Speakers & Chairmen

Christian Alscher studied Mathematics at the University of Bielefeld with strong focus on Numerical Analysis and Biomechanics. For almost 25 years he worked at Altair Engineering GmbH in different positions, such as crash simulation projects, technical support for CAE solvers, and general CAE process development.

Dan Andrei Anton founded Autoadmin Consulting SRL, a company specializing in streamlining R&D for smart tires in electric vehicles. The company develops innovative workflows for modeling, digital twin building, and efficient data management. Additionally, Autoadmin Consulting provides a CAE software toolkit in partnership with GNS mbH for extended applications in various FEA projects, including tire and beyond tire technologies. With a degree in automotive engineering, Dan Andrei Anton has over 18 years of experience in CAE, working with prestigious companies such as BMW Group, Lear, Boshoku Automotive, Linglong, Goodyear, and Kumho. His expertise lies in automotive systems engineering, utilizing advanced FEA tools for virtual testing and product design validation. In addition to overseeing short- and long-term projects for automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, Dan Andrei Anton has developed various FEA testing models to validate passive safety systems and smart tire technologies.

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.

Holding a diploma degree in “Medical Engineering and Sports Medical Engineering”, Dominik Borsotto pursued the Master program in “Applied Physics” (M.Sc.) at the University of Applied Sciences in Remagen, Germany. After having worked as a research associate at Queen Mary University London at the department of engineering and at Fraunhofer SCAI in Sankt Augustin, in the department of numerical software, he joined SIDACT in April 2013. Since then he is working on the DIFFCRASH project as a developer and software manager.

Frank Braunroth studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt specializing in materials science. Since 1992, he has been responsible project manager for OPEL/ GENERAL MOTORS, leading several Road Load Data Acquisition and Durability Program Development projects on world- wide OPEL/GM and OEM Proving Grounds, pushing the Road to Lab to Math Concept. In August 2019, he took over the position on Business Unit Manager AI, CAE, RLDA & Calibration at SEGULA Technologies GmbH, focusing on the development of CAE and Artificial Intelligence competencies in the global SEGULA network.

Karin Brolin has worked in the field of impact biomechanics throughout her career. 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. For 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 works as an independent consultant and researcher.

Maria Büttner studied at Kiel University of Applied Sciences 2006 – 2009 and received a Bachelor of Engineering Shipbuilding and Maritime Technology. In 2011 she got the Master of Engineering Shipbuilding and Maritime Technology specializing in design and strength. After graduating, Maria moved to the automotive industry in Stuttgart to EDL Lauer & Weiss GmbH in the field of CFD, statics & dynamics and multi-body simulation from 2011 to 2017. She joined TECOSIM GmbH in March 2017 as project manager with customer support in statics & dynamics, stiffness and strength and multi-body simulation. She is a team leader since Nov 2021 with the subject areas SFB, NVH and MBS with currently 14 employees.

Marian Bulla has studied mechanical engineering in Iserlohn. In his professional activities at Fraunhofer, Forschungsgesellschaft Kraftfahrwesen, PuZ and Imperia, he has gained extensive experience in computer crash simulation and in experimental research. Since 2008 he has been working as a specialist in crash and occupant simulation at Altair Engineering GmbH. Since 8 years he is a member of the “Core Development Team” and Director Program Management and OpenRadioss. In 2018 he established the Altair Material Data Center. Since 2022, he is the director of OpenRadioss Community. November 2024, he received the ASME – Edward F. Obert Award for his research on Li-ion batteries, together with Elham Sahraei and Stefan Kolling.

Christian Carrillo is an experienced engineer specializing in tire testing, vehicle dynamics, and simulation. After completing his master’s degree at RWTH Aachen, he gained extensive experience in vehicle dynamics, tire test rig development, and tire characterization on the track and in the lab, with a focus on the effect of road surface texture on tire performance. He currently works at fka GmbH in the tire technology department, developing innovative tire testing methods and supporting motorsport Teams, OEM and clients in optimizing vehicle simulations with precise tire data. His focus is on accurately capturing and interpreting tire data to provide realistic models for vehicle development. With deep expertise in tire test rig development, tire characterization and modelling, he plays a key role in improving testing methods and models, particularly in the automotive and motorsport industries.

Ovidi Casals has a PhD in Materials Science from Barcelona Tech and MSc in Physics from the University of Barcelona. He has developed most of his professional career focused on the development of simulation software and its application to Computer-Aided Engineering analysis. In the academic area, he stayed in the “Centre des Matériaux Pierre-Marie Fourt” at Mines Paris-Tech working on the modeling of the behavior of single crystals and metallic polycrystalline aggregates under contact conditions. Nowadays, he has a position as project engineer in the materials team of the Body Performance department at IDIADA where he focusses on the development of new methodologies for the characterization and calibration of plasticity and failure models for crashworthiness applications.

