Speakers & Chairmen

Yuka Abe has been working at SUBARU Corporation since 2013 and is currently part of VRU (Vulnerable Road User) safety group within the passive safety department. Her research focuses on the application of human body models in SUBARU car projects. She is responsible for both simulation and experimentation in the field of vehicle development.

Dr. Bass’s research over 25 years focuses on the development of animal, computational and physical models for injury biomechanics in humans from trauma to the spine, thorax, abdomen, brain and extremities. Following a postdoctoral fellowship (NSF) at the University of Virginia, Dr. Bass established a high-rate biomechanics program at the University of Virginia Center for Applied Biomechanics (1996-2008) and at Duke University (2008-2023). He is currently a Professor at Wayne State University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. At UVa, Duke and WSU, he has mentored ~25 PhD candidates who did all the work.

Christophe Bastien worked for Matra Datavision, MSX and Corus Automotive as a CAE technical specialist for 13 years, contributing to the development of the Jaguar X-Type interior head impact protection (FMVSS201), including the design of the Jaguar XK for pedestrian legislation. When he joined Corus Automotive, he continued to focus on pedestrian safety and developed new skills in highway engineering design and analysis. During his career, he filed 21 patents in the area of safety engineering. In 2007, he joined Coventry University and is now an Associate Professor leading the Transport Safety and Simulations Group. In 2014 he was awarded a PhD in biomechanics and safety. His current work, with the collaboration of local hospitals and the Police forces, is focused in predicting trauma severity.

Jens Bauer holds a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Brunel University London and a M.Sc. in Computational Science and Engineering from Imperial College London. His master’s thesis focused on multi-fidelity deep transfer learning for wind farm wake models. Over the past three years, Jens has worked as a software developer for the Oasys Suite, an advanced pre- and post-processing software for LS-DYNA. In his work, he contributed to the advanced automotive safety tools in PRIMER such as Seatbelt Fitting and Crash Test Setup.

Ms. Leyre Benito Cia studied Industrial Engineering at the "Universidad Pública de Navarra – UpNA" (Spain) from 2005 to 2011. Her thesis was on "Investigation of mass transport through membranes using the CFD method" as part of a research project in cooperation with Volkswagen AG at the TU Braunschweig. Since 2011 she works at GNS mbH first in crash simulation and since 2016 in the Generator4 management team.

Dr. Cynthia A. Bir is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Wayne State University. Dr. Bir has extensive research experience in the area of human injury tolerances. Her research interests include sports injury biomechanics, ballistic impacts, blast injury, and forensic biomechanics. She has studied the effects of impacts to all regions of the body and is known world-wide for her work in this area.

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.

Erik Brolin is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Skövde, Sweden. He received his PhD in 2016 and his research interests include user-centered design and consideration of human diversity as well as computer-based methods and support systems for designers and engineers to consider human-related matters in design and development processes, e.g., the integration and use of digital human modelling tools for production and vehicle ergonomics. Erik is also interested and involved in standardization of ergonomics and anthropometry on European (CEN) and global (ISO) level.

Özgür Cebeci has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He received a master’s degree in Computational Mechanics of Materials and Structures at the University of Stuttgart. Since 2015, he has been employed as a Project Engineer by IAT Ingenieurgesellschaft für Automobiltechnik mbH, where he worked on active and passive safety concepts using human models. Since 2020 he has been focusing on periprosthetic femur fractures within his Ph.D. project in cooperation with IAT mbH, Julius Wolf Institute, University of Waterloo. He is also actively supporting the development of models and tools used in biomechanics and human modeling.

Vincent Dampuré graduated from the French engineering college ENSMA in 2006 with a degree in aerospace engineering. He then worked for 6 years as a crash engineer at Imperia GmbH in Aachen. He has currently been with Altair Engineering for 12 years. Initially 4 years as a crash specialist and customer support in the field of crash simulation and for 8 years as "Product Manager Crash" in the HyperWorks Core development team for "explicit Solvers and Crash & Safety" solutions.

