Carmen reigns over automation of safety operations through the use of model-based technology.
I’m a researcher in the Model-based Systems Engineering field of competence and also a doctoral candidate under Prof. Alexander Pretschner at the Department of Software and Systems Engineering at the Technical University Munich. My research activities involve the automation of safety processes through the use of model-based techniques and formal methods, with a focus on the creation and management of model-based safety scenarios.
Over the past several months I’ve made contributions to two very interesting projects, in which I conducted various safety measures for two different autonomous driving systems. I’m really happy that I was able to utilize one of these systems as an on-going example for my dissertation. I also worked on a publication that will be presented at the 30th Annual Symposium for Safety Critical Systems. I also coordinated an internal research project, where the team developed an AI solution for the implementation of safety-critical functions. These activities have served as the foundation for several publications that we will submit at various conferences next year.
I stared programming in the 9th grade. At that time unfortunately, I was not especially good at it, so I decided to delve into more detail during the summer holidays between the 9th and 10th grades. I also started to work on more comprehensive and complicated exercises. I believe that most of the algorithms that I learned during that time still help me to complete my tasks today. From that point on I improved and it wasn’t long before programming became a passion that I eventually made into a career. I enjoy programming because you can use it to solve different types of problems. If you do your job well and incorporate your know-how and creativity, you can solve problems in a highly-efficient manner.
I’ve been with fortiss since 2010. At that time I was still working as a university student. I learned about fortiss through a good friend who worked here as a researcher.
All of my colleagues are very friendly, intelligent and inspiring. They’re simply people you can learn a lot from. I’ve worked together with several of them on projects or writing publications and achieved impressive results. I’ve also formed several really good friendships that extend beyond work. And last but not least, I found several mentors to whom I owe the most for what I have achieved as a researcher.
For me one of biggest challenges is making a lasting contribution to my field of expertise. I love being able to realize improvements through my doctoral work. I want to apply in practice them at a later point as a safety engineer for autonomous systems.
First off, what I like about fortiss is that I have a certain amount of flexibility in terms of the research topics. Secondly, I find it extremely rewarding to work together with so many competent people from different areas. And third, fortiss helps me carry out first-class research by making publications, books and technical equipment available and by participating in conferences so that I can present the results of my research.
