisburg. From 2000 to 2006 he was a researcher at the Institute for Mathematics at the Humboldt University in Berlin. His PhD studies at the chair for Numerical Mathematics introduced him to the field of CAE. Since 2006 he works at TECOSIM GmbH and among other topics specialized in NVH. In the area of Virtual Benchmarking he helped developing the TECOSIM-owned process TEC|BENCH where also the Python language was used. In current research projects he investigates the use of Python-based methods for data analysis and machine learning in the CAE process. Since 2020 he has been working at TECOSIM Stuttgart.

Franz Holzinger is a master car body technician with many years of experience in prototype construction and accident repairs. Additional training as a vehicle expert followed in 2017. From 2018, his field of activity shifted towards technical training. He trains freelance for well-known OEMs in the field of accident repairs. He also teaches technical mathematics and physics at vocational schools in Munich and Stuttgart. Employed by MESSRING since 2022, he conducts user training for customers and employees.

Chye Hock Tok holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering Degree. He started his career in the field of vehicle passive safety and now has approximately 11 years of working experience with international automotive engineering consultancy firms as well as world leading restraint system supplier. He has undertaken numerous vehicle passive safety development programs for international OEMs, particularly in the area of front and side occupant safety. He now holds a Senior Engineer position in ARRK | P+Z Engineering and is also responsible for the CAE topics in Southeast Asia.

Volker Sander has been head of the Vehicle Safety Department of ADAC, which includes active safety, passive safety and accident research, since 2010. Before that, from 1999-2007 he was in charge of the construction of ADAC’s crash test lab as a team manager. From 2007-2010 he lead the Passive Safety Department of ADAC. At Euro NCAP he is a member of the Board of Directors and chairman of the frontal impact working group. In addition to that he is member of the side impact working group, the techincal working group and the ratings group of Euro NCAP. He is also lecturer for vehicle safety at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich.

Sandro Hübner studied mechanical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Schmalkalden. After completing his studies he worked as an engineer in the FEM laboratory of Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences. From 2003 he worked as a CAE engineer for occupant safety at EASi Engineering GmbH. In 2006, he moved to EDAG Engineering GmbH as a CAE engineer for vehicle safety and has been project manager for vehicle safety and CAE since 2013.

Dr. Gerd Müller has been working at the department automotive technology of the Technical University of Berlin since 2007. From 2007 to 2015 he was a research assistant. Since 2015 he has been a senior engineer of the same department. His research focuses on vehicle safety and friction coefficient estimation. Dr. Müller gives the lecture "Fundamentals of Automotive Engineering" and conducts parts of the integrated course "Driver Assistance Systems and Active Safety".

Dr. Martin Müller-Bechtel studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich. From 1994 to 1998 he worked as a research assistant at the institute for mechanics at the same university and received a PhD in mechanics. Since 1999 he has worked at TECOSIM as a simulation engineer in the fields of crash simulation and NVH optimization. Since 2006 he has been a major contributor to TECOSIM's proprietary virtual benchmarking process TEC|BENCH.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Udo Jung studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University Darmstadt and promoted in the field of fatigue and finite element analysis at the Institute of Materials Science at the TU Darmstadt. At Adam Opel AG, he initially worked as a development engineer in the analysis department and introduced the fatigue life analysis in virtual vehicle development. Subsequently, he took over the management of the simulation and test methodology in the central durability laboratory. Since 2005 he has been a university professor for lightweight design and durability as well as construction and FE methods at the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM) at Friedberg Campus. In the field of research, he is at the forefront of the Competence Center for Automotive, Mobility and Materials Research (AutoM). He also heads the TransMIT Center for Lightweight Design and Durability of TransMIT Gesellschaft für Technologietransfer mbH, Giessen.

Dr. Andreas Kuhn studied Technical Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Vienna. After his dissertation on the simulation of special satellite formations for the European Space Agency, he began his professional career in crash simulation at BMW. After further years as a consultant for stochastic simulation at EASI Engineering GmbH (today carhs), he founded ANDATA in 2004, where he is responsible for development and research as managing partner. Since 2009 he has also been co-owner of Automotive Safety Technologies GmbH in Gaimersheim. His professional interests are founded in effective and efficient development, validation and assessment methods for complex, safety-critical systems. In particular, he has been working for more than 20 years on the development and combined application of methods from the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced simulation methods, scenario-based approaches and according process models in the virtual development of vehicles and autonomous robots. His current activities are the development and implementation of cooperative, networked, automated driving strategies for effective traffic automation.

