Speakers & Chairmen

Professor Cronin is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Trauma Biomechanics and Injury Prevention and leads the Neck Model Centre of Expertise for the Global Human Body Models Consortium, developing one of the most detailed and biofidelic human body models used globally by industry and academics. His research is focused on tissue-level injury prediction and injury prevention.

Marcy Edwards is a Senior Research Engineer at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and conducts research on occupant protection, primarily in the areas of rear impacts, rear seat occupant safety, and child passenger safety. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia USA.

Andre Eggers is a researcher at BASt (German Federal Highway and Transport Research Institute) since 2006 working in the area of biomechanics, evaluation of dummies, human models and virtual testing. He studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Hamburg and Biomedical Engineering at Wayne State University. 2013 he completed his doctorate at the Technical University of Berlin. He contributed to several European research projects like IMVITER, THORAX, ASSESS, SENIORS and OSCCAR. He is representing BASt in Euro NCAP working groups related to injury criteria and virtual testing.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Fehr studied Mechatronics in Stuttgart and Mechanical Engineering in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. From 2006 till 2011 he was a research assistant and doctoral student at the University of Stuttgart. Afterwards, as a simulation engineer at TRW Automotive GmbH, he was in charge of the development of new mechatronic vehicle safety systems. From 2014 to 2020 Jörg Fehr was a Junior Professor at the Institute for Engineering and Computational Mechanics and Cluster of Excellence Simulation Technology (SRC SimTech) of the University of Stuttgart. Since March 2020 he has a permanent position as a deputy head of the Institute for Engineering and Computational Mechanics. One goal of his current research is the development of validation and simulation strategies for active human body models for the simulation of new mobility solutions and the speedup of the simulations using linear and nonlinear model reduction methods.

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.

Ulrich Freyberger is a mechanical engineering graduate from the Technische Universität München. He began his professional career at Audi AG, working on side and front impact simulations in body development. From 2001 to 2009, he led simulation and system integration teams at Autoliv BV&Co.KG, focusing on restraint systems and airbag component development. Since 2009, he has been Head of the Competence Center for Vehicle Safety at CDH AG, where he is responsible for body development, occupant and pedestrian protection, and interior simulation.

Michael Gumprecht has been an expert within Validation Services since 2010 and is responsible for the internal validation of vehicle safety for automotive seats throughout the Group, with a focus on airbag integration and low-speed rear crash. Previously, he was the engineer responsible for whiplash and airbag integration in various projects.

Astrid Linder is Professor of Traffic Safety at VTI, responsible for the development of the research area crash safety and biomechanics. Traffic safety, models of the human in crash testing, injury prevention and crash related countermeasures are main fields of her research activity.

Ulrich Meier-Noe studied mechanical engineering in Paderborn, Nottingham and Paris and obtained his doctorate in 2003 at the Chair of Automation Technology in Paderborn. For years, he has been involved in various, mostly dynamic tests and experiments in the context of aviation, automotive engineering and defense technology. Highly dynamic processes play a particularly important role here. In addition to project management, test planning and analysis of test results, he focuses on the optimization of processes and the documentation of test results.

Volker Sander has been head of the Vehicle Safety Department of ADAC, which includes active safety, passive safety and accident research, since 2010. Before that, from 1999-2007 he was in charge of the construction of ADAC’s crash test lab as a team manager. From 2007-2010 he led the Passive Safety Department of ADAC. At Euro NCAP he is a member of the Board of Directors and chairman of the frontal impact working group. In addition to that he is member of the side impact working group, the technical working group and the ratings group of Euro NCAP. He is also lecturer for vehicle safety at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich.

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.

Mathias Wolff is Sales Manager at Humanetics and a seasoned expert in 3D metrology and 6D real-time dummy positioning systems. With a background in Engineering Geodesy and Surveying from Hamburg, Mathias built his expertise over many years at AICON before joining Humanetics in 2017. His deep technical knowledge and industry experience make him a trusted voice in the field of precision measurement and safety testing technologies.