The Lineup

Lars Aschenbrenner studied Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig from which he also received his PhD on material modeling for structural analysis. During his post doc at DLR Braunschweig he developed a simulation method for thick walled fibre reinforced structures. Since 2007 he has been working in the FEM method development department at Volkswagen AG on occupant safety applications like airbag simulation and dummies.

Dr. André Backes studied Mathematics at the University of Duisburg. From 2000 to 2006 he was a researcher at the Institute for Mathematics at the Humboldt University in Berlin. His PhD studies at the chair for Numerical Mathematics introduced him to the field of CAE. Since 2006 he works at TECOSIM GmbH and among other topics specialized in NVH. In the area of Virtual Benchmarking he helped developing the TECOSIM-owned process TEC|BENCH where also the Python language was used. In current research projects he investigates the use of Python-based methods for data analysis and machine learning in the CAE process. Since 2020 he has been working at TECOSIM Stuttgart.

Livia Emmanuela Baksiova received her Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (MEng) from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2017. In 2017 she started to work at BETA CAE Systems in the Customer Service. In parallel she studied at the University of Western Macedonia and received her Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering (MSc) in 2022. Her current role at BETA CAE Systems is Lead Customer Service Engineer. In her studies and her job she gained experiences in: Full vehicle Crash & Safety analysis using FEA, biomechanical engineering, Computed Tomography (CT) engineering and software licensing and installation.

Dr.-Ing. Sami Bilgic Istoc received his PhD in automotive engineering from TU Darmstadt. He is now Senior Consultant at IPG Automotive GmbH. His focus areas include processes for vehicle development virtualization and the optimization of workflows for full vehicle simulation. Working for a market leader for virtual test driving, he shares state-of-the-art methods and best practices in customer projects worldwide.

Dominik Borsotto holds a diploma degree in "Medical Engineering and Sports Medical Engineering". He pursued the Master program in "Applied Physics" (M.Sc.) at the University of Applied Sciences in Remagen, Germany. After having worked as a research associate at Queen Mary University London at the department of engineering and at Fraunhofer SCAI in Sankt Augustin, in the department of numerical software, he joined SIDACT in April 2013. He has been product manager at SIDACT since 2013, responsible for products and projects in the field of analysis of crash simulation results with a focus on robustness analysis.

Marian Bulla has studied mechanical engineering in Iserlohn. In his professional activities at Fraunhofer, Forschungsgesellschaft Kraftfahrwesen, PuZ and Imperia, he has gained extensive experience in computer crash simulation and in experimental research. Since 2008 he has been working as a specialist in crash and occupant simulation at Altair Engineering GmbH. Since 8 years he is a member of the “Core Development Team” and Director Program Management and OpenRadioss. In 2018 he established the Altair Material Data Center. Since 2022, he is the director of OpenRadioss Community. November 2024, he received the ASME – Edward F. Obert Award for his research on Li-ion batteries, together with Elham Sahraei and Stefan Kolling.

Dr. Daniel Campos Murcia is a CAE Specialist at Applus DatapointLabs. Daniel is currently working on the development and validation of new material cards for the leading CAE solvers in support of the company’s testing for CAE. Specifically, he has contributed to developing and implementing methodologies for validating composite materials, as well as for other hyperelastic and viscoelastic models for plastic and foams. Daniel obtained his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering in February 2024 from the University of Girona. His research was focused on the development of cutting-edge technologies for manufacturing thermoplastic composite materials and their characterization for their simulation under forming conditions. He has been working in the aerospace and automotive industries for the last five years since he finished his master’s studies in aerospace engineering at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. He is passionate about exploring the intersection of advanced materials and computational engineering.