Shmuel De-Leon is a leading international expert in the business of energy storage. Prior to founding the company, Shmuel held for over 21 years various positions as an energy storage, electronic engineering and quality control team manager. Shmuel holds a BSc. in mechanical engineering from Tel-Aviv University and an MBA in Quality control and Reliability engineering from the Technion Institute in Haifa as well as an Electronic Technician's diploma.

Michael Weyde, is a forensic expert for road traffic accidents. He studied mechanical engineering at the TFH Berlin until 1995. After completing his studies, he initially worked as a research assistant for Prof. Dr. Rau (TU Berlin) and was responsible for the successful introduction of accident data storage in the fleet of Berlin police department until 1998. Since then he runs his own engineering office for accident reconstruction in Berlin and reconstructs traffic accidents in which there is a connection with criminal offenses mainly on behalf of prosecutors, police and. Since 2004, Michael Weyde has been publicly appointed and sworn in by the Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Industry as an expert in road traffic accidents and in the field of evaluation of accident data storage systems. In 2009, Michael Weyde received his doctorate on the reconstruction of motorcycle collisions in cross traffic with a car. In addition, Michael Weyde is working as a lecturer at the HTW Dresden, where he lectures on numerical accident reconstruction. Within the framework of this teaching activity, a biofidel dummy has also been developed over the past 8 years, which serves as a surrogate for pedestrians and cyclists in forensic full-scale crash tests.

Dr.-Ing. Quanji Cai studied Automotive Engineering at Tsinghua University in China and got her master and doctorate degree at the department of computation in engineering at Technische Universität München in Germany. She has a solid theoretical foundation of finite element analysis and nearly 10 years of practical experience in solving complex engineering problems. She has led the team to successfully complete passive safety projects of several well-known international OEMs. She is now team leader of passive safety department at ARRK Engineering and responsible for structural crash and pedestrian protection projects.

Matthias Kunkel has been with ACTS GmbH & Co. KG in the field of testing since 2000. As a test engineer, he is currently the team leader for component safety tests.

Norman Meißner studied electrical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Dresden with a focus on automation and system technology. He has been working in passive safety since 2011 in different functions, initially in the areas of simulation and pre-development, later as a system- and project-engineer. Since 2017, he has been working at BMW AG as a project engineer in the side-crash-development as part of various vehicle projects.

Professor Fabian Riß has been responsible for the teaching and research area of lightweight construction and additive manufacturing processes at Rosenheim Technical University since 2019. Before joining the university, he held various positions in research and industry in the field of additive manufacturing along the entire process chain. Most recently he worked for the European space company Ariane Group as an expert in additive manufacturing technology.

Karin Brolin has worked in the field of impact biomechanics throughout her career. Karin Brolin earned her Ph.D. in 2002 at the Royal Institute of Technology, and since then she has worked in both academia and industry on the topic of human body injury mechanisms and tolerances. The past ten years she led a research group focusing on human body simulations for traffic safety and injury prevention, as Professor in Computational Impact Biomechanics at Chalmers University of Technology. Since 2019 Dr. Brolin has worked as an independent consultant and researcher.

Kambiz Kayvantash has a PhD from University GHS of Essen, Germany, and an executive MBA from HEC, Paris, France. In the past he has occupied various technical and managerial positions both in academia and industry (University of Essen, MECALOG, ALTAIR, Cranfield University/Cranfield Impact Centre, CIVITEC, CADLM/ École spéciale des travaux publics. He is currently the CTO of CADLM and develops Artificial Intelligence based solutions for predictive, real-time industrial applications such as Autonomous Vehicle, Crash and Safety, Health Monitoring, etc.

Jean-Louis Migeot is the founder and past CEO of Free Field Technologies, the original developer of Hexagon’s Actran acoustic finite element solver. During his 30 year career, he has been involved with acoustic design projects in multiple industries: automotive, aerospace, defense, space, home appliances, audio equipment. In parallel with his business endeavour, Prof.Dr. Migeot has been teaching acoustical engineering for the past 20 years at his alma mater (University of Brussels) and has taught courses and seminars across the globe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, India, Japan, China, United States). He is the author of several books on acoustic engineering, musical acoustics and noise pollution around airports. A copy of his book “Acoustics – Essential concepts, theory and models of linear acoustics for engineers” which documents most of the course content will be offered to each participant.

