Speakers

Heiner Ackers holds a degree in automotive engineering from the Cologne University of Applied Sciences. His professional career began in 2004, when he completed his studies. Since then, he has held various positions at Edscha Engineering GmbH. From July 2008 to July 2010, he worked as a project engineer, followed by a short period as project manager in 2010. In the same year, he took on the role of Innovation Manager, a position he held until July 2012. He was Head of Core Engineering from June 2012 to November 2018. Since November 2018, Heiner Ackers has been Head of R&D Hood Hinges, a position he currently holds.

Adrian Hellmann received a Master's Degree in Mechanical and Process Engineering from the Technical University of Darmstadt and a „Diplôme Ingenieur Géneraliste“ from Ecole Centrale de Lyon. In 2015 he joined the German Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) in Bergisch Gladbach where he works for the Section "Active Vehicle Safety" on the development and implementation of test scenarios for active safety within the legal framework as well as for consumer protection organizations such as Euro NCAP.

Björn Hohage graduated as Dipl. math. in mathematics at Clausthal University of Technology. In 2007, he joined AUDI AG as a developer in the occupant simulation side protection in vehicle safety. Since 2015, he has been responsible for the topic of dummy technology there. In this context, he also took over the technical representation in various working groups on these topics at ACEA, DIN and ISO for AUDI AG and has been chairman of the DIN working group on dummy and impactor technology since 2023.

Luis Pablo Jean studied Mechatronics Engineering at the Autonomous University of Puebla (BUAP), he graduated in December 2019. He started his career as Safety Engineer at Volkswagen de México in March 2021 and has worked since then in some projects in the North American Region, such as ID.4, Teramont, Cross Sport, Jetta, Taos and Tiguan, developing and testing to meet the requirements of Pedestrian Protection and Low Speed Crash, Law and Consumer Test and this year participated in Latin NCAP Tests for the VW Jetta MY2025.

Yongcheng Long studied Mechanical Engineering at Hunan University and has been engaged in research on pedestrian lower limb injuries since 2013. He joined Changan Automotive in 2016, focusing on the development of vehicle pedestrian protection performance. Since joining CAERI in 2020, he has been responsible for research related to pedestrian safety in the C-IASI and the formulation of testing protocols.

Bernd Lorenz is Head of the department "Passive Vehicle Safety" with the German Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt). He works on the preparation of the European and worldwide safety regulations (UNECE, GTR). He is Member of the Board of Directors and several working groups of Euro NCAP. Moreover he is Chairman of the BioRID TEG of the GRSP.

Vinod Kumar Madras Gunasekaran graduated from Anna University, Chennai, with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2006. He later worked at Anadocs IT Solutions Private Limited, where he was involved in various fields such as sheet metal forming, steel construction, programming, sales, and after-sales support. In 2012, he pursued a Master's degree in International Automotive Engineering at Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt. He has worked in the field of crash safety at EDAG Engineering GmbH. Since 2019, he has been employed at Bertrandt Simulations GmbH, focusing on pedestrian protection.

Dr. Sevgi Saraç Karadeniz received her BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU). Her doctoral research, titled "Design, Analysis and Experimental Study of a Novel Side Thorax Impactor to be Used in Pedestrian Protection Tests for Flat Front Vehicles", focused on the development, simulation, and prototype manufacturing of a side thorax impactor. Since 2010, Dr. Karadeniz has been working at OTEST A.Ş. and METU-BILTIR Center Sled Test Facility. She currently serves as the General Manager of OTEST A.Ş. and the Technical Manager of the Sled Test Facility. Her research interests include vulnerable road user safety and sled testing for applications in the automotive and aviation industries.

Stefan Schinke completed an apprenticeship in car body and vehicle construction before studying mechanical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrück. From 1998 he worked for IAV as a pedestrian protection test engineer. Since 2000 he has been working as a test and project engineer in vehicle safety at Volkswagen. Mr. Schinke is a pedestrian protection specialist and represents Volkswagen in national and international working groups in the field of pedestrian protection.

Director and Professor Andre Seeck has been Vice President of the Federal Highway and Transport 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.

Holger Staack studied mechanical engineering with a focus on lightweight construction and plastics technology at the Technical University of Munich. He then obtained his doctorate in engineering from the Chair of Lightweight Design at the Technical University of Munich. His dissertation, entitled 'Experimental characterization and parametric simulation of plastic components in partner protection,' dealt with the simulative failure modeling of plastics in pedestrian protection development. Since 2016, he has been working in pedestrian protection development at AUDI AG in Ingolstadt.

Jonathan Torres is a Mechanical Engineer with experience in quality assurance and safety testing. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Puebla (2018). Jonathan has worked as a Quality Auditor at TENNECO (Mexico) and as a Quality Engineer at HWASHIN America Corp. Since October 2022, he has been a Passive Safety Test Development Specialist at Volkswagen de México S.A. de C.V., focusing on pedestrian protection, safety pendulum and RCAR tests. He possesses skills in quality assurance, safety testing, problem solving, and team collaboration.

Jan Wilsmann graduated from the TU Braunschweig as a mechanical engineer. Within the scope of his final thesis in 2008 he already dealt with the subject of pedestrian protection and worked directly afterwards as a test engineer in this field. He has been working for BMW AG since 2012 and has been working there in the department "Concepts Integral Safety" since 2015. In his current function, Mr. Wilsmann is responsible for the conceptual design of pedestrian protection in several projects. Since mid-2016, he has also been responsible for pedestrian and cyclist protection. In this capacity, he also took over the technical representation in various working groups on these topics at VDA, ACEA, and ISO for BMW AG.

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 and Transport 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.