May 13 – 15, 2025 | Frankfurt/Hanau, Germany

SafetyTesting Challenge

May 13, 2025

Speakers & Chairmen

Here you see the speakers of the SafetyTesting Challenge 2024. As soon as the speakers of the 2025 conference are confirmed, you will find them here.

Rodrigo Coimbra

Rodrigo Coimbra
Volkswagen AG

Vita

Rodrigo Coimbra graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Brasília and holds an MSc degree in Automotive Engineering from the University of Stuttgart. From 2015 until the completion of his Master's in 2022, he undertook several internships and research projects in the area of CAE & occupant safety. He is currently a PhD candidate at Volkswagen AG and the Graz University of Technology, specializing in the field of artificial intelligence and safety testing. His PhD thesis aims to investigate AI-based models for system modeling approaches and time-series prediction.

Mònica González Gordo

Mònica González Gordo
ENCOPIM, S.L.

Vita

Ms. Mònica González Gordo has been involved in technical sales and project management of passive safety test equipment for the last 13 years. Previously she worked in the R&D design and testing of medical equipment. She has a Bachelor Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Memphis and a Masters degree in Equipment and Mechanisms of Industrial Equipment from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).

Dr. Nils Katzorke

Dr. Nils Katzorke
Project Manager
Mercedes-Benz AG

Vita

Nils Katzorke received the B.A. degree in Transportation and Logistics Management from the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences Braunschweig/Wolfenbuettel in 2016, the MBE in Business Engineering from the Steinbeis University Berlin in 2018 and the DBA degree in business administration from the Prague University of Economics and Business in 2023 for his dissertation “Effective Test Infrastructure Design in the Context of Autonomous Driving”. From 2016 to 2018, he was project coordinator for the construction of Mercedes-Benz AG’s proving ground in Immendingen, Germany. Since 2018 he is responsible for further proving ground development with the Site Management Immendingen at Mercedes-Benz AG. His research interests include the development of test infrastructure, intelligent transportation systems and innovation management.

Dr. Thomas Kinsky

Dr. Thomas Kinsky
Director Business Development
Humanetics Europe GmbH

Vita

Dr. Thomas Kinsky completed his studies of automotive engineering at TU Dresden in 1991 and received a doctorate at TU Graz in 2015. From 1991 to 1995 he worked as an officially certified expert for TÜV Rheinland. Afterwards he managed from 1995 to 1998 the vehicle construction department in a small medium-sized company. From 1999 to 2018 Dr. Kinsky worked for the car manufacturer Opel in the area of vehicle regulations. Lastly as a senior expert, he was responsible for the development of legislation on passive vehicle safety and represented Opel in the discussion with authorities and associations. Since 2018 he is Director of Business Development at Humanetics Europe GmbH. In this role he is the contact for all topics regarding dummy development as well as for requirements on passive and active safety at Humanetics.

Jan Christopher Kolb

Jan Christopher Kolb
Business Driver ADAS
Kistler Instrumente GmbH

Vita

Jan Christopher Kolb studied "Vehicle Systems Engineering" and "Mechanical Engineering and international Salesmanagement" before starting as a test engineer in the pedestrian protection division of Bertrandt GmbH in Ingolstadt in 2003. After brief stints as project engineer and project manager, he took over the "Passive Safety" team as team leader. From 2017 to 2022, he was a test manager and network manager at the CARISSMA research center (Center of Automotive Research and Integrated Safety Systems and Measurement Area), which is integrated into Ingolstadt Technical University (THI). Besides the overall supervision of the test laboratories, he did research in the field of VRU protection, automated driving and system development. Since 01 April 2022, Jan Christopher Kolb has been working within the Kistler Group as Business Driver ADAS/AV.

Andreas Mangold

Andreas Mangold
Photron Deutschland GmbH

Vita

Andreas Mangold is Managing Director of Photron Deutschland GmbH - a subsidiary of the Japanese Photron Limited, a leading manufacturer of high-speed cameras. Mr. Mangold is a trained electronics engineer and has been working in the field of high-speed image analysis for over 15 years. For more than 6 years he has been responsible for the "Automotive" area throughout Europe at Photron, where he is the interface between end customers and the development team.