Giancarlo Conti graduated in 1999 in Mechanical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin. He started working in the CAE domain as Multi-body Simulation Analyst, mostly for automotive and aerospace applications. Then he has been working for 8 years as Advanced Project Engineer in LMS. He joined Siemens Digital Industries Software in 2014, where he has been Technical Product Manager for Simcenter 3D Motion until 2022. His current role is Mechanical Application Specialist.

Dr.-Ing. Vitor Cores Finotto obtained his PhD from the Czech Technical University in Prague in 2013. Over the past 15 years, he has specialized in optimization, lightweight design and AI. Throughout much of his career, Vitor has worked as a consultant in optimization, collaborating with numerous OEMs in Europe. In recent years, he has joined the BMW Group, where he currently focuses on Body-in-White (BIW) optimization, lightweight design, and the integration of artificial intelligence into automotive simulation processes.

Jochen Fiedler studied mathematics and physics in Heidelberg, where he received his diploma in mathematics in 2011. From 2011-2016, he completed his doctorate in mathematics with a focus on mathematical statistics. Since 2015, he has been working as a statistician and data scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics in Kaiserslautern, where he focuses on machine learning and AI methods and their application in the field of vehicles and sensors.

Steve Fisher holds a 1st Class BSc in Aeronautical Engineering from City University, London. After graduating, Steve joined Jaguar Cars, luxury car manufacturer which at that time had just been bought by Ford Motor Company, as a graduate engineer working in the Advanced Engineering Group (AEG). During the time in AEG, Steve looked at the use of aluminum within the car industry making prototype Aluminum bonnets. Steve also was co-author on a patent for a bonnet system that reduced injuries in pedestrian impacts. After AEG, Steve joined Body Engineering where he worked with the Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) department working on the refinement of the vehicle. Within this section he worked his way up to a technical specialist and introduced Jaguar Land Rover to the use of vibro-acoustic finite element analysis (FEA) methods to predict the noise within the vehicle. Later on, Steve has introduced Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) methods into the company to study high frequency air borne noise within the vehicle. Steve has worked at Ford in Dearborn, USA and has worked on the Jaguar XK8, S-Type, XF, all aluminum XJs, all aluminum XK, all aluminum Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Evoque and Lincoln LS. Steve’s current role is to lend technical support to vehicle programs and develop / improve new CAE methods to help develop the refinement of future vehicles while reducing weight and CO2 impact.

After his studies in mechanical engineering at the University of Applied Science Ostfalia in Wolfenbüttel Thilo Franke started his PhD-Thesis at the Volkswagen AG and the Technical University Braunschweig, developing a topology optimization with integrated casting simulation. Today he is head of sub-department for pre-development and simulation in the development of chassis components.

Prof. Jochen Garcke is Professor for Numerics at the Institute for Numerical Simulation at the University of Bonn and heads the department "Numerical Data-Driven Prediction" of Fraunhofer SCAI. The main focus of his work is scientific computing and machine learning with applications in engineering and natural sciences.

Dr. Axel Hänschke studied mechanical engineering at the TU Braunschweig. In 1989 he received his PhD on „Computer Aided Vehicle Structure Layout” from TU Berlin. Thereafter he worked 5 year as manager CAE-projects at VW Gedas in Berlin. Following were 25 years experiences at Ford Werke GmbH. In his last position he was responsible for all Virtual Prototypes as Supervisor Analytical Prototypes, CAE Integration and CAE Model build. Since December 2019 he is “Head of Business Development for Simulation projects and Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)” at CPS Consulting. During his time at Ford he taught at the TU Berlin and headed the Working Group 27 "Simulation Methods and Virtual Validation" of the German Automotive Research Association (FAT). Last but not least he is a member of the Scientific Committee of the automotive CAE Grand Challenge.

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 has been 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.

Dr. Jobin John is part of Research Faculty at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. He is part of the core developer team of the open source VIVA+ human body models. He also contributes as a developer to SAFER HBM and SET-FE (Seat Evaluation Tool Finite Element) Models. He has also been working towards developing workflows to enhance reproducibility of human body finite element simulations, which has been implemented in the VIVA+ Validation Catalog.

Savvas Kelidis earned his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and completed his MSc in Strategic Product Design at International Hellenic University. He has worked as an R&D engineer in various construction industries before joining BETA CAE Systems SA, where he has specialized in Crash and Safety and Human Body Models applications for the past four years.

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.