In 2019 Daniel Niklas Fahse completed his first master’s studies in Engineering Science and Mechanics at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He then proceeded with a second master’s degree in Autonomous Systems at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. After graduating in 2021, he began doctoral studies in Mechanical Engineering at the Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. His thesis will focus on surrogate models for the interaction between active human models and the vehicle interior in the context of driving simulations.

Ulrich Freyberger studied mechanical engineering 1989 – 1993 at the Technische Universität München. From 1993 to 2001 he worked as a simulation engineer at Audi AG in Ingolstadt. His responsibilities have been body development for side impact and occupant protection in frontal impact. From 2001 to 2009 he worked as team leader simulation/system integration at Autoliv BV&Co.KG, on the development of restraint systems especially airbag component development. Since 2009 until today he is Head of the Competence Center Vehicle Safety at CDH AG in Ingolstadt. Here he leads body development, pedestrian protection, interior simulation and occupant protection.

Mr. Daiki Furukawa joined Toyota Motor Corporation (Japan) in 2016 as an engineer in the passive safety division. He is responsible for the development of advanced restraint systems for frontal crash since 2016. He has experience with hardware tests and simulations including human body models and ATDs. He has been a member of JAMA dummy technical working group (2020-2023). Currently he is the assistant manager of the advanced restraint system development team in Toyota Motor Corporation and guest researcher at BASt (2024), investigating hardware test scatter influence of MPDB test.

María González-García holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Oviedo, Spain. During the final year of her Master’s degree, she was granted a one-year stay at the Technical University of Munich, where she enrolled in the Master’s programme in Computational Mechanics. Concurrently, she completed her Master’s thesis at the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), focusing on age-related material changes in the human thoracic region. Since 2018, María has been a Ph.D. student at LMU, with her research centered on active human body models. She has been working at Volkswagen Group Innovation since 2018, initially as a Ph.D. student and, since 2021, as a research engineer.

Dr. Monika Harant is a researcher at the department “Mathematics for the Digital Factory” at Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics since 2021. She received her interdisciplinary PhD in Mathematics from Heidelberg University. In her research activity at Fraunhofer ITWM, she focuses on applying optimization techniques and dynamic simulation to predict active human motion for product design and development and workplace ergonomics, e.g., analyzing the effects of driving maneuvers on the movement of the vehicle’s occupants.

Zach Hostetler earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Baylor University in 2017. He earned his MS (2019) and PhD (2022) in Biomedical Engineering from the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering. His Master's work focused on CT image analysis to develop population specific finite element models of thorax to investigate cortical thickness changes with age and sex. Zach's PhD work focused on computational human body modeling and injury risk curve development. His primary work included validation and injury risk curve development for lower extremity injuries using a human body model in the underbody blast environment. He also supported validation work for a finite element ATD model for military safety applications and automotive work for human body modeling and injury risk curve development in the far-side crash environment.

Dr. Jingwen Hu is Associate Director and Research Professor at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). His research interests primarily focus on injury biomechanics in motor-vehicle crashes using a combination of experimental, computational, and epidemiological procedures. One of the highlights of his recent research is improving safety equity through developing and using parametric human models representing a diverse population. Dr. Hu is an author of 150+ peer-reviewed journal and conference papers.

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.

Alzbeta Kafkova is a CAE engineer at TÜV SÜD Czech. She focuses on the design and FE simulation of side sled tests, vehicle/structure strength simulation and EV battery testing. She studies at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Czech Technical University. As part of her PhD project, carried out in close cooperation with TÜV SÜD Czech, she focuses on safety in side impact preceded by evasive manoeuvres.

Dr. Christoph Klein is a researcher at the Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH in Graz, Austria. He is working in the group of occupant and VRU safety and his research focus are Human Body Models. He obtained his PhD at the Vehicle Safety Institute at Graz University of Technology in 2017.