Marcel Nickel

Marcel Nickel
Sales Engineer Global Key Accounts & Crash Simulation Systems
Instron GmbH

Vita

After his apprenticeship as electrician in 2013, Marcel Nickel is studying industrial engineering in Darmstadt. Till his graduation to the Master of Science in 2019, he is gathering over 4 years of experience with INSTRON as a working student. During this time, he goes through several departments within the company. Since over 3 years he is working as a sales engineer for global key accounts and crash simulation systems.

Dr. Karsten Raguse

Dr. Karsten Raguse
Volkswagen AG

Vita

With over two decades of experience, he heads the Safety Test Technologies division, ensuring both passive and active safety measures are top-notch. Dr. Raguse's journey from Development Engineer to his current role showcases his dedication to advancing safety standards. Beyond Volkswagen, he contributes to organizations like crash.tech and Fraunhofer Vision. He earned his Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Hannover.

Christian Salm

Christian Salm
Chief Product Officer
MESSRING GmbH

Vita

Christian Salm is Chief Product Officer at MESSRING GmbH. In his role, he is responsible for global product sales and product manufacturing in the areas of passive and active safety. Since graduating with a degree in business administration, Mr. Salm has worked in the field of innovation and organizational development in high-tech industries. Initially as a partner in a strategy consultancy and in recent years as founder and CEO of a medical technology start-up.

Alexander Schmitt

Alexander Schmitt
Business Development Manager Europe
Kistler Instrumente GmbH

Vita

After completion of his studies in electrical engineering at the technical college in Mannheim, Germany, Alexander Schmitt started his career in 1999 as Sales Engineer at Endevco in the general vibration measurement business. From 2001 to 2012 he worked at Denton COE GmbH and later Humanetics Europe GmbH as European Sales Engineer for crash test dummies, crash dummy instrumentation and related products and services In June 2012 he joined Kistler Automotive GmbH, his current position is Business Development Manager Europe in the business field Crash & Vehicle Safety.

Dr. Chirag Shah

Dr. Chirag Shah
CAE Project Manager
Humanetics Innovative Solutions, Inc.

Vita

Dr. Chirag Shah earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2007 from the Wayne State University in USA. As part of his doctorate, he worked on the CAE human body model development. He has over 25 technical publications in the field biomechanics and automotive safety. In 2008, he joined the First Technology Safety Systems which is now Humanetics Innovative Solutions. Since then he has led a variety of CAE dummy modeling projects including the FLEX-PLI. Currently, he is leading the CAE aPLI modeling project at Humanetics.

Philipp Tölke

Philipp Tölke
Managing Director European Operations
Seattle Safety Europe GmbH

Vita

Philipp Toelke is general manager of the Seattle Safety Germany GmbH which is a 100% daughter company of Seattle Safety LLC in Seattle. Philipp is responsible for the European market and works very close with the engineering in Seattle at the development and market introduction of new Seattle Safety products. Philipp has a diploma degree in Engineering from Braunschweig University (Germany) and he worked in the field of vehicle safety for the last 17 years.

Adnan Tuhcic

Adnan Tuhcic
Humanetics Austria GmbH

Vita

Adnan Tuhucic has navigated lots of experience within the automotive industry, especially in his positions at Humanetics. Starting as a Product Specialist, Adnan evolved through roles such as Team Leader and Head of Customer Service. His extensive hands-on experience operating Humanetics products for an extended period has equipped him with comprehensie knowledge within Active Safety Testing. Now, as Sales Manager for Active Safety at Humanetics, Adnan seamlessly merges a passion for vehicle safety with strategic customer engagement, ensuring lasting success in his endeavors.

Max Winkelmann

Max Winkelmann
Data Scientist AD Functions & Simulation
IAV GmbH

Vita

Max Winkelmann is a data scientist at IAV. With his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering, he has roots in electrical engineering, control, and automation, and his interests steadily evolved to the fields of robotics, computer vision, and machine learning. Currently, he is awaiting the defense of his Dr.-Ing. degree in automotive engineering with Technische Universität Berlin. The thesis is titled “Data-Driven Linkage of Virtual and Real Tests for Scenario-Based Validation of Automated Vehicles”. Accordingly, as a data scientist at IAV, Max works in the field of automated driving safety validation and has a special focus on risk estimation.

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