Prof. Piller is considered one of the leading experts on customer-centric value creation, such as mass customisation, personalisation and open innovation. His current research focusses on the need (and challenges) of established companies to transform themselves in the face of disruptive business model innovations and to create appropriate organisational structures and cultures to do so.

Being an innovator, investor, intrapreneur, and entrepreneur Rob has experienced many sides of innovation. Today, he supports corporates and startups to make a high impact. The focus is on finding and developing innovation talent, as gaining the skills and mindset is at the core of every success.

Johannes Mayer studied mechanical engineering and management at the TU Munich. He currently works as a Brand Ambassador for senseering GmbH and at the WZL of RWTH Aachen University in the digital transformation department. He is intensively involved with data-driven business models, blockchain-based use cases in an industrial context, and the pricing of industrial data. 

During the last ten years, Dr. Biba Visnjicki was actively developing cross-disciplinary Innovation and Digital Transformation, combining new approaches to technology development with accelerated know-how transfer. In her current role of Global Head of Digitalisation at Tembo group, she is responsible for the overall digital transformation of the group, opening new avenues for Tembo to support its customers.

As head of the Strategic Technology Management department at the Fraunhofer IPT, Marc Patzwald supports manufacturing companies with strategic issues in the areas of technology, innovation, and resilience. He currently obtains his doctorate on the topic of developing resilient technology strategies in a volatile corporate environment, drawing on relevant and practical experience.

Since 2010, Dr. Mario Pothen has been working as a research assistant at the Fraunhofer IPT, initially in the area of CAx technologies and laser material processing, and since 2018 as head of the Competence Field “Digitalization and Interconnection”. Additionally, he is the research manager of the “International Center for Networked, Adaptive Production ICNAP”.

As an intrapreneur, Dr. Daniel Rüschen designs the lifelines of tomorrow’s buildings. With a small team at the Aachen campus, he runs the fuzzy front end of Viega’s innovation process.

As of November 1, 2019, Prof. Alexander Martin is a director at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, Germany. Since 2010, he has headed the Chair of Economics, Discrete Optimization, and Mathematics at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). Prof. Martin’s research areas include studying and solving general mixed-integer linear and nonlinear optimization problems, including the development of suitable models, their mathematical analysis, and the design and implementation of efficient algorithms to solve them. Since 2018, he has headed the ADA Lovelace Center for Analytics, Data, and Applications.

Dr Tobias Thaler is responsible for the development of digital and data-based solutions in Environmental Sciences at Bayer AG. True to its mission “Foster Environments Where We Work, Live and Play”, Environmental Science develops innovative solutions in the areas of vector control, professional pest management, forestry, vegetation management, and turf and ornamentals. Environmental Science offers not only innovative products but also new digital and data-based services that facilitate the daily work of its customers.

Antonela Sisejkovic studied Electrical Engineering & Information Technology at the University of Zagreb in Croatia. For the INC Invention Center, she worked on various projects around the topics of digitalisation and Industry 4.0. Currently, her focus as a project manager is on the topic of artificial intelligence. Supporting companies in identifying the right digital solutions and using them successfully is just one of her many thematic focuses.

IONIQ Skincare is a manufacturer of smart skincare products. The company is a corporate startup of the Swiss WAGNER Group, a foundation-owned hidden champion in industrial coating equipment, and launches in June 2021. As founder and CEO of IONIQ Skincare, Valentin Langen knows the challenges and success factors of technology transfer, innovation, and transformation from his own experience. Before joining the WAGNER Group as assistant to the CEO, he did his doctorate on competitive strategies. Valentin Langen is a lecturer for leadership and intrapreneurship and an advisory board member for medium-sized companies.  

After studying physics and researching in the USA, Dr. Klaus Knobloch worked at Infineon since 1998 on the technology development of numerous automotive microcontrollers as well as smartcard product lines from 0.25 µm to most recently 40 nm. With the start of the new Infineon Development Centre for Automotive Electronics and Artificial Intelligence in Dresden in 2019, he took over the research area “Hardware Concepts for AI Accelerators”. New approaches such as analog or neuromorphic solutions are key for efficient and safe edge AI, for example for radar signal processing in cars.

