Speakers & Chairmen

Since May 2023, Matthew Avery is Director of Strategic Development of Euro NCAP. In his previous position as Director of Research, Matthew Avery led detailed research into Automated Driving technologies predicting its future impact and supporting the insurance community around the next generation of driver assistance systems. In 2011 Matthew Avery was awarded the US Government Special Award of Appreciation for his contribution to the field of global traffic safety and his work has also been recognised by Global NCAP with the 2016 Safety Award presented to Thatcham Research in 2016.

Pascal Breitlauch graduated in 2018 with a degree in automotive engineering (FH) at the University of Applied Sciences HTW Dresden. Subsequently, he joined Dr. Christian Erbsmehls group ‘Vehicle and Road Safety’ at the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI in Dresden, Germany. While developing his researching and programming skills at Fraunhofer he received a degree as “Master of Engineering in traffic accident research” from the TU Graz in 2020. Since 2020 he is working with many national and international industry partners at different projects around the novel crash simulation program impactEES (EES models, calculateEES), data conversion (OpenDRIVE, OpenSCENARIO) and data analysis (traffic accident data + infrastructure data from OpenStreetMap Data).

After studying computer science and business administration, Mr Burckhardt was the owner of an engineering office for software development and automation of industrial applications. Since 1998 he has held various positions at the DEKRA Technology Center. In 2009, Mr Burckhardt took over responsibility for the development of the DEKRA test site and its services. With DEKRA's takeover of the Lausitzring in 2018, Mr Burckhardt is now responsible for the "DEKRA Lausitzring" test site for automated and connected driving. One of his main tasks is the automation and digitisation of the proving ground. The aim is to be able to reproduce the safeguarding of complex, highly automated driving functions reproducibly and efficiently on the test site.

Dr. Christian Erbsmehl is Professor for Vehicle Service and Vehicle Diagnostics at University of Applied Sciences in Zwickau. Alongside his work at the Institute for Traffic Accident Research at TU Dresden from 2006 to 2013, he received a degree as “Master of traffic accident research” from the TU Graz. Since 2013, he has been working at the Fraunhofer IVI in the field of vehicle safety and accident research, where he became group manager in 2016. Christian completed his PhD at the TU Dresden on deformation energy in traffic accidents and was from 2013-2023 head of the group “Vehicle and Road Safety” at the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI in Dresden, Germany. In national and international projects, he is investigating novel methods for accident data analysis as well as safety aspects in autonomous driving. For his project on the traffic safety of schoolchildren, Christian received the German Mobility Award in 2017. He is member of the EVU European Association for Accident Research and Analysis e. V.

Jan graduated from TU Dresden in 2012 with a Dipl.-Ing. degree in Information Systems Engineering and has been with TraceTronic since then. Jan has a strong background in test and validation and a lot of experience in test automation, requirements management and optimization of the entire test process. He has successfully led the development of a cloud-based SiL test automation environment. Currently, Jan is actively involved in shaping the DevOps approach to automotive software testing for ADAS/AD systems.

Kai Golowko has been working in the area of vehicle safety since 1999. He started his career as a test engineer for passive safety at ACTS. Since 2003 he has been working as senior engineer for occupant safety and pedestrian protection. Since 2005 he has managed the department vehicle safety at Bertrandt in Gaimersheim. He has also been responsible for active and passive vehicle safety for the Bertrandt Group since 2017.

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.

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.

David Kidd is a senior research scientist at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. He focuses on identifying data-driven, pragmatic solutions for preventing harm from crashes. His research evaluates both vehicle- and policy-based solutions. He has authored over 30 peer-reviewed papers on topics such as seat belt use, distracted driving, advanced driver assistance systems, and driving automation technology. Dr. Kidd received a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech in 2006 and a doctorate from George Mason University in 2011.

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.

Since 2019 Guido Kutschera is Chairman of the Management Board at DEKRA Automobil GmbH and has also been responsible for the entire DEKRA Region GSA (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) since January 2021. Before that, he had already been working as Managing Director in the field of claims & expertise within DEKRA Automobil GmbH since 2013. Guido Kutschera can look back on many years of experience in marketing and sales within the automotive industry, both in the national and international context.