Francisco Chinesta is currently full Professor of computational physics at Arts et Métiers Institute of Technology (Paris, France) and Keysight DES CTO, Honorary Fellow of the “Institut Universitaire de France” – IUF- and Fellow of the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering. He received many scientific awards, among them the IACM Fellow award, the IACM Zienkiewicz award, the ESAFORM award, … He was president of the French association of computational mechanics, and he is at present president of the French Association of Mechanics and director of the CNRS GdR I-GAIA on data and artificial intelligence based augmented engineering. He received many distinctions, among them the Academic Palms, the French Order of Merit, … in 2018 the Doctorate Honoris Causa at the University of Zaragoza and in 2019 the Silver medal from the French CNRS. He is the director of the DESCARTES project on Hybrid Artificial Intelligence that the CNRS develops in its hub at Singapore.

Lucas Crombet is a Simulation Engineer and project lead at AVL List GmbH, specializing in mechanical simulations for high-voltage battery packs in automotive applications. He earned his engineering degree in 2017 from the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard with a focus on thermo-mechanical systems modeling and optimization. Lucas has contributed to major customer projects from concept through B- and C-Sample phases and led methodology development for finite element analysis. As a task expert, he develops advanced simulation methods and provides insights into battery failure mechanisms, integrity, reliability and integration into full-vehicle simulations and test rigs.

After a finishing the Technical University of Vienna with a master degree in mechanical engineering in 1990, Helmut Dannbauer started his career at the automotive company Steyr-Daimler-Puch (SDP). Corresponding to his specialization for numerical methods, he performed Finite Element analyses for durability and dynamics and software development for FEMFAT and other codes for several years. Since 1998, he heads the structural analysis department at MAGNA engineering center (successor company of SDP) in St. Valentin, Austria with 50 specialist working in the field of structural durability, strength, crash, vehicle dynamics, acoustics and method development for fatigue and dynamics related topics.

After studying mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen Mark Gevers joined TECOSIM as a CAE Engineer in 2001. From 2008 to 2019 he has been General Manager of TECOSIMs branch office in Cologne. Since 2019 he is in charge of TECOSIM's e-mobility and benchmarking activities as Director Business Development. For four years he has been assistant professor for material simulations.

Sanjay Girish is a mechanical engineer with a decade long background in the design, simulation, and optimization of lightweight components across a wide range of applications ranging from initial concepts to series production. During his tenure at Mercedes Benz Research and Development India, he was a member of the BIONICAST team, where he contributed to high impact light-weighting initiatives across Body, Chassis, Interior, and Powertrain domains. Prior to this, he worked at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Engineering India Private Limited (now Stellantis), where he focused on multidisciplinary design optimization for structural components in the Body and Interior domains. Since 2023, he has been part of Bionic Mesh Design GmbH, where he continues to advance the field of lightweight engineering through innovative modelling methodologies and optimization driven design practices.

Dr. Hannes Grimm-Strele is a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics (ITWM) in Kaiserslautern. He previously worked as a development engineer at Numeca Int. in Brussels and earned his doctorate in computational fluid dynamics at the University of Vienna. His current research focuses on the efficient numerical characterization of the mechanical behavior of fiber-reinforced plastics using multiscale simulation methods.

Michael Hack is business product line manager for durability simulations. He graduated and obtained his PhD at Kaiserslautern University in applied mathematics. Combining customer needs with academic research he followed numerous research projects, and he presented and published on hysteresis operators, rainflow counting, thermal fatigue, composite fatigue as well as reliability and optimization topics.

Dr. Axel Hänschke studied mechanical engineering at the TU Braunschweig. In 1989 he received his PhD on „Computer Aided Vehicle Structure Layout” from TU Berlin. Thereafter he worked 5 year as manager CAE-projects at VW Gedas in Berlin. Following were 25 years experiences at Ford Werke GmbH. In his last position he was responsible for all Virtual Prototypes as Supervisor Analytical Prototypes, CAE Integration and CAE Model build. Since December 2019 he is “Head of Business Development for Simulation projects and Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)” at CPS Consulting. During his time at Ford he taught at the TU Berlin and headed the Working Group 27 "Simulation Methods and Virtual Validation" of the German Automotive Research Association (FAT). Last but not least he is a member of the Scientific Committee of the automotive CAE Grand Challenge.

