Summary
Ph.D. candidate at the Institute for Visual & Analytical Computing specializing in Multimodal Perception & Robotics. Proven track record of building real-world robotic systems for logistics and industrial bin-picking, leveraging synthetic data generation and monocular depth estimation pipelines. Passionate about advancing research in Embodied AI and trustworthy Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) through the convergence of Spatial Intelligence and Mixed Reality interfaces.
Education
- 2025 –
- Ph.D., Computer Science — Universität RostockRostock, Germany
- 2020–25
- M.Sc. Robotics — Technische Universität Dortmund GPA 1.90Dortmund, Germany
- 2022
- Exchange Semester, M.Sc. AI & Robotics — Sapienza Università di RomaFeb – Jul 2022 · Rome, Italy
- 2016–20
- B.Sc. Electrical Engineering & Computer Science — Czech Technical University in Prague GPA 1.60Prague, Czech Republic
Experience
Research Associate, Institute for Visual & Analytical Computing (VAC) — Universität Rostock
Jul 2025 – Present- Leading research in multimodal LLMs, egocentric perception for robotics, and computer vision as part of CORE Labs.
- Collaborating with industry partners (Ramblr & NeoBIM) to develop vision-language models (VLMs) that serve as intuitive interfaces for complex software and robotic systems.
- Supervising student research groups and mentoring research assistants (HiWis) in deep learning and computer vision methodologies.
Research Assistant in Robotics & AI — Fraunhofer IML
Jan 2024 – Jun 2025- Master's Thesis: developed a perception method for real-time volume feedback in partnership with DB Schenker, directly enhancing logistics throughput.
- Generated synthetic datasets (NVIDIA Isaac Sim) and curated real-world RGB-D data to fine-tune ViT and ConvNeXt depth-estimation networks.
- Engineered a parallelized RGB-D processing pipeline (52% speedup) and deployed ROS nodes for calibrated LiDAR/stereo-camera integration.
Working Student, Computer Vision & Machine Learning — Swisslog Robogistics Technology Center
Sep 2022 – Jan 2024- Developed an auto-annotation tool leveraging Meta's Segment Anything Model (SAM) to curate 600+ RGB-D scenes for the ItemPiQ bin-picking system.
- Trained a Bag-of-Visual-Words material classifier achieving 70% accuracy on unseen parts with sub-7ms inference time.
- Designed vision-based suction grasping algorithms for cluttered bins, benchmarking cameras and DL models to optimize performance.
Working Student, Bin-Picking — Lehrstuhl für Fördertechnik (FLW), TU Dortmund / Fraunhofer IML
Mar 2021 – Dec 2021- Curated the DoPose dataset (COCO format) by engineering an ICP-stitching pipeline for Zivid 2 point clouds, and benchmarked Detectron2 for segmentation accuracy.
- Prototyped low-level grasping routines (C++/Python) and deployed trajectory planning via KUKA MoveIt! on a two-finger gripper.
Undergraduate Researcher in Robotics — Multi-Robot Systems Group, Czech Technical University
Jan 2019 – Feb 2020- Bachelor's Thesis: designed a novel UAV grasping mechanism and led flight-testing, securing 1st place at the MBZIRC 2020 Challenge II.
- Engineered a closed-loop grasping system using ROS and embedded C/C++ (ATMega328) for real-time sensor fusion and aerial manipulation.
Publications
- 2026
MCP4IFC: IFC-based Building Design using Large Language Models
EC3 — European Conference on Computing in Construction, Corfu, Greece accepted
- 2026
RoboBIM: Scaling Robot Semantic Foundations through Agentic Extraction of BIM Priors
ICRA 2026 Workshop on Robots Meet Prior Maps, Vienna, Austria workshop
- 2026
Benchmarking 3D Reconstruction for Under-Ice Robotic Perception in Arctic Environments
ICRA 2026 Workshop on Sea to Space, Vienna, Austria workshop
- 2026
BIM-Edit: Benchmarking Large Language Models for IFC-Based Building Information Modeling
arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.20146 · under review for NeurIPS 2027 under review
- 2025
Monocular Depth Estimation for Efficient Volume Reconstruction in Logistics
Manuscript in preparation in prep
- 2023
3D Models of the Martian Surface in Virtual Reality
AAS / Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts, 55, 212.04 conference
- 2022
DoPose: Dataset for Object Segmentation and 6D Pose Estimation
Zenodo · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.6103779 dataset
- 2020
Design of an Active-Reliable Grasping Mechanism for Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Modelling and Simulation for Autonomous Systems (MESAS), Springer LNCS, pp. 162–179 conference
Skills
Honors & Awards
- 20251st place, HACK:XR+AI Hackathon (TUM) — “AURA”, an adaptive XR agent for communication disorders 1st / 14 teams
- 20251st place, DLAB VCP Pitch (TU Dortmund) — mixed-reality AI workflows for logistics 1st / 5 teams
- 20241st place, Opt-In Hackathon — vision-based emotion recognition for smart lighting 1st / 8 teams
- 20232nd place, Hackathon am Ring — “Vocal Eye”, real-time voice-intent recognition microservice
- 20222nd place, Image Denoising Challenge (TU Dortmund) — PDE-based restoration of brain scans 2nd / 80
- 20201st place, MBZIRC 2020 Challenge II — international robotics challenge (UAV grasping mechanism)
- 2017–18Merit Scholarship, CTU Prague — awarded to top students for academic excellence in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering
- 2015Silver Award, Duke of Edinburgh's Program — self-reliance and perseverance through sustained service, skill mastery, and wilderness expeditions
Leadership & Extracurricular
Participant — Digital Entrepreneurship Lab (2025 Cohort), Technische Universität Dortmund
Oct 2024 – Jun 2025- Selected for a competitive innovation program to co-found a logistics venture utilizing 3D perception and mixed reality.
- Winner of the final pitch competition for optimizing 1PL–3PL workflows with the "Packzilla" startup concept.
Vice President — Erasmus Student Network Dortmund
Sep 2022 – Jul 2023- Directed a team of 50+ volunteers to execute large-scale cultural events, enhancing international student integration.
- Steered board-level strategy for PR, partnerships, and recruitment; managed budget allocation for semester programs.
President — Fachschaft Automation & Robotics, Technische Universität Dortmund
Jan 2022 – Jan 2023- Elected representative for M.Sc. students, acting as the primary liaison to faculty and industry partners.
- Spearheaded onboarding for 60+ incoming students and initiated a monthly newsletter to drive community engagement.
Languages, Interests & Affiliations
Languages: English (C1), German (B1), Spanish (A2), Italian (A1). IEEE Member.
Interests: hiking, competitive poker, SCUBA diving, reading, painting.