The Energy Storage business unit at the Fraunhofer IPT develops production technologies for hydrogen economy products such as electrolyzers, fuel cells, and pressure tanks. One focus is on upscaling production volumes to exploit cost reduction potential and make hydrogen technologies competitive. Mr. Müller studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University and is doing his doctorate on thermally assisted forming processes.

Dr. Jens Struckmeier is a physicist, inventor, and entrepreneur from Germany. Whilst still a student, he was responsible for the planning of the first passive house in North Rhine-Westphalia, integrating an innovative heating system. Between 2000 and 2003 Jens worked as a project lead in device and software development in Santa Barbara, USA. From 2004 to 2009 he successfully managed a German nano-biology instrumentation company. In 2009 Jens started developing water cooling systems for data centers, which led to the foundation of the green computing business Cloud&Heat Technologies. Since then, the vision of the Dresden-based company has been to make sustainability the driver of digital innovation. Cloud&Heat develops, builds, and operates energy-efficient, green, secure, and scalable (edge) data centers, meeting the growing demand for distributed and high available IT infrastructures. Jens is not only the driving force behind the company’s hardware development but is also focused on a variety of other topics, such as data security, AI, AR, VR, and blockchain

Birger is a strategist focusing on the interfaces and potential synergies within the energy landscape. He has a background as a mechanical engineer and master of business administration (MBA). After different positions in large capital projects at Vattenfall, he currently is project manager for the first data center that is directly integrated in a district heating system to most efficiently reuse the heat utilizing his experiences in both, the data center and energy utility world.  

Prof. Dr. Rüdiger-A. Eichel holds the Chair of Energy Conversion and Storage at RWTH Aachen University and is also scientific director of the Institute for Energy and Climate Research (IEK-9) at Forschungszentrum Jülich. He is also the founding director of the “Competence Centre for Sustainable Electrochemical Process Engineering” (ELECTRA) of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Prof. Eichel coordinates the national lighthouse project “Kopernikus P2X – Research, Validation and Implementation of ‘Power-to-X’ Concepts”, as well as the Helmholtz Network of Excellence “Electrochemical CO2 Valorisation” and is involved in several large-scale projects on the Green Hydrogen Economy.

With “Digital Ventures”, Thorsten Krüger took over responsibility for digital business models at Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen GmbH (MR) in 2013, in which central IT solutions for operators of electrical grids in asset management increase the availability of operating resources and reduce running costs in the long term. This model gains complexity through the combination of conventional data collection (offline) and the direct connection of field devices (edge computing). Furthermore, Thorsten Krüger is a member of various cross-industry clusters and initiatives for the exchange of experience of digital business models.

After studying technical chemistry and economics, Dr Stefan Girschik held various international management positions at the REHAU Group, most recently as Deputy Group CEO. Since 2019, he has now been CEO of the Meraxis Group, which was formed from the merger of two globally active trading companies in the polymer industry. One of his strategic goals is the digitalisation of the industry. In a rather conservative industry, the Meraxis Group is thus positioning itself as a technology leader. By specifically promoting digital innovations, it is not only actively driving its own growth course, but also the circular economy. Dr Girschik has already demonstrated his affinity for digitalisation and innovation as co-founder of the multi-award-winning Innovation & Digi Lab “Unlimited X” in Munich.

Martin is currently Senior Advisor in Strategy & Innovation. He has 20 years of industry experience in designing strategy and innovation processes and structures. He acts as an innovation leader believing in servant and agile leadership. Most recently he has been a Member of the Board of REHAU Automotive.
Martin will give an overview of the most relevant and popular cognitive biases that influence decisions in innovation management. He will address the major risks on the strategic, portfolio, and project flight levels if these cognitive biases are not managed carefully. For each of the cognitive biases, he will describe ideas and hints on how innovation leaders can be aware of the risks and improve their decision making in innovation.