Jana Hahlweg studied Automotive Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg and earned her doctorate in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on structural optimization at the University of Wuppertal. She joined Porsche in 2016 and currently works as a CAE simulation engineer for body structures, specializing in crash, stiffness, and strength simulations in motorsport development. With her expertise in optimization and process automation, Jana also supports other R&D teams in building and advancing their digital engineering pipelines.

André Haufe studied engineering at the University of Stuttgart and the University of Calgary, Canada. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Stuttgart, he spent a DAAD awarded post-doctoral scholarship at the University of Calgary, before he joined DYNAmore in 2002. Since January 2024 he has been acting as Director Application Engineering for DYNAmore/Ansys, now part of Synopsys. His professional interest is focused on constitutive modelling as well as modelling of fasteners. Furthermore, he is using his expertise in processes of Certification by Analysis and Homologation to help reduce time-to-market in product development.

Max Hübner studied civil engineering at the University of Stuttgart and graduated as a Dipl.-Ing. in 2010. From 2011 to 2019, he worked as a computational engineer in Munich and Überlingen, focusing on highly dynamic simulations with LS-DYNA. Since 2019, he has been working as a computational engineer at DYNAmore in Stuttgart. His work focuses on connection technology in crash simulation with LS-DYNA, as well as full vehicle modeling for crash simulation. Since 2023, he has been an application engineer at ANSYS (following the acquisition of DYNAmore) and since 2025, he is an application engineer at SYNOPSYS (following the acquisition of ANSYS).

Suba Siva Chandran Kalimuthu has a strong academic and industrial background in computational engineering and simulation-driven product development. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Computational Sciences in Engineering from TU Braunschweig, where he acquired advanced expertise in numerical methods and scientific computing. He has professional experience in occupant safety simulation, with a focus on head impact analyses, and is currently involved in the development of research-oriented software projects in Animator4 for advanced virtual safety assessment and simulation automation, contributing to enhanced safety performance and more efficient engineering workflows.

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. Andreas Kuhn studied Technical Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Vienna. After his dissertation on the simulation of special satellite formations for the European Space Agency, he began his professional career in crash simulation at BMW. After further years as a consultant for stochastic simulation at EASI Engineering GmbH (today carhs), he founded ANDATA in 2004, where he is responsible for development and research as managing partner. Since 2009 he has also been co-owner of Automotive Safety Technologies GmbH in Gaimersheim. His professional interests are founded in effective and efficient development, validation and assessment methods for complex, safety-critical systems. In particular, he has been working for more than 20 years on the development and combined application of methods from the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced simulation methods, scenario-based approaches and according process models in the virtual development of vehicles and autonomous robots. His current activities are the development and implementation of cooperative, networked, automated driving strategies for effective traffic automation.

Christian Kurzböck studied Mechanical engineering at Graz University of Technology from 2004 to 2012. Since 2011 he works at Virtual Vehicle in Graz. His fields of work are simulation methods for reinforced and unreinforced materials, pedestrian protection and occupant protection.

Ionut Mihnea has been part of ARRK Engineering for over 15 years. He is currently serving as a Senior Expert in the Crash Department, specializing in optimization and machine learning applications. His work focuses on developing advanced methodologies that enhance safety and efficiency in automotive engineering. He holds a Master’s degree in Automotive Engineering from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, which he completed in 2011. Throughout his career, he has combined technical expertise with innovative approaches to deliver impactful solutions in crash analysis and optimization.

Stefan Müller started working in the field of FEMZIP data compression at Fraunhofer SCAI in 2008 and continued working on data compression technologies for the spin-off SIDACT GmbH starting 2013. He holds a PhD from Humboldt University of Berlin in Mathematics for his Dissertation "Compression of an array of similar Crash test simulation results". Since April 2024 he is CTO at SIDACT.

