After his bachelor’s in computer science, Daniels’s interest in artificial intelligence was awakened, which is why he decided to invest more time with this topic in his master. And at the end of his degree, machine learning couldn’t let him go. This had the consequence that Daniel went for his PhD at TU Darmstadt. The TU was already an exceptional contact point back then for all AI researchers. By now, Daniel evaluates the requirements for research as even better.
By the way: even the German chancellor Dr Angela Merkel during her visit in 2018 convinced herself personally of the quality and the AI research and validated that TU Darmstadt is “a jewel in the question of artificial intelligence” and with regard to the international competition, “that Germany can be part of the big leagues”. A tremendous honour for us and a cool statement, isn’t it?
And how exactly do you proceed in research? Daniel’s tasks were colourful, but a lot of work is at the desk: “reading current research papers, concepts and understand models as well as asking the important questions: how do you connect the models and aspects? Where can an idea or concept be improved? Where can a new building block be implemented to solve a current problem? This results in creating a hypothesis, based on that research can take place.” First tests take place on the computer until bigger hurdles are placed and then the first tests are carried out on ‘real’ robots. “This step is a very exciting step because lots can go different than expected!” says Daniel. We are impressed, with what it takes!
By now, Daniel works at a research institute of a big automobile firm and deals with AI, robotics, and human-machine interaction. Even though working in the industry is very different from university: his prior knowledge and research at TU Darmstadt have helped him a lot. We thank him for his great research insights and are thrilled to see where his professional career will take him!