Speakers & Chairmen

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.

Dr. Bu Xiaobing, who works at CATARC and is the director of the Impact Test Analysis Department，he is engaged in the research of passive safety development and virtual testing, has published 8 SCI papers and more than 20 EI papers, and has rich theoretical knowledge and engineering development experience. At present, he is mainly engaged in the technical research and protocols revision of passive safety virtual testing, active and passive safety integration virtual testing.

For nearly fifteen years, Dai Huangwei has been dedicated to the integration of passive safety restraint systems at Yanfeng, focusing on achieving five-star ratings in C-NCAP, C-IASI, and Global NCAP through restraint system matching, as well as conducting research and development on airbag product platforms.

Dr. Karan Devane, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, conducting research at the Center for Injury Biomechanics. With over 13 years in injury biomechanics, his expertise spans finite element human body modeling, active musculature, crash simulation, and injury risk prediction for automotive and aerospace contexts. He's a key member of the GHBMC's Full Body Models Center of Expertise, contributing to industry-standard FE human body models for crash injury prediction and prevention. His interests include developing computational human body models. Dr. Devane earned his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech-Wake Forest and holds MTech and BE degrees from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and Shivaji University, respectively.

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.

Thanassis Fokylidis obtained his degree in Mechanical Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he studied from 1999 to 2005. Since 2008, he has been a dedicated member of BETA CAE Systems, contributing extensively within the Customer Service Department. Currently, he holds the position of Senior Customer Service Engineering Manager where he leads the Crash Safety applications department.

Jason Forman is an Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia (UVA), and is the Executive Director of the UVA Center for Applied Biomechanics. He has over 20 years experience in injury biomechanics research, focusing primarily of automobile safety. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, and serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Traffic Injury Prevention. His work has included developing performance targets for anthropomorphic test devices; study of the influence of age, sex, and obesity on automobile occupant injury risk; and development of novel methods to predict injury risk from the output of human body models.

Bronislaw (Bronek) Gepner is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia’s Center for Applied Biomechanics. He works in injury biomechanics, human body modeling, and computational safety tools supporting occupant and pedestrian protection. He has led projects for NHTSA, the FIA, and major vehicle OEMs, and since 2023 has served on the FIA’s Research Strategy Working Group. He is also on the IRCOBI scientific committee. Holding a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Florida State University, Dr. Gepner combines finite element modeling, experimental validation, and simulation-driven analysis to advance predictive human body models for automotive safety.

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.

Over 3 years of application and development experience in ANSA/META, and has completed the development of many automation projects, involving automatic pre- and post-processing research on vehicle structural collisions, restraint systems and pedestrian protection. He has worked with a lot of large OEMs on projects to develop tools for pre- and post-collision safety. 3+ years of research in the field of collision safety, and in-depth research on META post-processing. In terms of VTC, he is responsible for supervising changes in VTC-related regulations, ensuring the compliance of VTC tools, and participating in the R&D and improvement of VTC tools.

Chunxian Ju is currently working as a Technical Expert in the Safety Performance Development Department of Great Wall Motor Technology Center, with nearly 20 years of work experience. Specialized in occupant protection development and design, keeping up with the changing trends of NCAP standards worldwide. Dedicated to research on HBM, virtual assessment, reclined posture safety and corresponding solutions, aiming to enhance vehicle safety performance and occupant protection capabilities.

Christoph Kaulich studied mechanical engineer at the TU Braunschweig and at the University of Southampton. After that, he started working at GNS mbH, where he first worked in engineering projects and software development. Since some time he is now in charge of the global software sales and the product development of Animator4.

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.

Corina Klug is associate professor at the Vehicle Safety Institute of Graz University of Technology in Austria, where she teaches students in the field of Vehicle Safety and Trauma Biomechanics and performs research on accident and injury prevention with a special focus on the usage of Human Body Models for safety assessments. Since 2015, she has led the CoHerent project in which the first certification procedure for human body models was developed for Euro NCAP. In 2019 she became the secretary of the newly founded Euro NCAP working group for Virtual Testing Crashworthiness. She is one of the two pilots of the new initiative HBM4VT, a framework of international experts to develop a roadmap for Human Body Models usage in Virtual Testing. In 2016 she has won the Young Scientist Award for the best research work in digital Human Modelling presented at the 2016 International Symposium "Human Modelling and Simulation in Automotive Engineering".

