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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Johan Iraeus is a researcher at Chalmers University of Technology. Dr Iraeus joined Chalmers in 2016 as a post-doc and his research focus in on impact biomechanics and human body models, with a focus on variability in the population. Prior to his PhD Dr Iraeus worked as a CAE engineer for more than 10 years in the Swedish automotive industry, focusing mainly on crashworthiness.

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.

Stefan Kirschbichler has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Economics of Graz University of Technology since 2008. Since January 2017 he is the teamleader of Occupant and VRU Safety group. He is working in the field of biomechanics, accident research and integrated safety. He has experience in project management of several funded projects with international and national projects.

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 assistant 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".

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.

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.

Dr. Galal Mohamed has over 15 years’ experience in using and supporting LS-DYNA in the aerospace and automotive industry. He has a doctorate in aerospace engineering in the field of FRP composite lightweight structures. Galal is the technical support engineer at Arup for LS-DYNA and Oasys Suite – the advanced pre- and post-processing software for LS-DYNA. He currently supports automotive clients in the UK and helps support the development of many tools and features including those for occupant positioning and human body modelling.

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.

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. 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.

Dr.-Ing. Dirk Ulrich studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt and stayed at the TUD to work on a government research project in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) on which subject he also received his doctorate. After that he joined Audi R&D to work in the department for computational methods and was responsible for the introduction of nonlinear FEM applications. Thereafter he worked for several international providers of simulation software for automotive applications (ESI, SOFY, TNO). Since 01.04.2007 Dr. Ulrich has been managing the CAE-training activities of carhs.training gmbh.

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.

Wade von Kleeck is a research engineer at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. His research focuses on injury biomechanics using computational modeling as well as anthropometry studies. He earned his M.S. from the University of Kansas in Bioengineering in 2018 with a thesis focusing on preventing sports concussions through experimentation and simulation.

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.