Thomas Unger studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Dresden from 2000-2006 and graduated with a degree in automotive engineering. As a student, he worked as part of the GIDAS project, where he assisted in the collection and recording of accident data, photogrammetric accident site surveys, and reconstruction of pedestrian accidents. From 2005 to 2018, he managed the ADAC accident research at the Technical Center Landsberg am Lech. Since July 2018, he is head of data analysis and simulation in Verkehrsunfallforschung an der TU Dresden GmbH.

Udo Steininger earned his diploma in Nuclear Physics in 1986 and began working in nuclear safety research with a nuclear power plant operator. Since 1991, he has been with TÜV SÜD, working in various fields including reactor safety supervision, railroad control and safety technology, and general road vehicle safety. In 2005, he shifted his focus to the safety of automated driving. In 2024, he co-founded TESACO GmbH, where he serves as Managing Director. TESACO's mission is to provide technical and regulatory support for the development and operation of vehicles and systems for connected cooperative automated mobility.

Dr. Thomas Weber has been working in the field of high-speed cameras for over 20 years. After studying computer science, he started at the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft in 1987, where he earned his doctorate in the area of process chain optimization and logistics. He then managed various optimization and logistics projects in full vehicle development. Via a group-wide optimization project in the area of vehicle safety, he found his home in the field of high-speed cameras more than 20 years ago. He was responsible for projects concerning the development of high-speed cameras, their accessories and control software. He designs and leads national and international projects in vehicle development with high speed cameras. A characteristic of his work is the optimization of the overall process for smooth and efficient operation of the entire system. Thus, he successfully implements projects in the safety centers of well-known suppliers and automotive manufacturers.

Dr. Bartosz Górecki is the founder and CEO of QuickerSim. He has graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Warsaw University of Technology, studied Computational Engineering Science at RWTH Aachen, received his PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamics. He attended HPC courses at supercomputing centres in Stuttgart, Munich and Bologna. In 2015 he founded QuickerSim – a company that develops Q-Bat – designed for 3-D accurate thermal simulation of automotive battery packs.

Lutz Morich studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University and began his professional career as a trainee in technical development at AUDI AG. 16 years of experience in managing projects and organizational units in management positions. Since 2017 he has been responsible for "Processes, Methods and Tools of the Virtual Disciplinary Environment" and several R&D projects with cooperation partners from industry, science and municipalities that deal with interdisciplinary and technical questions of automated traffic.

Martin Obstbaum has studied physics at the university of Regensburg and holds a PhD from the institute of experimental and applied physics of the university of Regensburg. As head of systems engineering & computer graphics at TWT GmbH Science & Innovation Dr. Obstbaum explores together with his team the systematic design of virtual testing architectures and simulation technologies. In order to bring autonomous driving into a safe operating future on our streets one focus of topics is to simulate the decisions of autonomous cars based on sensors and perception algorithms using modern Computer Graphics Engines like UNREAL to generate photo- and phyisics-realistic 3D simulation environements. To this end continuous research of 3D computer graphics technologies and innovative algorithms as well as the integration of different data and information models is conducted.

Karl Schreiner studied applied informatics and working now for about 4 years at TWT as a software developer in the field of autonomous driving and virtual validation of driver assistance systems. Areas of activity range from complex environment creation to software and hardware-in-the-loop testing and sensor simulation using virtual environments. Responsible as the product owner and part of the development of the tool Tronis®, that is based on the open source gaming engine Unreal Engine which paves the way towards a realistic environment, vehicle and driversimulation.

Florian Günther is a project leader and training manager in the field of high-precision and high-resolution mapping of road networks at 3D Mapping Solutions GmbH since 2018. He studied Business Administration and Cartography|Geomedia at the University of Applied Sciences Munich. He graduated as B.Sc. in the field of computer animation and 3-dimensional LiDAR surveys about Bibracte at the European Archaeological Center, France. Since then, he was involved in data analysis and processing HD maps for worldwide automotive industry and research driven use-cases. At the department of HD Maps his current focus is on providing user-specific cases in advanced ADAS or test and validation applications for autonomous driving, such as the combination and integration of different formats like OpenDRIVE, GIS and 3d Modelling.

