Welcome to my personal page!
About me
I am an electrical engineer who studied at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. On this personal page, I talk about my work, my publications, and some of my other interests. If you want to reach out, please contact me via E-Mail.
My main interests are:
- Embedded Systems,
- Functional Safety, and
- Control Theory.
These topics go hand in hand: Embedded systems are computer systems that interact with the physical world (such as in cars or robots). Since such systems are often safety-critical, we need functional safety to ensure that they do not pose a risk to humans. Finally, control theory provides the theoretical mathematical foundation that tells us how to control physical systems so they behave as intended.
Embedded Systems
My first practical experience with embedded systems was during my time as an intern and later as a part-time employee at an automotive supplier during my master’s studies. At the time, I was involved in several projects related to embedded systems in electric vehicles. This included real-time temperature estimation, condition monitoring, and adaptive control of electric drive systems. For more info, see our related patents:
The combination of the digital “software world” and the physical “real world,” interacting through sensors and actuators, fascinated me and sparked a more general interest in embedded systems. Since then, I have been involved in various activities related to embedded and cyber-physical systems, including:
- Robotics research (see also the next section below)
- Holding lectures on real-time systems at KIT (from 2019–2023)
- Software and system development in industrial embedded projects (since 2023)
Functional Safety
I first came into contact with the topic of functional safety when I worked as a robotics researcher at KIT. At that time, my main research field was safety in human-robot collaboration (HRC). More and more robotic systems are being built to collaborate directly with humans. Obviously, safety is a major concern for these systems. Thus, before becoming operational, HRC systems must be thoroughly analyzed to assess if they are actually safe. Such an analysis is called hazard analysis.
In my research, I investigated how simulation-based testing can be used as a tool to effectively support hazard analysis of collaborative human-robot systems and assess the functional safety of these systems. The following book summarizes my research:
Additional publications can be found on my Google Scholar Profile. After completing my PhD thesis in the field of functional safety, I became involved in several industrial projects related to safety-critical systems. I am also currently a Certified Machinery Safety Expert (CMSE), certified by TÜV Nord (TÜV is one of the major German certification authorities for Safety-critical systems).
Control Theory
My third area of interest is control theory. This is also closely related to my interest in embedded systems, since control theory is an integral part of understanding and controlling physical processes in the real world. What I find especially fascinating about control theory is that it provides a kind of ‘abstraction layer’ that translates physical behaviors from various domains (electrical, mechanical, thermal,…) into a unified mathematical description (differential equations, Laplace transfer functions, etc.). This allows you to detach from technical implementations to a certain extent and think about the abstract behavior of a system in more general terms.
Since 2022, I have been holding a lecture on control theory at Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (DHBW) in Karlsruhe.
You can find an overview of my lecture materials by clicking on the image below.
The goal of my lecture is to provide a basic introduction to control theory for computer scientists. Therefore, the slides are somewhat simplified compared to a full-fledged control theory course. However, I believe they are excellent for getting a first grasp and understanding the essentials. Unfortunately, the slides are currently available in German only. For an English introduction that features a bit more detail, I recommend this Book by Steven A. Frank, which is available on the Springer website free of charge.