Fatlinda is Co-Founder and COO at Coderitter, an IoT startup from Dresden, Germany, which combines (AI) algorithms and hardware to create new IoT devices. She is a certified expert in the field of digital transformation and is well versed in the latest trends in the IoT/AI world. With her pedagogical approach, she finds the right words to make complicated technical contexts of the fields understandable for users and decision-makers. She is also very interested in the acceptance of technologies by users, but also by the entire corporate structure and organization.

Joined HKPC in 2018, Edmond spearheads digital transformation, industry, and enterprise 4.0, plus reindustrialization through advanced manufacturing. Previously with General Electric for 20+ years, his experience covered information technology, internal audit, and finance functions with assignments in the Asia Pacific, Europe, Greater China, and United States across plastics, healthcare, capital, power, aviation, transportation industries. Edmond held both commercial and business roles with regional or global responsibilities for rail, mining, renewable energy, marine, energy storage, thermal power generation industries, with hands-on leadership in digital transformation and product development for sizeable organizations.

Law Lap Yan, Lyan is a Senior Advisor at HKPC and is responsible for Industry 4.0, Smart Manufacturing, and Reindustrialisation. He also acts as Centre Manager for the HKPC Centre, Hong Kong Industrial Drone Technology Centre, and The Hatch. Lyan Law Lap Yan is a certified blockchain expert and machine learning trainer. He has over 20 years of experience in the IT and manufacturing industry, with numerous successful projects in the fields of new business development for Industry 4.0 and smart technologies as well as IoT and data analysis.

Andy Heinig is the head of the department Efficient Electronics at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, Division Engineering of Adaptive Systems EAS. In this position, he is responsible for various hardware design projects for the acceleration of AI. On the one hand, this includes the adapted design of chips for edge AI, for example with the help of chiplets or state-of-the-art packaging solutions. On the other hand, it also includes chip design for data centers as a counterpart.

Dr.- Ing. Max Ellerich is responsible for business development at NEUMAN & ESSER ENERGY in Übach-Palenberg and supports the company’s transformation into a supplier of green technologies, especially in the field of hydrogen. Dr. Ellerich previously worked for 3 years as chief engineer at the Chair of Production Metrology and Quality Management at the WZL of RWTH Aachen University and headed the Quality Management department.

Daniel Führen studied physics at RWTH Aachen University and has been working at the INC Invention Center for more than four years. Here he supports companies in technology and market-related issues and is currently responsible for projects in the field of the “Hydrogen Economy”. The focus of these activities is the challenge of enabling companies to participate in the hydrogen economy.

In her research, Prof. Flatten focuses on the factor of adaptability of established companies, especially SMEs. Specifically, she is researching, for example, how external knowledge enters the company and can be transformed into prototypes or actual innovations there. In addition, she researches which ways of thinking and patterns of action in established companies can be usefully adopted by start-ups or how they need to be changed.

Maciej Wiatr studied solid-state electronics at the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel and received his doctorate in 2003, also in Kiel, in the field of compact modeling of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) transistors. Between 2003 and 2005 he worked at Philips Semiconductors in Hamburg on model libraries for circuit design. Since 2005, he has held various positions up to the head of the technology integration development department at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Today, he is a technical expert for strategic technology development at the Dresden site and deals with new solutions in the field of silicon and packaging technology.

As Head of Manufacturing & Industry 4.0 at Hilti, Johann Stadler has driven the digitalization of production. Prior to this role, he managed company-wide, strategic, and innovative IT projects for the Hilti Group. In his more than 10 years with the company, he has successfully planned and implemented projects in all IT areas, including SAP (R/3 and S/4HANA), infrastructure projects. Innovative cloud projects such as O365, SAP Business ByDesign, internal social media with Yammer, and “Citrix as a Service” on MS Azure have made Hilti a digital company. Now production is also going digital wherever it makes sense. He has a master’s degree in computer science, a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and teaches project management at various institutions.