In his position as business development manager at virtual city systems, Maximilian Sindram focuses on spatial and semantic modeling, analysis, and visualization of 2D and 3D geodata. Key areas are urban information modelling, urban simulation, and smart cities. Maximilian Sindram studied geography at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. After his studies he worked as a junior researcher at the ifo Institute in Munich on research related topics to GIS in economics before leaving in 2012 to join the Chair of Geoinformatics at TU Munich. Since January 2018 he has been working as Business Development Manager at virtual city systems. As a lecturer at TU Munich, he has been awarded the faculty's teaching prize several times. In addition to his professional tasks, Maximilian Sindram is involved in professional associations and standardization committees. Among others, his contribution to the modeling of the OpenDRIVE standard in ASAM e.V. and his profound knowledge of the OGC standard CityGML are worth mentioning.

Dr. Ludwig Friedmann has been Solution Architect Simulation Autonomous Driving with BMW Group since 2018. The focus of his work is on simulation architecture, 3D models and materials, distributed simulation frameworks and standardization. From 2016 to 2018 he was Product Manager Software Development Tools/Methods at Audi AG. From 2010 to 2016 he was a research associate and PhD candidate the Technical University Munich.

Christopher Wiegand is Strategic Product Manager at dSPACE GmbH, where he is responsible for the business fields Modelling & Simulation and Scenario Generation & Library. He studied electrical engineering and received his Dipl.-Ing. degree from the University of Paderborn in 2007. He joined the Fraunhofer Institute and Sensor Technology Group of the University of Paderborn as a research engineer and received a doctor’s degree in electrical engineering in 2012.

As founder of 3D Mapping Solutions, Dr.-Ing. Gunnar Gräfe focuses on the research & development of multi-sensor mobile mapping systems equipped with positioning technology, calibrated cameras and high-resolution laser scanners and the software applications to process and analyze the acquired data. Key areas are kinematic measurements of all types of traffic networks, provision of reference information for advanced driver assistance systems and developing of basic data for driving simulator applications. Gunnar Gräfe studied Geodesy at the University of Federal Armed Forces (FAF) Munich. After working as scientific assistant and teaching officer at the University FAF/ Munich, he founded Mobile Mapping S&S GmbH. In 2007, this led to the formation of 3D Mapping Solutions GmbH, where he has been Managing Director since then.

Jann-Eve Stavesand heads dSPACE Consulting and supports customers worldwide on defining test strategies for complex E/E systems and on overcoming challenges in model-based development of safety-critical systems. He was involved in the development of ISO 26262:2018 with a focus on software and processes and is currently involved in the standardization of Safety Of The Intended Functionality (SOTIF). Here, too, the focus is on testing and quality assurance of the software and systems used, including the approval and homologation of these complex functions.

Jens Haecker studied aerospace engineering and received his Dr.-Ing. degree from the University of Stuttgart in 2006. He joined Daimler AG in general research and advanced engineering and worked in simulation and testing of active chassis and steering systems and functional interfaces for autonomous driving. For the Daimler driving simulator at the Mercedes-Benz Technology Center he was responsible for mechatronics and further development of the motion platform and algorithms and represented Daimler as a member of the scientific committee of the Driving Simulation Association. He is a lecturer for control theory and simulation technologies in mechatronics at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Stuttgart at Campus Horb. As founder of Simulation Systems Consulting he currently works as an engineering consultant providing services for specification and analysis of simulator systems, with special focus on technical and experimental aspects of human-in-the-loop simulation.

Stefan-Alexander Schneider is Sponsored Professor from Continental for Basics in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) at the University of Applied Sciences in Kempten, Germany. His research interest covers Modeling of Environment and Sensor Behavior and Simulation of Test Scenarios and Software Engineering for ADAS and Automated Driving. He is also Guest Lecturer at the Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo, Japan. He did his PhD at TU Munich in adaptive hierarchical FEM to solve PDEs.

Dr. Martin Bendedikt is Head of Co-Simulation & Software at VIRTUAL VEHICLE Research GmbH.