Haiyan Li is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Tianjin University of Science and Technology in China and the director of International Research Association on Emerging Automotive Safety Technology. She holds prestigious positions including membership in the Professional Degree Education Guidance Committee of the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government Degree Committee as well as Vice Chairmanship of the Traffic Injury and Trauma Database Study Group within the Trauma Branch of the Chinese Medical Association. Dr. Li and her team are engaged in research in the fields of automotive safety and injury biomechanics. She has published more than 100 academic papers.

Pablo Lozano holds an MSc in Industrial Engineering from the Pontifical University of Comillas ICAI, with additional education in biomechanics, safety, and mobility. His master's thesis, in collaboration with Volvo Cars, explored the influence of active musculature in Human Body Models for injury risk prediction. As the Human Body Model specialist at Applus+ IDIADA, Pablo leads safety research projects focusing on Virtual Testing, occupant protection, and pedestrian safety. He has contributed to European projects such as SAFE-UP and is currently involved in the IMPROVA project focusing on Long-Term Consequences.

Dr Giacomo Marini studied biomedical engineering at the Politecnico of Turin (Italy) and obtained his PhD at the Institute for Biomechanics of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH-Zürich, Switzerland). He started his career in 2015 at AUDI as responsible for human body models (HBMs) and related biomechanics studies. This comprehended the lead of a group of biomechanics experts which aimed to investigate how and what is needed to use HBMs within the development of the restraint system. During 2019 he joined several ACEA working groups as AUDI representative in working groups which are related to his field of expertise. Currently he is ACEA VT-PS representative for the dummy HIII certification (Euro NCAP TB043) and Co-Pilot of the ACEA TF-Biomechanics on HBMs.

Frank Meyer obtained his Ph.D in biomechanics in 2004. Since 2004 he has a permanent research position in Biomechanics at Strasbourg University. He is specialized in finite element modeling of the human neck for adult and child: i.e. development of model as well as neck injury criteria elaboration for whiplash injury but also in multidirectional configuration.

Maria Oikonomou is a PhD candidate at BETA CAE Systems and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She holds a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her thesis focused on the modeling and kinematic analysis of the lumbar spine, implemented in HBMs. For the past two years, she has been a PhD candidate in the Crash and Safety Department at BETA CAE Systems.

Dr Philippe Petit studied engineering and obtained his PhD in 1998 from ENSAM Paris. He started his career in 1998 as a researcher in Biomechanics at Laboratory of Accidentology Biomechanics and human behavior which is a joint venture between Renault and Stellantis. The research projects he was a part of include PMHS, Dummy testing as well as numerical simulations. He became the manager of the LAB Biomechanics Department in 2011 and Expert in Biomechanics for Renault in 2022. He is a member of the ACEA Working Group dealing with Dummy Technology, Biomechanics, Injury prediction and Virtual Testing using Human Body Models. He is also a member of the Euro NCAP working group BIO. Since the initial phase of GHBMC, he has represented Renault.

Bengt Pipkorn is director of simulation and active structure at Autoliv Research where he is globally responsible for the Autoliv human body modelling activities. Since 2016 he is adjunct professor at Chalmers University of Technology. He earned his PhD in injury prevention at Chalmers University of Technology in 1996. He has a solid experience in impact biomechanics and in developing systems to protect people both inside and outside the vehicle in crashes. His main research interests are human body modelling, injury mechanisms and tolerances.

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. Felix Ressi has been a researcher at the Vehicle Safety Institute of Graz University of Technology in Austria since 2016. He completed his PhD in 2024, where he conducted stochastic human body model (HBM) simulations in a generic vehicle environment to advance occupant safety research using HBMs. Currently, he manages several industry projects focused on occupant safety, working with a variety of HBMs.

Andrea Robinson is a 4th year PhD Student at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Her dissertation work aims to increase the diversity of HBMS through anthropometry and simulation studies. She supported the development of the GHBMC F50 models and conducted an image-based study on rib cage shape variation. Her current dissertation work involves investigating how variation influences injury risk using HBMs. Prior to her PhD studies, Andrea earned her B.S. in Physics with a thesis focused on fast neutron scattering.

