Speakers & Chairmen

Sebastian Dornbusch studied industrial engineering at Graz University of Technology and completed his master's degree in 2020. He then joined TECCON Austria as a development engineer. He currently manages occupant protection system development projects in the field of side impact protection, among other things.

After studying mechanical engineering at the University of Hanover and working as a student at the MHH accident research, Dr. Burkhard Eickhoff began his professional career in 1999 as a test engineer for crash tests at Autoliv. Here he was able to gain in-depth experience in the field of testing and data interpretation. His next professional stations dealt with the simulation, design and further development of restraint systems: Activities as a CAE engineer, project manager and team leader in occupant simulation and system development followed at the same company. In 2012, Dr. Eickhoff completed his doctorate at the Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg on a method for reducing belt-induced thorax deflection in frontal crashes. Since 2016, he has headed the European “Virtual & System Engineering” department at Autoliv B.V. & Co. KG, which deals with the virtual development of belt systems and functions of future restraint systems. In addition, he was head of belt homologation for Europe for more than 5 years and was able to simplify the UN regulation for the type approval of belt systems. Relevant publications, specialist lectures, courses at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (since 2012) and seminars held at Carhs (since 2010) round off his profile. On 1.7.2024, Dr. Eickhoff will join carhs.training gmbh as Director Training & Conferences to further expand the company's offering in the field of knowledge management and expert consulting.

Andreas Forster is Innovation Manager for airbag control units at Continental in Regensburg. After studying electrical engineering, he gained his first experience in the field of passive safety as an application engineer for airbag algorithms. He gained in-depth knowledge of the functionality of a vehicle architecture through project management of software development for customer projects of several international vehicle manufacturers. Since 2017, Andreas Forster has been leading the research and implementation of innovative restraint strategies in close cooperation with universities, Tier 2 suppliers and OEMs.

Jan-Martin Juptner leads Sony's automotive business development activities, including in-cabin occupant monitoring software and hardware solutions. Before joining Sony, he worked as a project and program manager for Tier 1 suppliers in Germany and Belgium and maintained close contact with OEMs, where he was responsible for customer projects. He graduated with a degree in automotive and aircraft engineering from Munich University of Applied Sciences.

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".

Dr. Peter Mörtl heads the Human Factors Group at the Virtual Vehicle Research Center GmbH in Graz and teaches as a lecturer for human-system integration at the University of Graz, Austria. His focus is on the development and application of human factors methods and knowledge for applications of semi- and full automation for optimized user experiences, especially in the automotive sector. As head of international research projects, he sees his task as integrating the human factor into development processes at an early stage and enabling successful, usable products. Previously, he worked as a systems engineer and human factors researcher at MITRE Corporation, USA, on the development and standardization of pilot warning systems for collision avoidance at airports.

Felix Ressi has been a research assistant at the Vehicle Safety Institute of Graz University of Technology in Austria since 2016. He received his Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering and Business Economics in 2015 and is currently working on industry research projects and his PhD Thesis. His research is focussed on occupant safety – in particular regarding occupants of highly automated vehicles.

Ralf Reuter studied mechanical engineering and business administration at the technical universities of Darmstadt and Eindhoven. Since 1997 he has worked for carhs in various management positions. He deals with vehicle safety issues intensively, in particular with the latest developments in rules and regulations as well as consumer testing. As he is in charge of the SafetyWissen which has been published by carhs for many years, he keeps his knowledge up-to-date and profits from the inputs of carhs' trainer and expert network.

Dr. Martin Schachner is a senior researcher at the Vehicle Safety Institute, part of Graz University of Technology. With a specialization in VRU protection within urban environments, his work leverages advanced data-driven techniques to model road user behavior and interactions. He earned his PhD in 2024, further solidifying his expertise in safety research.

Andreas Schuller holds a degree (Dipl.-Ing. Univ.) in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich (1995-2002). He started his career at AUDI AG as a Safety Engineer in Restraint System Application (2002-2004), then worked at SEAT S.A. as a Safety Engineer for Airbag Integration (2005). He returned to AUDI AG, advancing through roles including Project Leader Vehicle Safety (2006-2011), Head of Development for Restraint Systems & Frontal Airbags (2011-2012), and Head of Development Airbag Systems (2012-2013). He held several senior positions until becoming Senior Director of Development for Passive Safety Functions & Vehicle Safety Project Coordination at AUDI AG (2022-present), after serving as Director of Development Vehicle Safety at SAIC-VOLKSWAGEN in China (2020-2022).

Director and Professor Andre Seeck has been Vice President of the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) since April 2022, where he heads the Vehicle Technology division. In this position he is responsible for the preparation of European Safety Regulations. Furthermore he represents the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport in the Board of Directors of Euro NCAP and he is the chairman of the strategy group on automated driving and of the rating system. These positions enable him to gain deep insight into current and future developments in vehicle safety. In 2017 NHTSA awarded him the U. S. Government Special Award of Appreciation.

Prof. Dr. Hermann Steffan is head of the Vehicle Safety Institute at Graz University of Technology. For more than 15 years he has been involved in the development of software for accident reconstruction and the development of new test methods. He is regarded as one of the leading international experts in accident reconstruction.

Oliver Zander studied Safety Engineering at the University of Wuppertal and started his career as Safety Engineer at the JCI European Headquarters in Burscheid. Since 2002 he has worked as a scientist at the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), where since 2009 he has been Deputy Head of the Section Passive Vehicle Safety, Biomechanics. His main responsibilities are pedestrian protection (amongst others german representative of the GRSP Informal Group DPPS, EEVC Working Group 17 “Pedestrian Safety”, and the Euro NCAP Technical Working Groups “Passive Safety” and “Pedestrian Protection”), the Euro NCAP crash and pedestrian testing and European Research Projects w.r.t. passive vehicle safety.