I'm a research assistant in the machine learning group of Martin Riedmiller at the Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg. Originally, I started working in Martin's neuroinformatics group at the University of Osnabrück in 2004, but in 2009 followed the group's relocation to southern Germany. I have very broad interests in machine learning, computer vision and autonomous robots, with a clear emphasis on real-world applications connecting machine learning with image understanding. Recently, I successfully finished my doctorate studies and obtained the degree “Dr. rer. nat.” from the University of Osnabrück.

What really drove me to science in the first place were “intelligent” robots. Since my first reading of Asimov and Lem as a small child, I have developed, programmed or used almost any type of autonomous robot ranging from stationary, camera-equipped robot-arms over small vehicles to walking humanoids. I was especially active in robotic soccer as a long-time member of the Brainstormers Tribots Middle Size team. This started with doing supporting work as a student assistant. After joining Martin Riedmiller's group in 2004 I became team leader. We won several European titles, three technical challenge awards (2006-2008), and two world championships (Bremen 2006, Atlanta 2007).

Besides my academic work, I guess I fully qualify as computer nerd, having a very strong interest in new technologies, software development and coding in general. I've realized several “recreational” and commercial projects on Windows, Unix, Mac OS X and embedded systems using Java, C/C++, Objective-C, Visual Studio, SQL, PHP, Perl, Python, Lisp, Prolog and a broad range of tools and APIs. Actually, I started programming on a Commodore Plus/4 back in 1985 and thus had some exposure to BASIC and machine language, as well.

If there's time, I enjoy designing and programing computer games (most prominent certainly is “Uga-Agga”) and interactive websites. I also developed several small apps for the start of Apple's iTunes App Store. In this respect, I'm always interested in any projects that combine interesting technologies / devices / frameworks or applications with machine learning or AI related challenges.