Before Dr. Léonard Kröll joined the Invention Center, he worked in the field of electrochemistry as a scientist at the Jülich Research Centre. He studied batteries, fuel cells, and electrolyzers. Green energy is a topic that has always interested Léonard, and he can live out this interest in sustainable topics at the INC Invention Center. He is currently working with clients on many segments of the hydrogen economy, from production, distribution, and storage to deployment.

Prof. Dr. Saskia Nagel is a Full Professor and chair of the group Applied Ethics with a Focus on Ethics of Technology at the Department for Society, Technology, and Human Factors at RWTH Aachen University. She is a member of the Human-Technology Center. She is also affiliated with the 4TU Centre for Ethics and Technology and with The Neuroethics Collective. Saskia Nagel is working at the intersection of ethics, philosophy, life sciences (in particular neurosciences and cognitive science), and technologies. She has developed approaches to individual and societal challenges in a technological culture, with a focus on the ethical, anthropological, and social consequences of scientific and technological progress.

Henry Kwan is the Head of Innovation and Development Division at Trio. He brings over 5 years of experience in digital development and ERP implementation and is particularly excited about sharing new technologies and hopes to build business-oriented solutions around these new technologies.

Efe Erdem has been the Executive Director of MEXT Technology Center at MESS (Turkish Employers’ Association of Metal Industries) since December 2018. He led the establishment of the Technology Center from concept phase to operationalization. The Center is focusing on the digital transformation of the industry by providing companies with a comprehensive up-skilling program, technical advisory services, access to a state-of-the-art Digital Factory and an extensive ecosystem of partners including technology companies, universities, and start-ups.
At the same time, he is managing the WEF (World Economic Forum) Affiliate Center for Fourth Industrial Revolution in Turkey, which acts as a public-private collaboration platform for technology governance.

Prior to this, he was responsible for Innovation at Ford Otosan and led all company initiatives regarding corporate entrepreneurship and open innovation. In that capacity, he was also a member of the company’s Executive Committee. Previously, he held various roles in Product Development such as Commercial Vehicles Program Management and Powertrain Systems Integration in Turkey and the UK, as well as Manufacturing Engineering. He graduated from Industrial Engineering Department of Boğaziçi University, Istanbul and holds a Master’s degree in Management Sciences from London School of Economics (LSE).

Dominik Seuß received a Master of Science degree in Applied Computer Science from the University of Bamberg, Germany. After graduation, he joined Fraunhofer IIS, Erlangen, Germany, where he continued his research on automatic facial expression analysis. He is Head of the group Facial Analysis Solutions and responsible for industrial and public research projects as well as software licensing in the areas of real-time computer vision, affective computing, and facial analysis. He is interested in machine learning topics in the field of deep learning in computer vision and generative networks. He defended his PhD thesis to the University of Bamberg in May 2021.

Susanne Aghassi studied computer science and psychology with a focus on knowledge management, web technologies, and CSCW/eLearning. Since 2014, she has built up the KEX Knowledge Exchange together with other partners. Since 2018 she is our center director of the Invention Center. With the newly founded business unit “Innovation Excellence”, she is taking on new challenges and is responsible for expanding methodological and consulting expertise in the area of TIM. Susanne Aghassi is the ideal contact person for questions about methodologies and processes in technology and innovation management, ambidexterity between core and disruptive innovation as well as change management, agile/digital transformation, and new work & leadership. She is looking forward to interesting insights into the practical challenges of innovative, technology-oriented companies. Book an exclusive Expert Talk with Susanne Aghassi and look forward to an attentive and curious listener who can provide an initial assessment of the situation with a fresh and competent external view and consider together with you how to concretize and address the issue.

Dr. Olaf Enge-Rosenblatt – Group Leader, Fraunhofer IIS, Department of Adaptive Systems Development EAS