Adriano Palao is an Automotive Engineer with over 10 years of experience in the Vehicle Testing and Validation domain. As a Technical Manager for ADAS & AD at Euro NCAP, he steers the many Working Groups related to Active Safety into developing ever-increasing requirements towards promoting enhanced vehicle safety.

Dr Andrew Pick is Director for AB Dynamics’ leading Driving Robot and Track Test products. Dr Pick joined AB Dynamics as a Project Engineer in 2005 after researching Vehicle Dynamics at the University of Cambridge and subsequently took the role of Chief Engineer - ADAS test systems. In fulfilling these roles Dr Pick has had the opportunity to work with many of the leading automotive manufactures and proving grounds across the globe. In his current role Dr Pick is responsible for the strategic direction of track testing products, scoping out new opportunities and applications for the existing technology and defining the direction of future product development.

Andreas Rigling completed his studies as Dipl. -Ing. (FH) Automotive Engineering at the Munich University of Applied Sciences in 2009. Since 2009 he has been working at the ADAC Technik Zentrum as project manager vehicle safety and consumer protection and is responsible for the projects and tests of active safety in the field of vehicle safety. As an ADAC representative he is involved in Euro NCAP working groups and active safety committees. Since 2015 he has been a lecturer at the Munich University of Applied Sciences in the subject "Vehicle Safety & Homologation". In July 2022, he became head of Testcener Mobility and Active Vehicle Safety.

Since 2012 at DSD as COO for the Testing Division (Passive safety engineering, active safety engineering and sled testing service) 2018 Acquisition of this business from Humanetics and thus Managing Director of DSD Testing GmbH since 2018

After studying mechanical engineering and being awarded a doctorate at TU Darmstadt, Dr. Seiniger moved to the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) in 2009. Here Dr. Seiniger is involved in development and performance of tests for emergency braking systems and active safety for Euro NCAP and in developing and updating the respective legislatory framework (regulations). He was member of several Euro NCAP working groups and is Deputy Head of section “Active Vehicle Safety and Driver Assistance Systems”.

Amit Shainkopf is a Product Manager at Mobileye, where for the last 2.5 years he has focused on innovations developed by Mobileye's Driving Semantics team, including cutting-edge, AI-based sensing state solutions. In his role he is responsible for the success of core products that span the ADAS and AV markets where Mobileye is an industry leader. With extensive experience from a career spent in a range of technical and leadership roles at Applied Materials, Shainkopf has extensive knowledge in the fields of product management, business development and strategy in both the semiconductor and automotive industries. Amit graduated from Ben-Gurion University, Israel with a BSc in Electrical Engineering in 2011 and with an MBA in 2017.

After studying computer science Mr Siegl did his phd at AUDI AG about formal specification and verification of embedded systems. From 2011 until 2015 he was in the software development at AUDI AG for automotive functions and coordinator of testing for serial software development. Starting in 2015, Mr Siegl took over the verification and validation strategy and management for driving assistance systems and automated driving at AUDI AG. From 2019 until now Mr Siegl is PEO for verification and validation of  automated driving functions LVL2, LVL3, and LVL4. A major part is the definition and allocation of testing requirements and design of suitable test environments in Software-in-the-loop testing, Hardware-in-the-loop testing and real vehicle testing on public roads and proving grounds.

Since 2023 at Messring in sales responsible for the Active Safety division. As a state-certified technician for mechanical engineering and many years of professional experience he supports the Messring team in its vision to achieve Safer Mobility for everyone.

Patrick Vockenberg holds a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering and Business Administration and started as Application Engineer at iMAR Navigation in 2013. In this position, he was responsible for supporting automotive customers in measurement campaigns on the road and test sites. Meanwhile, he is responsible for Automotive Marketing, Sales and Business Development.

Thomas Wimmer studied physics at Karl-Franzens-University in Graz. Since 2006 years he works at 4a engineering GmbH in the division product development with focus on simulations. He is currently engaged in determining the electromagnetic properties of humans and adapting concepts for dummy objects.