2024 to present College of Artificial Intelligence Medicine , Chongqing Medical University: Conducted the development of HBM representing Chinese population, as well as performed some research on the injury prediction using the combination of HBM and AI. 2014 to 2023 Institute of Traffic Medicine , Daping Hospital Conducted the In-depth Investigation of Traffic Injuries , Reconstruction of Real-world Vehicle Pedestrian Collisions , Statistical analysis, Forensic Autopsy and Traffic Accident Identification Collaborative Research on the Investigation and Analysis of Toyota Passenger Car Accidents 2010 to 2013 Department of Forensic Medicine , Chongqing Public Security Bureau Criminal Police Corps Conducted the researching of Forensic Biomechanics of Blunt Brain Injury, Reconstruction of Cases and Events, Statistic al analysis.

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.

Fenna Neumann holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH). In the final year of her Master's program, she joined the vehicle safety department at Volkswagen as an intern working on human body models. During this time, she completed her Master's thesis at TUHH in collaboration with Volkswagen, investigating sensitivity of spinal positioning with respect to fracture risk in reclined seating postures. Since 2023, Fenna has been pursuing a Ph.D. at Volkswagen and Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich, focusing on the analysis of lumbar spine loading using human body models.

Bengt graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Chalmers University in 1989. In 1996 a dissertation in the area of injury prevention was successfully defended. In 1996 he joined Autoliv Research where he from 2005 – 2025 was director. In 2025 he joined Volvo Cars as a Technical Leader in Injury Prevention methods. Since 2016 he is also an adjunct professor in protective systems at Chalmers University. The research interests are in the area of biomechanics, human body modelling, injury mechanisms and injury prevention.

Simona Roka is a Senior R&D Engineer and Project Manager bringing more than ten years of dedicated experience in automotive passive safety and injury biomechanics. Actively engaged in shaping the future of safety protocols through participation in industry Working Groups and knowledge-sharing initiatives focused on improving road safety outcomes worldwide. As a PhD candidate in Injury Biomechanics, I am passionate about driving innovation through collaboration and evidence-based engineering approaches.

Mr. Lambros Rorris has studied Civil Engineering in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) (1987 – 1993). He worked as a research assistant in the dept. of Civil Engineering of AUTh from 1993 - 1998. Since 1999 he is with BETA CAE Systems as a developer in Crash, Safety, and crash solvers support. Currently he is the Group Director leading the Crash and Safety R&D Group of BETA CAE Systems International AG.

Claudia Sbriglio, a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Wroc³aw University of Science and Technology. She holds a BSc in Biomechanical Engineering and an MSc in Automotive Engineering. Her research focuses on biomechanical modelling of head injuries, with a particular interest in cerebrospinal fluid dynamics under crash conditions. She has experience in FEM, numerical simulations, and human body modelling, gained through both academic projects and industry placements in the automotive and biomechanical sectors. Her work contributes to advancing personalised approaches in head injury prediction and occupant safety.

Niklas Schmidt studied Industrial Engineering at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, specializing in operations research and textile machinery. During his studies, he spent seven months abroad at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway. After six years, he graduated with the German degree “Diplom Ingenieur” in November 2024. Since January 2025, he has been working as a Research Associate at the Chair of Development and Assembly of Textile Products at the Institute of Textile Machinery and High-Performance Material Technology (ITM) of TU Dresden. His area of expertise is body scanning and simulation related to clothing-body interaction.

Dr. Soni is working as Product Manager at Humanetics Innovative Solutions, Inc., leading the development and management of advanced digital products that drive innovation in automotive safety and biomechanics. With over 20 years of experience in occupant safety research and product development, he has participated in the development and validation of several Human Body Models (HBMs) that are now widely used across the industry. His expertise spans HBM applications in restraint system design, with a focus on developing and implementing virtual testing solutions to improve crashworthiness and occupant protection. Passionate about innovation in digital safety solutions, Dr. Soni is committed to integrating cutting-edge technologies into occupant protection strategies.