Lambros Rorris received his Diploma of Civil Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1993 and worked in the Dept. of Civil Eng. as a researcher till 1999. In 1999 he joined BETA CAE Systems as a developer for Crash pre-processing. During the last twenty years he developed along with his team many safety related tools for the ANSA pre-processor. He is currently the Manager of Crash and Safety applications.

Alessandro Scattina is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the Politecnico di Torino. He took Ph.D. in Mechanics in 2009 then he covered research fellow and assistant professor positions. Starting from the Ph.D. period he is working in the research group “Vehicle structure and safety: design, simulation, optimization” on lightweight vehicle structures, passive and pedestrian safety, impact biomechanics.

Lia Schneider is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Stuttgart. In her Bachelor she studied Technology Management and during her thesis, she focused on Simulating neck injuries in motorcycle accidents with a novel safety system at the Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics, within SimTech of the University of Stuttgart under the supervision of Dr. Steffen Maier and Prof. Jörg Fehr.

Dr. Chirag Shah earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2007 from the Wayne State University in USA. As part of his doctorate, he worked on the CAE human body model development. He has over 25 technical publications in the field biomechanics and automotive safety. In 2008, he joined the First Technology Safety Systems which is now Humanetics Group. Since then, he has led a variety of CAE dummy modeling projects including the FLEX-PLI, aPLI, THOR. Currently, he is leading the Human Body Modeling project at Humanetics.

Dr. Abbas Talimian is a postdoctoral research fellow at the department of Biomechanical human body models, New Technology Research Center, University of West Bohemia. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Since 2019 his research has been focused on occupants' safety and developing passive safety tools for autonomous vehicles with non-standard seating configurations.

Niclas Trube received his M.Sc. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg in 2018 with a thesis on the ‘Relevance of muscle stiffness for occupant safety’. Since 2018 he is a research fellow in the research group of Human Body Dynamics at the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMI. Over the years he has mainly focused on the application of human body model in traffic safety and the evaluation of occupant and VRU load cases, including injury risk assessment. He contributed to the recently completed research project ATTENTION, which developed a method for real-time injury risk prediction using active human body models.

Michiel van Ratingen, PhD, PDEng, Msc (1966) studied at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Eindhoven and the Medical University of Maastricht. Michiel joined TNO Netherlands and completed his PhD at Eindhoven and the Medical University of Maastricht. Michiel joined TNO Automotive in 1995 where he first got involved in vehicle crash safety research and development. In 2005 he joined First Technology Safety Systems (now Humanetics Innovative Solutions) as Technical Director. At FTSS he was responsible for global engineering activities, including design and validation of crash test dummies, dummy sensors and computer models. Since 2007 Michiel is acting Secretary General of the European New Car Assessment Program Euro NCAP in Leuven, Belgium. He implemented the organisation’s recent rating scheme updates, including the introduction of crash avoidance technology testing. He is a technical advisor to the Global NCAP and Latin NCAP programmes.

Christoph Vieler is currently Head of Functional Development FMVSS201, ECE-R21 & Airbag Deployment for Vehicle Safety at Volkswagen. He completed his diploma in aerospace engineering at the TU Braunschweig in 1998. Subsequently, he worked for 7 years at IAV GmbH in Gifhorn as an analysis engineer for various development topics. He moved to Volkswagen in 2005 and has since held management positions and tasks in simulation and testing. He is driven by strengthening digital product development in vehicle safety in order to ensure a very high level of protection for Volkswagen's customers.

Ms. Xiaofan Wu has many years of experience in the fields of automotive passive safety, human modeling, and injury biomechanics. Currently, she works for China Automotive Engineering Research Institute (CAERI) as a safety research engineer and is responsible for the development of Chinese Human Body Model (AC-HUMS) and has been deeply involved in its modeling, validation, and injury risk curve.

Ms. Akira Yamaoka has been working for Toyota Motor Corporation as passive safety engineer since 2009. She was responsible for passenger safety during side impact in accident research, performance planning, passive safety tests, and simulations. She has been working as assistant manager and responsible for development of human CAE model THUMS.