Hardi Hungar received a PhD in computer science from the Christian Alberechts University in Kiel, and has the venia legendi (habilitation) at the Carl-von-Ossietzky University Oldenburg. For many years, he has worked on methods and tools for the development of dependable and safety-critical systems. These concerned mainly applications in the transportation domain. He has held various positions in academia, research and industry. In his current position, he leads the team on "Processes and Methods for Verification and Validation" at the Institute of Transportation System, which is one of the institutes of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). He is currently working mainly on methods for the verification and validation of highly automated vehicles. His focus areas include concepts and languages for defining test scenarios, algorithms and tools to perform exhaustive virtual tests, standard-conformant development, and safety argumentations.

Jürgen Wille studied precision engineering at FH Ulm and information technology at the University of Paderborn. He began his professional career as research associate at TU Berlin and the Fraunhofer Institute IZM. He joined Valeo GmbH in 2001 and worked in the field of hardware design and simulation methods over 17 years. Since 2006, he has been involved in the field of perception sensor model development and EMC verification. His focus was lying on ultrasonic and radar sensors and optimisation of sensor mounting positions inside virtual car models. He was involved in the European project "ENABLE-S3" and build up several sensor HIL tester to enable autonomous parking. Jürgen founded FrontMod GmbH in 2018. FrontMod is member of the ASC-S and develops sensor models for OSI standard.

As the founder and owner of PMSF IT Consulting focuses on the intersection between system development and simulation. One key area in the past decade has been the development and standardization of simulation and model interfaces for use in the automotive industry development processes. In this vein Pierre R. Mai is a member of the Modelica Association FMI and SSP, as well as founding member of the ASAM OSI and OpenSCENARIO standardization projects. In the past he coordinated the establishment of the ASAM Simulation Area and the transfer of the OpenX standards to ASAM in an interim capacity. Pierre R. Mai studied computer science at the Technical University Berlin with a focus on programming language design, implementation and constraint systems receiving his degree in 2002. Since then he has founded and lead a number of businesses in the simulation and technology domain, with a broad industrial and automotive customer base.

Clemens Linnhoff is co-founder and CTO of Persival GmbH, which supports sensor manufacturers and OEMs in the specification, development and validation of perception sensor models. He recently finished his PhD thesis on "Analysis of Environmental Influences for Simulation of Active Perception Sensors".Until the end of 2022, he has been working for four years as a research associate at the Institute of Automotive Engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt under the supervision of Prof. Hermann Winner. He was responsible for the development and validation of sensor models in the German research project "SET Level". Additionally, he was involved in the German project ViVID to pursue his work on modeling environmental influences in perception sensor data. He published 12 scientific papers in the field and 2 sensor data sets with adverse weather conditions. Together with his research group at TUDa FZD, he started the PerCollECT initiative to collect and provide perception sensor cause-effect chains in a tree-like ontology. Furthermore, he is Sub-Library Maintainer (SLM) for all open source perception sensor models of the asc(s e.V. - ENVITED Open Source Model & Simulation Library.r-modeling.

Philipp Rosenberger is co-founder and CEO of Persival GmbH, which supports sensor manufacturers and OEMs in the specification, development and validation of perception sensor models. He recently finished his PhD thesis on "Metrics for Specification, Validation, and Uncertainty Prediction for Credibility in Simulation of Active Perception Sensor Systems".Until the end of 2022, he has been working for six years as a research assistant at the Institute of Automotive Engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt under the supervision of Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Hermann Winner. In the European project "ENABLE-S3" he led the work package for simulation and stimulation and in the German project "PEGASUS" he was responsible for the development and validation of sensor models. Recently, he was involved in the German projects "SET Level" and "Verification & Validation Methods" to continue his work on model development and validation. He is also a founding member and part of the Change Control Board of the ASAM OSI standard. Together with his research group at TUDa FZD, he founded the PerCollECT initiative to collect and provide perception sensor cause-effect chains in a tree-like ontology. Furthermore, he is an active contributor to the open source perception sensor models of the asc(s e.V. - ENVITED Open Source Model & Simulation Library.

Dr. Martin Fischer studied Electrical Engineering at the Hanover University and got his degree in 2003. In 2009 he graduated as Dr.-Ing. at the University of Braunschweig with his work on “Motion-cueing algorithms for moving-based simulators”. He works for the German Aerospace Centre - Institute of Transportation Systems as a researcher and he is leading the group “Human-Centered Simulation” in the department “Validation and Verification”. His research focuses on human-in-the-loop simulation methods and technologies.