My name is Jingjun Su, a master's degree candidate studying at the School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology. I obtained a bachelor's degree in Internet of Things Engineering from the School of Information Engineering, Chang'an University. Now I mainly focus on the application of artificial intelligence in automotive safety.

Samarth Talanki is a Project Manager at EDAG Engineering GmbH in Ingolstadt, specializing in full-vehicle development for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for global OEMs. His expertise lies in integrating crash safety, occupant protection, and restraint systems through simulation-driven approaches to meet stringent regulatory and consumer-rating requirements. With over a decade of experience in automotive safety engineering, he has led international cross-functional teams across Europe and Asia, delivering structural crash performance, Euro NCAP compliance, and advanced occupant protection in large-scale vehicle programs. Samarth holds a master’s degree in computational Mechanics from TU Stuttgart. His research interests include human body modelling, virtual crash simulation, and injury biomechanics, advancing simulation-based methodologies for the development of next-generation vehicle safety systems.

Dr. Abbas Talimian is a senior researcher at the Department of Biomechanical Human Body Models, New Technology Research Centre, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. He earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. His research focuses on occupant safety and the development of advanced passive safety tools for autonomous vehicles, particularly addressing non-standard seating configurations. He aims to bridge advanced modelling with practical safety solutions for the evolving field of autonomous transportation.

Dr. Jisi Tang is an associate professor at the Bioengineering College, Chongqing University, China. Dr. Tang received his PhD from Tsinghua University, with his work focusing on numerical human body modeling and computational analysis of injury biomechanics. He proposes to leverage geometric deep learning and discrete differential geometry in human shape analysis, and has established a series of advanced techniques to enhance efficiency and biofidelity of human modeling, including self-supervised 3D non-rigid registration and fast, biofidelic repositioning, that empowers AI-assisted mesh pattern transfer between non-isometric shapes, and parametric HBM pose reconfiguration in a simulation-free manner.

Dr. Nicholas White serves as the Business Development Lead at Elemance, LLC, driving the adoption of Global Human Body Models Consortium (GHBMC) models across various industries. He leads user outreach, technical support, and model integration within emerging regulatory and virtual certification frameworks. Previously, he was an Occupant Safety Engineer at Apple, where he led biomechanical simulations and testing for autonomous systems and the Apple Vision Pro. He also served as a consultant at Exponent, where he handled complex injury analyses. He holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the Virginia Tech–Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences and an M.S. from the Wayne State University Bioengineering Center, specializing in injury biomechanics. As a former Emergency Medical Technician, he maintains a practical focus on understanding injury mechanisms to improve real-world safety outcomes.

Yunquan Xia graduated from Tongji University of China, Master’s degree of Vehicle Engineering, and has been working at company of Joyson Safety Systems of China since 2015. He is currently part of Systems and CAE & Engineering Testing safety group within the passive safety department of Joyson China. His research focuses on the application of ATD Dummy models and human body models to predict the product performance and improve the Airbag/Seatbelt design of passive safety by CAE simulation in C-NCAP/C-IASI/E-NCAP/all other safety regulations.

He deeply involved in the research and iteration of automotive safety assessment protocols such as C-IASI and I-VISTA, and currently responsible for the development Chinese human body models(AC-HUMs) in CAERI.

I am Jiayi Zhong, a CAE engineer at ARUP specializing in Human Body Models (HBM) for automotive safety. My work centers on optimizing occupant protection and crashworthiness through advanced simulation techniques. I am actively involved in developing the dummy tree of HBMs. Leveraging my expertise in crash analysis and biomechanics, I am committed to deploying bio-fidelic HBM positioning in virtual testing and to driving forward injury analysis research under multiple impact scenarios. I also bring extensive experience in customizing and automating pre- and post-processing workflows through secondary development.