Panagiotis Mantzopoulos earned his MEng in Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics from the University of Patras and later pursued an MSc in Computational and Software Techniques in Engineering at Cranfield University. Since 2020, he has been a dedicated member of BETA CAE Systems SA, specializing in Simulation Process and Data Management field. His contributions span across product development, process automation, technical support and presales activities with a particular focus on modular assembly and data management.

Jens Menzen studied mechanical engineering at the university of applied science in Cologne and has over 11 years of experience in the automotive industry. He worked as CAE Engineer at ARRK Engineering GmbH and 9 years as Development Engineer at Ford Werke GmbH, responsible for CAE model build coordination and automation, mainly in the concept phase. Since 2024 he joined Dassault Systèmes as SIMULIA Industry Process Consultant focusing on MODSIM topics (unified modeling and simulation on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform).

Stefan Mertz is a senior industry process expert within DASSAULT SYSTEMES’ CATIA brand. With almost 15 years of experience in conceptual product development he is worldwide responsible for CATIA Concept industry processes. After graduation at Technical University of Berlin with diploma in automotive engineering in 2010 he started as a project engineer at SFE GmbH in Berlin supporting and leading service projects in Europe, North America and Asia. Within 4 years at SFE GmbH he gained experience in project management, technical support, quality assurance, process automation and concept development processes mainly in the automotive industry.  In 2015 he joined DASSAULT SYSTEMES as a solution consultant responsible for technical sales of CATIA | SFE products and is nowadays helping to enrich customer processes in concept engineering embracing the MODSIM (MODeling & SIMulation) portfolio and solutions. Stefan enjoys traveling in his campervan with his wife and two kids, is brewing his own beer and plays basketball, snooker and football.

Robert Meukel studied mechanical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich and graduated with a master's degree at the end of 2020. During his master thesis he was able to extend his expertise in structural optimization and to combine it with new approaches from the world of machine learning. His field of activity at ARRK includes structural optimization and the application of machine learning methods in the series development of vehicle structures. In addition, he is responsible for improving internal software tools for parameter optimization.

Dr. Stefan Müller studied Mathematics at the University of Cologne (Germany) and started to work in the field of data compression for simulation results at Fraunhofer SCAI in 2008. After finishing his Diploma in Mathematics, he started his PhD in Mathematics with the title “Compression of a set of Crash test Simulation results”. In 2013, he moved from Fraunhofer to the Spin-off SIDACT GmbH. Starting from 2015, he was Product Manager for FEMZIP-CFD. In 2021 Stefan successfully defended his PhD at Humboldt Universität Berlin. Since April 2024, he is CTO of SIDACT.

Dr. Masahiro Okamura received a M.D. in 2000 and a PhD in 2004 both from Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan. He has more than 15 years’ experience as crash and safety engineer with several crash codes in the automotive industry. Currently his main obligation at JSOL is business development in Digital twin, Digital homologation, and data-driven product development. His research fields are in Robust design process, Test-Simulation integration, Digital twin, Digital homologation.

Bart Peeters Weem studied mechanical engineering at the University of Technology in Eindhoven with focus on system and control. Since 2003 he has been working at BMW on passive safety development. First as simulation engineer, later as team leader side impact and rollover protection and as project technical advisor Vehicle safety of the BMW New Class Architecture. 2019-2021 he was pilot of the ACEA-Expertgroup on Virtual-Testing - Crashworthiness.  Since 2022 he is technical advisor for innovative virtual development methods of BMW-Exterior and Interior.

Thorsten Pohl studied Aeronautics at Imperial College London. In 1998 he joined the vehicle CAE department of Opel – at that time part of GM. In 2017 Opel became part of Groupe PSA, since 2021 it is Stellantis. Thorsten started as Development Engineer for Body-in-white Structures. From 2003 he has been Team Leader FE Modelling, from 2012 Manager CAE Strategies and Operations since 2022 he is Manager CAE Methods and Tools Development.

Marius Rees is working as a safety engineer at BMW AG in the car safety department, focusing on the application of human body models in BMW car projects. He studied Biomechanics at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences and finished it with a master thesis at Daimler AG, deepen his knowledge in the simulation of human-body-models. In 2019 he joined the BMW AG, first for a PhD position focusing on the sensitivity of multiple HBMs for three years in collaboration with the LMU university, which was completed in 2023.

Dr. Rensink joined the Segula Group in Rüsselsheim in July 2020 as team leader for structural and thermal CAE, data management and AI methods. Before he worked as a Senior IT Consultant at :em engineering methods and as a CAE engineer for FEM and CFD methods at Opel. He studied Physics at University of Bielefeld and Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh and received his doctoral degree from Institute of Fluid Mechanics at University Erlangen-Nuremberg. He is lecturer for applied CAE methods at University of Applied Science in Bingen.

