About Me
Hi, I’m Klaus - Vienna-based dog-lover & aspiring PhD student in fundamental research.
I was supposed to do scientific work in the field of computer vision, sensor fusion & artificial intelligence, but lack of funding had me spend most of my time doing engineering for some API work while locked down in system integration hell, barely working on some image processing tasks. During my studies in mechanical engineering & robotics I realized that applied research/work is not my cup of tea - and I’m much more interested in fundamental or basic reasearch.
My research interests thus moved on to the general area of biomimetics.
More specifically, I’m interested in humanoid robotics and legged locomotion, or really any unconventional robots that are as far away from practical, industry-related work as possible..
Tbh, I’m not that picky. I just prefer not to wither away in the industry doing some mundane engineers work and code-monkeying while paid pennies, as well as having to take PTO to watch people post about ICRA, ARSO and other robotics related conferences online - especially when they’re in my hometown, and knowing, that my colleagues get paid to personally attend.
If you’re looking for a PhD student who’s had a lot of experience in different fields and would love to go present work atICRA, NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, etc. and publish in journals, please reach out! <3
Projects
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Since both my undergrad in Mechanical Engineering, as well as my masters in Robotics were only targeting the industry, there were a few things uncovered I try to make up for now besides working. Artificial Intelligence and fundamental research
On one hand, I’m pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Artificial Intelligence at JKU Linz, since sadly none of my degree programs covered a spec of AI.
On the other hand, taking Dongheui Lee’s course on Robot Learning at TU Wien introduced me to the field of Robot Learning using MuJoCo and JAX. And while I sadly couldn’t put my all in this course with my job and commuting, I was very happy to finally work on Humanoids and touch robotic research that is not applied or in any way directly related to some industrial application.
So if you have work utilizing Humanoids, or in the field of Robot Learning or Legged Locomotion, possibly even where I can further dabble in MuJoCo, please reach out, I’d love to hear more! <3
Experience
Around two million people, 230,000 commercial and industrial customers, and 4,500 agricultural businesses rely on Wien Energie.
As Austria’s largest regional energy provider, we supply homes and businesses in and around Vienna with energy and a wide range of related services.
Technically a part of the Robotics Software Development team, practically an intern in isolation in the department Smart Inspection, I have wrapped up the system integration and data collection part of the company on the subject of air leak detection for the “research” project “AI-RoboSens”.
The IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems (Austrian German: IMC Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften Krems) is a private Austrian university.
IMC Krems gave me the unique opportunity to realize my dream of giving back some of the knowledge I have come to acquire so far by teaching 1st year bachelor students of the degree program “Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology” in the course Applied Physics - Theory (APT1VO)
The University for Continuing Education Krems (German: Universität für Weiterbildung Krems) is an Austrian university specializing in further education for working professionals.
At the department of integrated sensor systems I worked on the FFG-funded industrial “research”-project “AI-RoboSens” to detect air leaks using a Spot robot from Boston Dynamics equipped with an acoustic imager and a thermal camera.
Working on a REST API wrapper, and a Boston Dynamics SDK wrapper in python and for ROS, I designed a data collection pipeline fetching RAW data from a Fluke SV600 acoustic imager, as well as the SpotCAM+IR payload.
Rosenbauer is the world’s leading manufacturer of systems for firefighting and disaster protection. For more than 150 years, the name has stood for significant innovations and ground-breaking technology in the manufacture of firefighting vehicles and extinguishing systems in accordance with European and US standards..
At the department of research & innovation I work on sensor integration and environmental detection for mission support systems. Using Linux as my daily driver, I’m working with ROS all day, writing code in mostly Python & C++. Further, I get hands-on experiences in motor control using CAN bus and network sockets.
Knorr-Bremse has pursued a single mission for over 110 years: to make mobility on roads and railways safe, sustainable and environmentally friendly. Today the Knorr-Bremse Group, based in Munich, is the world’s leading manufacturer of braking systems and a leading supplier of safety-critical sub-systems for rail and commercial vehicles..
As a working student I was responsible for the documentation of testing equipment.
There I have mainly created manuals and pneumatic plans, but also created a few machine vision applications for automated testing operations using industrial cameras.
Education
University West
MSc Robotics and Automation
09/2020 - 09/2023
Established in 1990, University West is a modern university in Sweden and is widely regarded in terms of its intensive research at the Production Technology Center together with companies such as ABB, Volvo and GKN Aerospace.
During my time at University West I learnt most of my key skills such as software development fundamentals of image processing, as well as working to tight deadlines. I thouroughly enjoyed my time as university and learnt a lot about a healthy work life balance.
I spent a lot of my free time supporting lecturers throughout their courses online and taking on roles such as Teaching Assistant and Seminar Leader where I led discussions on courses and student talks.
A Little More About Me
When I’m not working, I continue my pursuit for science.
I serve as VP for the great science festival Pint of Science Austria, where I lead a team of 4 people in organizing tech-related talks by scientists to present their work at local pubs.
Additionally I coordinate and manage robotics related Mars analogue research projects at the Austrian Space Forum.
The little time I have left spend on a mixture of:
- What “little” time is left, you dummy?
- Commuting
- Studying
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Photography -
3D printing -
3D-Modelling in my favorite modeller BLENDER or hating on FreeCAD -
Image editing in Affinity Suite and Adobe Lightroom as well as -
Video editing in Vegas and Final Cut