Daniel Muñoz is one of the founders of Newgentechs, where he manages the simulation, analysis and programming activities. Daniel has been a mechanical engineer since 1998. He has experience as a crash test engineer, CAE engineer and project manager. He has been involved in numerous research and development projects, as well as in the creation of business lines in the areas of passive safety and material characterization among others.

Dr. Masahiro Okamura received a M.D. in 2000 and a PhD in 2004 both from Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan. He has more than 15 years’ experience as crash and safety engineer with several crash codes in the automotive industry. Currently his main obligation at JSOL is business development in Digital twin, Digital homologation, and data-driven product development. His research fields are in Robust design process, Test-Simulation integration, Digital twin, Digital homologation.

Jan Ophey studied Mechanical Engineering at the FH Kempten (today Kempten University of Applied Sciences). Already as a student he found the passion for virtual engineering tools & methods like CAD and CAE. After earning the degree 'Dipl. Ing' he started his career at TECOSIM Stuttgart as CAE Engineer for Crash, having several steps in his career and becoming finally a department manager with a global responsibility for Vehicle CAE. Additionally he took over the Engineering-IT within FEV – also as a global responsibility.

Michael Otto holds a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering, which he obtained in 2005 from HTW Dresden. In 2006, he worked at W.H. Gordon Associates in Winchester, Virginia, USA, where he was involved in infrastructure design as well as stormwater management and flood analysis projects. In 2008, he joined EDAG GmbH & Co. KG in Wolfsburg in the CAE department, working as a simulation engineer with a focus on seat development. Since 2011, Michael Otto has been employed at Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg in the Safety department. In this role, he specializes in occupant safety simulation with a particular emphasis on frontal impact scenarios. His responsibilities also include functional development, the analysis of reclined seating positions, and the application of machine-learning methods.

Bart Peeters Weem studied mechanical engineering at the University of Technology in Eindhoven with focus on system and control. Since 2003 he has been working on vehicle safety at the BMW group. First as simulation engineer, later as team leader and as project manager for the vehicle safety of the BMW New Class. 2019-2021 he was also Pilot of the ACEA Expert group on Virtual-Testing - Crashworthiness. Since 2023 he is technical advisor for innovative virtual development methods at BMW and project leader “digital twin of vehicle prototypes”.

Thorsten Pohl studied Aeronautics at Imperial College London. In 1998 he joined the vehicle CAE department of Opel – at that time part of GM. In 2017 Opel became part of Groupe PSA, since 2021 it is Stellantis. Thorsten started as Development Engineer for Body-in-white Structures. From 2003 he has been Team Leader FE Modelling, from 2012 Manager CAE Strategies and Operations since 2022 he is Manager CAE Methods and Tools Development.

Dr. Tony Porsch studied mechanical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Leipzig / University of the West of Scotland and graduated with a double master degree in Master of Engineering and Master of Science in 2015. From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Porsch was employed as a PhD student in research and development department at Volkswagen AG and completed his PhD in November 2019. Since September 2018 Mr. Porsch is employed in FEM method development in the technical development department at Volkswagen AG.

Dr.-Ing. Sirus Rafiee received a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (Design of Solids) at the University of Shiraz/Iran in 1993 and a M.Sc. in 1999. In 2003 he received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (Computational Engineering) at the Technical University Darmstadt. From 2003-2016 he has been working in the Automotive branch for different companies, such as, ARRK Engineering in Munich (methods and materials development), MAGNA Cosma in Sailauf (chassis & crash management systems), Adam Opel GmbH (NVH & crash) in Rüsselheim, Ford -Werke GmbH (chassis engineering) in Köln, Zhongding group in Montabaur (rubber and vibro-acoustics materials). Since 2016 he is working in the R&D department of Waldaschaff Automotive GmbH in the group product development, and is responsible for FEM-Simulation and Testing.

Dana Rat holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Robotics from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. For the past 3 years, she has worked at ARRK Engineering in the Passive Safety department, focusing on machine learning and optimization to improve automotive safety systems. She enjoys combining technology and creativity to solve complex problems and contribute to safer, smarter vehicles.