Juan Ruiz obtained his B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Pontificial Catholic University of Peru, after which he worked in the mining industry prior to moving to Germany for his Master studies. There he obtained his M.Eng. degree in Automotive and Mechanical Engineering at the Esslingen University, after completing his Master Thesis on Multibody Simulation with main focus on Vehicle Dynamics. Since 2016 he has been working at Dassault Systemes as Multibody Systems Industry Process Consultant for the Automotive sector, where he focuses on vehicle dynamics simulation, providing tailored solutions for customers' requirements.

Fabio Schneider-Jung studied Applied Mathematics at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern and got his PhD on co-simulation of flexible multibody systems. Since 2016 he is researcher at Fraunhofer ITWM, working in the division “Mathematics for vehicle development”. He is responsible for method development regarding the simulation of cables and hoses. This covers, e.g., dynamic effects, frequency analyses, durability and corresponding experimental mechanics.

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.

Pekka Stuckert earned his Diploma in Law from the University of Cologne 1986. In 1990 he founded the consulting company CPS Pekka Stuckert Consulting. As a consultant he worked with CPS Consulting in different strategic and multibranch projects for ex. Energy and Powerplant as well in Shipbuilding and many other projects and active in building collaboration between research institutes in Finland and Germany. From 2012 - 2014, Pekka Stuckert was appointed Managing Director of the European Agency for Sustainable Energy GmbH in Aachen with the main task of creating a European collaboration network of top-level research from various universities in the field of renewable energies. From 2005- 2022 he was appointed CEO of Auditing & Consulting Oy in Helsinki. From December 2014 to 2017, Pekka Stuckert was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of NFN AG, Cologne. He has been a board member of the Finnish German Trade Guild since 2007 and a member of the Economic Committee of the City of Brühl since 2021.

Alfred J. Svobodnik has 30 years of expertise and thought leadership in Virtual Multiphysics and Computational Acoustics. He is the creator of the Mvoid simulation process technology, solution provider and passionate in music! As a forerunner and thought leader he is continuously looking for and exploring new solutions for excellent sound quality and active noise control for his clients’ products; e. g. in the car, in the concert hall, in an airplane ... He successfully helped numerous automobile manufacturers, Tier 1 suppliers, premier pro audio as well as renowned consumer companies to build and implement CAE audio development processes.

With a Civil Engineering degree from Dresden University of Technology, Marko Thiele started his career at DYNAmore in 2004. He focused on occupant safety simulation and optimized restraint systems. As optimization relies on CAE processes, he developed a customer-specific SDM solution (SCALE.sdm). After founding SCALE Germany as a spinoff from DYNAmore, he led the Ingolstadt office and managed SCALE.sdm. His expertise drives innovation in simulation data management.

Alain Trameçon has over 35 years of experience in numerical simulation, development, research, and innovative industrial projects. He is a technical expert for Fluid-Structure Interaction (FPM) and Composite Crash in Virtual Performance Solutions (VPS). Together with his team, he developed and validated industrial solutions for simulating complex phenomena such as airbag deployment and car water crossing. He currently leads the ESI Product Management team for crash, safety and vibro-acoustics.

Dr.-Ing. Katrin Weider studied mathematics with a technical focus at TU Darmstadt. From 2011 to 2015, she worked as a CAE engineer at TECOSIM GmbH. In addition to topics from statics and dynamics, she was particularly fascinated by crashworthy car body development and the development of component test benches. She pursued her goal of combining crashworthy car body development with mathematical optimization at the University of Wuppertal, where she received her doctorate in 2021. In her doctoral thesis, she developed the topological derivative, a sensitivity for the insertion of cut-outs, considering material nonlinearity, large deformation and time dependency. In her current research, the integration of industrial requirements into the topology optimization of additive manufactured components is being further developed.

Johannes Wernig has studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University Graz with specialization on automotive engineering & vehicle safety. He has been working in the area of vehicle safety since 1997. Johannes Wernig started as development engineer for passive safety at Magna Steyr Engineering. Since 2001 he has been working as a group leader for occupant safety. 2006 - 2018, he was Head of Vehicle Safety area at Magna Steyr Engineering in Graz. Since January 2019, he works in AVL List GmbH as responsible Lead Engineer Vehicle Safety in the newly established Technical Field “Vehicle”.

Markus Wick studied “Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik” (Aerospace Engineering) at the Technical University of Berlin. After finishing his studies he worked for VW-GEDAS, a subsidiary of Volkswagen in Berlin, responsible for CAE model build and FEA analysis. In 1994 he joined FORD WERKE GmbH Cologne and has worked in several positions, e.g. Body Engineering, Durability and NVH, Basic Design and Vehicle Dynamics and Acoustics. Since 2013 he holds the management position “Application Specialist“(AS) in the Analytical Durability / Road Load Data department.