Alexander Ahlert received the M.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2015. Afterwards he graduated as Dr.-Ing. at the Institute of Automotive Engineering Stuttgart at the University of Stuttgart in the field of vehicle dynamics, multi-body systems and control theory. At Porsche Engineering he was a systems engineer and effect chain responsible for predictive control driving functions and motion planning algorithms. Since 2020 he joined IPG Automotive GmbH as Branch Manager Stuttgart. He leads different teams in the areas of Test Systems and Engineering, Technical Support and Sales. His main interest and focus is on the topic of democratization of simulation and virtual test driving throughout the vehicle development process. Besides, he is a lecturer for vehicle technology at the Technical Academy Esslingen (TAE).

Pascal Piecha is Global Education & University Program Manager at IPG Automotive GmbH and works on Research and Development topics regarding simulation and virtual test driving together with Universities, Research Institutes and Students world-wide. He studied mechanical engineering with the focus on powertrain development at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and received his M.Sc. in 2014. Working as a research assistant on the ECO-Powerdrive2 FFG project and covering the sustainable development of smaller powertrain systems (hand-held power-tools, motorcycles and more), he graduated as a Ph.D. in Technical Science from Graz University of Technology in 2019.

Peter Lobner studied Computer Science at the University Ulm and graduated as Dipl. Inf. in 2011. He then started his career as a software engineer at eXXcellent solutions GmbH and has gained experience in the development of complex software solutions in different industry sectors like E-Learning, Energy and Automotive over more than 10 years. He is currently working as software architect and project manager in different projects. One is orchideo | easySSP, a cloud based model editor and simulator for the System Structure & Parameterization (SSP) Standard of the Modelica Association. Moreover, he is a member of Modelica's SSP working group and actively participating in evolving the standard further. His interests are focused mainly on the creation of innovative & collaborative SaaS solutions and agile leadership.

Daniel Watzenig received his M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Technical Science from Graz University of Technology, Austria, in 2002 and 2006, respectively. In 2009 he received the Venia Docendi (habilitation) for Electrical Measurement and Signal Processing. Since 2006 he has been Divisional Director and Scientific Head of the Automotive Electronics and Software Department of the Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH in Graz. In 2017 he has been appointed as Full Professor of Autonomous Driving at the Institute of Automation and Control, Graz University of Technology, Austria. He is founder and a team leader of the Autonomous Racing Graz Team, one of currently six teams of the global race series (Roborace). His research interests focus on sense & control of automated vehicles, signal processing, multi-sensor data fusion, uncertainty estimation and quantification, and robust optimization. He is author or co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, patents, and articles.

Markus Schratter is a researcher in the field of automated driving. He studied Information and Computer Engineering at Graz University of Technology. In 2011, he joined Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH and was involved in different research projects. His main task is the development and integration of concepts into test vehicles. Currently, he writes his PhD thesis with the subject: How technology for highly automated driving can be used to improve active safety systems. In 2019, he joined Autonomous Racing Graz as technical lead and is in the racing team responsible for the architecture of the software stack and the integration of the different subsystems. His research interests are related to automated driving, robotics, sensors and the integration of complex/reliable systems.

Johannes Betz is Assistant Professor at the new research lab “Autonomous Vehicle Systems” in the Department of Mobility Systems Engineering at the TUM School of Engineering and Design (ED).

Carlo van Driesten graduated from TU München with an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. He researched in the field of Radar Clutter Simulation at Rohde & Schwarz for hardware in the loop testing of ship radars before he joined BMW in the field of automated driving in 2016. As Systems Architect for Virtual Test & Validation he is focused on international standardization of simulation interfaces, data structures and open architectures for the purpose of virtually enhanced homologation processes. He initiated the OpenX Simulation Standards at ASAM e.V., authored the initial version of the ASAM Open Simulation Interface (OSI) and is mentor of the ENVITED Research Cluster at asc(s e.V. pursuing the goal of creating decentralized data markets for simulations. In 2018 he co-founded vDL Digital Ventures with StakeNow as the largest German staking service for Tezos which brought his greatest passions together: Automated driving and distributed ledger technologies.

Jürgen Wahn has been involved in automotive testing for 30 years. Since 2004 he has been working for ACTS GmbH & Co. KG in various positions in the field of component level testing. In his current position he is responsible for the system engineering of component tests at ACTS GmbH & Co. KG.