AI Research & Development in Berlin

After completing my studies in Information and Multimedia Technology in Erlangen, I started my Ph.D. in 2009 at the Institute of Multimedia Communication and Signal Processing. In 2015, I transitioned to a role as a software project manager at Continental in Villingen-Schwenningen, focusing on the series development of a smart front-camera system for highly automated driving. By 2022, I moved to Berlin to build up the AI Lab, which now serves as a competence center for artificial intelligence.    

What drives me to work in such a dynamic and fast-paced field like AI at Continental is the chance to learn and grow every single day. The field offers deep cross-domain insights, with highly motivated people working at the forefront of technology. My role at the lab is all about connecting people and building a vision, ensuring that we organize and guide efforts to bring AI into the heart of new products and services.      

AI has already revolutionized the automotive industry with more efficient processes, better optimized products, and advanced comfort and safety functions for vehicles. Its future potential is immense, from the possibility of maintaining independent mobility for aging people to the seamless use of AI technologies from anywhere. Here in Berlin, our lab is becoming the hub connecting research worldwide and predevelopment inside our company. It’s a place where we cultivate talent and innovation, aiming to supply the best of the best to Continental’s future.

My background is in AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP). I have previously worked as an expert and application architect, successfully delivering large-scale AI solutions across multiple industries, including banking, insurance, retail and healthcare.    

At Continental, I lead multiple projects focused on Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs). These projects align with Continental’s strategy of becoming an “AI-empowered Company” and fostering “AI-empowered Employees.” The former is achieved by automating tasks related to product development and improving the quality and reliability of product testing. For the latter, I leverage the latest advances in LLMs and agentic workflows to enable Continental employees to quickly find the right information and streamline complex workflows.    

Although Continental is not primarily an NLP company, I chose to work here because I can apply my expertise in interdisciplinary settings, combining it with the company’s know-how in mobility product development. At Continental, I feel that I am at the forefront of transforming modern mobility through AI. Additionally, I have the opportunity to expand my knowledge in other cutting-edge AI topics, such as autonomous driving and explainable AI, by collaborating with the company’s experts in these areas.

I’ve always been motivated by the challenge of applying AI and software solutions to real-world problems, particularly in the fast-evolving field of autonomous driving. At Continental, I am able to work at the forefront of AI innovations that are shaping the future of mobility.        

In projects like “just better DATA”, we are developing AI-based methods for smart data loops, aimed at enhancing data collection and processing at the edge. This initiative reduces the need for large data volumes, providing high-quality training data for AI models and improving autonomous driving systems.        

In my role, I contribute by optimizing data workflows and integrating AI-driven solutions into the development of new products and services at Continental. AI is already making a huge impact in safety, efficiency and driver assistance systems, and its future potential lies in enabling fully autonomous vehicles and smart traffic ecosystems.        

Being part of Continental’s dynamic AI development efforts, particularly in this location, allows me to help advance cutting-edge technologies that will define the future of mobility.  

AI is crucial for technologies like autonomous cars and mobile robots, enabling environmental perception, future prediction, motion planning under uncertainty, and natural human interaction.    

At the AI Lab, we actively engage with the rapidly evolving development in AI through our research, which is essential for Continental’s competitiveness in future mobility. With a background in mechatronics engineering and a PhD in automatic control, I bring extensive knowledge to our research and development of hybrid approaches that combine AI with traditional motion planning and 3D vision methods, leveraging generative AI.    

In addition to the research, we push new technologies hands-on. In the BeIntelli project, where I took part as project manager and technical lead, we successfully operated the first self-driving robot in a public space in Berlin, using our autonomous navigation stack. This marked the first approval for a Continental robot to operate in public spaces in Germany.  

I work specifically in projects on autonomous mobile robots, including both research as well as various business area projects. The most exciting tasks include the BeIntelli project for last-mile delivery in Berlin and the development of an autonomous robot for use in greenhouses. I develop software with ROS, C++, and Python. In the field of motion planning for autonomous vehicles and robots, I regularly exchange ideas with a group of experts to generate and advance research ideas.    

I see enormous future potential in robotics as a sub-area of Artificial Intelligence. Robots can relieve the burden on humans, particularly in strenuous or monotonous tasks, and create more freedom for more meaningful activities. My goal is to actively shape the future of automation and mobility at Continental through innovative approaches.

In collaboration with TU Berlin, Germany, I am currently pursuing my PhD while being part of TU Berlin’s Intelligent Multi-Robot Coordination Lab.   After obtaining my Master's degree, specializing in advanced control of mobile robots, I worked as a teaching and research assistant for two years.    

