Officials

Jens Fürst is Professor for Digital Factory with a focus on Medical Engineering at the Institute for Factory Automation and Production Systems at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. Jens studied Physics at the University of Bayreuth where he received his PhD for his work on low-temperature laser physics for the characterization of semiconductors. As Principal Key Expert at Siemens Healthineers he worked on holistic digital planning for the High Energy Photonic Center in Forchheim. Today, his research focuses on Digitalisation, Automation, Robotics and AI for the development, production and use of medical technologies.

Philipp Beckerle is a professor (W3) and chair holder of the Chair of Autonomous Systems and Mechatronics at the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Engineering at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. His research in the field of human-centred mechatronics and robotics has been recognised with various awards, including the Manfred Hirschvogel Prize, the MINT Excellence Doctoral Prize and the Eugen Hartmann Prize 2017.

Philipp Beckerle completed his studies in mechanical engineering with a specialisation in mechatronics at the Technical University of Darmstadt in 2009 and received his doctorate in mechatronics from the Technical University of Darmstadt in 2014. From 2014 to 2018, he was deputy head of the institute, senior engineer and junior research group leader in the field of human-mechatronics synergy at the Institute of Mechatronic Systems at TU Darmstadt. In the meantime, Philipp Beckerle worked as a visiting scientist in the Robotics & Multibody Mechanics Research Group (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), the Interactive Robotics Lab and the Human-Oriented Robotics and Control Lab (Arizona State University) as well as in the Human Centred Robotics Group (University of Siena). From 2018 to 2020, he was junior professor (W1) and head of the Elastic Lightweight Robotics working group at TU Dortmund University.