Dr. Rensink joined the Segula Group in Rüsselsheim in July 2020 as team leader for structural and thermal CAE, data management and AI methods. Before he worked as a Senior IT Consultant at :em engineering methods and as a CAE engineer for FEM and CFD methods at Opel. He studied Physics at University of Bielefeld and Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh and received his doctoral degree from Institute of Fluid Mechanics at University Erlangen-Nuremberg. He is lecturer for applied CAE methods at University of Applied Science in Bingen.

Sebastian Schulze is manager of mechanical design at AUO Mobility Solutions Germany, where BHTC was integrated in 2026. He received his master’s degree in the field of mechanical engineering at the University of Paderborn in 2012. He was engaged in research studies at the chair for dynamics and mechatronics and integrated nonlinear system behavior of headlamps in simulations. He entered BHTC in 2019 as mechanical project lead and developed climate control panels and HMI systems. Since 2021 he is manager for mechanical design and leads a team of design engineers and simulation experts with responsibility for the global FEA simulation strategy.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Schumacher studied mechanical engineering at the universities of Duisburg and Aachen. He received his doctorate on structural optimization from the University of Siegen. Following research projects for Airbus were focused on the optimization of aircraft structures. Thereafter he worked in the CAE methods development department of Adam Opel AG as project leader for structural optimization. From 2003 - 2012 he was a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg and taught structural design, passive safety and structural optimization. Since 2012 he has been professor at the University of Wuppertal, where he holds the chair for optimization of mechanical structures.

Dr. Daniela Steffes-lai is a senior researcher at Fraunhofer SCAI, department of numerical data-driven prediction, Germany. She graduated from University of Cologne, Germany with a PhD in Mathematics. Her current research is focused on the development of data analysis methods for CAE data. She has many years of experience in leading projects in the field of data analysis for engineering applications. Furthermore, she is the main developer of the SCAI Software product SimCompare which provides a comparison of two FE simulation results.

Tilman Steininger is Technical Unit Lead for Algorithmic Development at RLE International with extensive experience in gravity casting mold manufacturing, lightweight construction, multi-body analysis, Optimization and CAD design. He combines deep expertise in mechanical engineering with advanced algorithmic development to drive innovation and efficiency. His work focuses on optimizing complex systems and integrating cutting-edge technologies into scalable solutions.

With a Civil Engineering degree from Dresden University of Technology, Marko Thiele started his career at DYNAmore in 2004. He focused on occupant safety simulation and optimized restraint systems. As optimization relies on CAE processes, he developed a customer-specific SDM solution (SCALE.sdm). After founding SCALE Germany as a spinoff from DYNAmore, he led the Ingolstadt office and managed SCALE.sdm. His expertise drives innovation in simulation data management.

Stefan Wacker studied mechanical engineering at the University of Stuttgart, graduating with a master’s degree in 2024. Within the scope of his master's thesis, conducted in cooperation with DYNAmore GmbH (part of Synopsys), he deepened his knowledge in the field of material characterization and transferring obtained data to simulation models. Subsequently he started working at the DYNAmore Material Competence Center, focusing on the calibration of material models for application in crash and forming simulations with LS-DYNA.

Dr. Matthias Weinert has studied mechanical engineering at the University of Siegen where he also received his PhD on “Decomposition Method for Large Scale Optimization Problems on Parallel Computers” in 1994. From 1997 to 2012 he worked as a CAE specialist at Ford US. Since 2013 he is manager “Body CAE” at Ford-Werke GmbH in Cologne. Since 1997 he is member of the FAT working group “Joining Technology”, which he heads since 2012.

Dr. Chongyang Zeng obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Siegen in 2024, after earning an M.Sc. in Metallurgical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University in 2017. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Automotive Lightweight Design at the University of Siegen, where he works as a senior engineer and team leader for material characterization and modeling. His research focuses on the characterization of dynamic mechanical properties of materials, plasticity and crash modeling, as well as the development of user-defined material models.