My research interests lie at the intersection of advanced control theory and modern machine learning technologies. I am particularly interested in addressing the problem of intelligent robot navigation in dynamic and uncertain environments, with a focus on improving performance and safety. I am grateful for the opportunity to work at Continental and contribute to developing innovative solutions to real-world challenges.

I studied Computer Science at TU Berlin, Germany, specializing in Cognitive Science, for both my bachelor's and master's degrees. Currently, I am pursuing my PhD, which focuses on further research in local-to-global explainable AI (xAI) in the computer vision domain, and bringing xAI approaches to our internal projects. My PhD is collocated with the cognitive science group at the University of Bamberg, Germany.    

As part of my research, I am primarily focused on enhancing the interpretability of AI models. My work involves generating explanations for a Deep Neural Network trained on histopathological data, with an emphasis on improving its interpretability. At Continental, I aim to elevate and fine-tune local xAI techniques and provide xAI knowledge to internal stakeholders working with diverse multimodal datasets. This includes aiding in model enhancement and debugging processes by employing both local and global approaches to provide a comprehensive understanding of model-internal processes.    

At the AI Lab in Berlin, I am part of a dynamic and innovative team. Working at a company that prioritizes AI research makes it possible for me to further improve my skills and experience in xAI and other related fields.  

I have a master's degree in Information Management from the University of Applied Sciences Anhalt, Germany.      

My focus is on AI safety and concept-based explainability of computer vision (CV) models, which is crucial for the widespread adoption of AI applications.    

I am dedicated to addressing the opacity of AI models and my research interests are focused on:    
  - Verifying the correctness of the internal logic of AI models to ensure their safety.  
  - Analysing existing methods and testing their robustness.  
  - Developing methodologies to foster comparability among knowledge learned by different AI models.  
  - Developing new local-to-global methods tailored for large-scale models prevalent in industrial applications.    

With this expertise I’m grateful to contribute to Continental's AI-empowered products and services.

My focus is on developing perception systems for complex environments, especially when handling high-dimensional or unreliable data sources.    

I believe that AI and machine learning represent the next step in our ongoing efforts to automate repetitive tasks. With carefully designed trainable models built on a deep understanding of individual subproblems, we can automate even higher-level functions that are not sufficiently represented by a small set of equations.    

Working at Continental’s AI Lab has been a great opportunity to explore this fascinating field and make a significant impact with my work. I am excited to continue pushing the boundaries of perception systems and delivering innovations that will make a meaningful difference in a wide range of industries.    

I am currently working on spatio-temporal models. Prior to joining the research team in Berlin, I was part of the team working on Continental's Autonomous Mobile Robot Corriere.    

My academic background includes a master's degree in Artificial Intelligence from Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, as well as a research master focusing on Computational Neuroscience at the Donders Institute. My research revolves around building temporally and spatially consistent 3D and 4D models using recent advancements in representation learning, 3D deep learning, and generative models.    

At present, I am focused on addressing the following questions to drive innovation in the automotive industry:    

• How do we lift limited sensory inputs into a rich 3D representation effectively?    

• What is the best way to predict the temporal evolution of a scene over time?    

• How can we improve data availability for autonomous driving applications?  

Building on my Engineering background from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) , Germany, and through diverse roles at international research facilities and companies, I gained valuable practical experience in AI and autonomous driving. I am convinced that this field will have an even bigger impact in the near future.    

At Continental, my research focuses on motion planning and control for autonomous vehicles under complex road traffic conditions. My work explores how autonomous systems can anticipate and adapt to the uncertain behavior of other traffic participants. By integrating learning-based methods with model-based approaches, I develop uncertainty-aware and interaction-aware motion planning techniques that enhance both safety and comfort in autonomous driving.    

The Continental AI Lab is a key hub for AI innovation, where I collaborate with talented researchers on projects that drive advancements in intelligent mobility and contribute to safer, more efficient automotive systems.  

I joined the team in September 2022, having completed my M.Sc. in Computer Science at the University of Bonn, Germany, where my research interests were centred around Intelligent Systems.  

I am currently pursuing my PhD at the Technical University Berlin, Germany, in the Mathematical Modelling and Industrial Life Cycle Department. My research is focused on developing innovative methods for detecting, retrieving and learning from anomalies and unknown objects in autonomous driving scenarios. My central objective is to create fail-safe mechanisms that can protect against safety-critical scenarios and automate the data curation process, reducing associated costs.  

At our AI Lab, I am part of a team that is pushing forward cutting-edge AI technologies and driving innovation in the automotive field. With my passion for safe and dependable autonomous driving scenarios, I'm motivated to make significant contributions to Continental's AI-empowered products and services.