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Education (earned degrees)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Munich (Germany)
Sept. 2006 Graduation in Computer Science; grade 1.2
(on a scale from 1.0 to 5.0, where 1.0 is best—please see also my Diplom (german), Prüfungszeugnis (german), Diploma (english), Examination Certificate (english) or the Diploma Supplement (english))
May 2003 – Sept. 2006 Hauptstudium (MSc. level), Computer Science
Main focus on robotics and theoretical computer science with minor subject “Logic and Theory of Science”
Oct. 2001 – April 2003 Grundstudium (BSc. level), Computer Science
Completed with intermediate exam, grade 1.6
Academic Experience
Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Lisbon (Portugal)
Instituto de Sistemas e Robótica (ISR)
Dynamical Systems and Ocean Robotics Lab (DSOR)
Aug. 2010 – present Ph.D. Student
Task: Multiple Marine Vehicle Path and Mission Planning
Supervisors: Prof. António Pascoal, PhD, Prof. John Hauser, PhD, and Prof. Pedro Aguiar, PhD
Aug. 2007 – July 2010 Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher
Task: Cooperative Marine Vehicle Naviagation within the FreeSUBNet-Project of the European Communitiy
Supervisor: Prof. António Pascoal, PhD
University of Colorado at Boulder (CU Boulder), Boulder (Colorado)
Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering (ECEE)
Jan. 2012 - May 2012 Visiting Scholar
Task: Development of a new model of the MEDUSA vessel, thrusters and motors and implementation of that model within the PRONTO (projection operator based Newton trajectory optimization) toolkit
Supervisor: Prof. John Hauser, PhD
Technische Universität München (TUM), Garching (Germany)
Cognitive Robotics Group (CogBotLab)
Feb. 2007 – Aug. 2007 Research Assistant
Task: General work in the fields of Reinforcement Learning, Neural Nets and Artificial Evolution
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schmidhuber
Technische Universität München (TUM), Garching (Germany)
Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group (IAS)
Sept. 2006 – Jan. 2007 Research Internship
Task: Learning the Physical Dynamics for a 6 DOF Robot Arm
Supervisors: Prof. Michael Beetz, PhD; Alexis Maldonado, Dipl. Eng.
Feb. 2006 – May 2006 Student Assistant
Task: Providing assistance in the development of a software for automatic player tracking in soccer videos
Supervisor: Prof. Michael Beetz, PhD
Aug. 2005 – Jan. 2006 Diploma Thesis
Title: Designing Libriaries of Transparent, General and Restartable Plans for a Simulated Autonomous Service Robot
Supervisors: Prof. Michael Beetz, PhD; Armin Müller, Dipl. Inf.
Content: The research covered the design of plan libraries for a simulated robot acting in a kitchen environment. A great emphasis had been put on generality and restartability as well as robustness of the activity plans.
The thesis has been graded with 1.0.
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Munich (Germany)
Chair for Programming and Modelling Languages (PMS)
Sept. 2006 – Jan. 2007 Research Internship
Task: Schema-Based Rewriting of XML Queries
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. François Bry; Sacha Berger, Dipl. Inf.; Tim Furche, Dipl. Inf.
March 2003 – July 2003 Student Assistant
Task: Supporting exercise groups of students and grading their homeworks and exams within the scope of a lecture about formal languages, automata theory, theory of computing and complexity theory
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. François Bry; Dr. Norbert Eisinger
Professional Experience
msg systems ag, Ismaning (Germany)
(The msg systems ag is a 2.000 person company specialized in the development of standard software for insurance companies.)
July 2002 – Feb. 2005 Student Trainee
Tasks: General assistance in programming and software analysis; within this scope four projects on own responsibility:
April 2004 – Sept. 2004 Building of a Datatype Mismatch Tool for DB2
Oct. 2003 – April 2004 Developing a central project documentation and a simple documentation language for integration in C and PL/1 files
April 2003 – Oct. 2003 Implementation of an automated reporting tool for the project monitoring and management team
Feb. 2003 – April 2003 Building a tool for copying and saving of table entries of a DB2 database system
Project Memberships
April 2012 – present MORPH
(European project of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), especially targeted at formation control of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs))
Task: Development of a trajectory generation and optimization framework for multiple AUVs, involving a multitude of different constraints, and development of a vehicle model that provides sufficient means and understanding of prospective energy usage during a mission
April 2011 – present CONAV
(Projekt financed by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnología (FCT))
Task: Development of a mission planning tool for a new type of AUV
Feb. 2009 – April 2012 Co3-AUVs
(European project of the FP7, targeted at human-robot interaction under water)
Task: Extensively test recent results in multiple AUV path planning, taking into account various mission-relevant constraints.
Aug. 2007 – July 2010 FREEsubNET
(European project of the FP6, targeted at the development of intervention AUVs)
Task: Addressing the topic of multiple AUV path and mission planning; furthemore task leader role for Task 3.4, “Algorithms and sensor integration for vehicle and target positioning”.
April 2008 – Nov. 2009 GREX
(European project of the FP6, targeted towards multiple AUV missions in heterogeneous vessel networks)
Task: Responsible for some of the software modules for hardware-in-loop simulation during sea trials.
Sept 2006 – Jan. 2007 CoTeSys
(Cluster of Excellence at the Technical University of Munich)
Task: Implementing the inverse kinematics for a robot arm with six degrees of freedom.
Sept 2006 – Jan. 2007 REWERSE
(European project of the FP6, targeted towards semantic web query languages)
Task: Schema-based rewriting of XML queries in the scope of schema-based knowledge systems.
Awarded Scholarships
June 2011 Travel and lodging scholarship of the German Scholars Organization (GSO) for participation at the 2011 “Building Bridges” conference.
April 2011 – present Bolseiro da Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnología (FCT)
(The FCT is a nation-wide Portuguese science foundation that, among other tasks, provides scholarships for PhD students and finances scientific projects in all areas.)
Aug. 2007 – July 2010 Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher
within the Marie Curie Research Training Network (MC-RTN) FREEsubNET of the European Union under the 6th Framework Programme (FP6).
Special Abilities
Certifications
Sun certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform 1.4
ODAV Certification “Networks for end users and system administrators”
Languages
German (native speaker)
English (fluent)
Portuguese (working knowledge)
Hawaiian (absolute beginner)
Memberships
Jan. 2003 – present American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), student member
Sept. 2006 – present Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), student member
Extracurricular
Sept. 1987 – present Music lessons (trumpet, later also trombone); member of various musical groups, among others the “Tölzer Stadtkapelle” (marching band of the city of Bad Tölz) under the direction of Josef Kronwitter and the Symphonic Orchestra of the Munich University of Applied Sciences (FHM) under the direction of Prof. Dr. Theodor Schmitt.
In the scope of these activities gained cultural experience through foreign visits in Japan (2001, 2004), USA (2002), Italy (2003) and Poland (2004).
Dec. 2006 Bronze and silver certifications of the Musical Federation of Upper and Lower Bavaria (MON) on the trumpet, both with grade 1.0
Feb. 2010 – present Accountant for the board of elders of the German Lutheran church in Lisbon (DEKL).
Mai 2009 – present Founding member of the church brass band of the DEKL.
Hobbies and other Activities
Playing the trumpet and trombone
Reading, writing poems and short stories
Natural bodybuilding and sport cycling
Playing board games
Travelling around Portugal