Principal Investigator @ Uni Wien
I am a Principal Investigator at the
Faculty of Mathematics, University of Vienna.
In my research, I develop theoretically grounded and
resource-efficient machine learning methods, with a particular
focus on spiking neural networks, neuromorphic computing,
quantum machine learning, and autonomous, self-organising systems for space.
I am a passionate mentor and communicator, with a lot of experience in managing research projects.
A highlight of my career is co-founding ESA's new "SPAICE: AI in and for Space" conference, which I still organise as a scientific chair. I also had the honor of writing viewpoint articles both for the American and German Physical Society!
This project develops explainable quantum machine learning algorithms for space applications. A major goal is to ensure that these methods are compatible with emerging photonic quantum chips. A particular focus lies on data reuploading models: a class of expressive models that operates with as little as a single qubit.
Project page →
As principal investigator of the MSCA fellowship project BASE, I investigated biologically inspired approaches to autonomous systems from both a theoretical and a physical perspective. One direction focused on developing new theory for spiking neural networks to understand their expressivity. The second explored self-organising and reconfigurable space infrastructure, including modular cube ensembles and Totimorphic lattices.
Project page →
I conducted independent research in ESA's Think Tank, the Advanced Concepts Team, leading work on spiking neural networks for onboard AI, material inverse design, as well as neuromorphic and memristor-based AI accelerators. In addition, I co-organised scientific competitions for the GECCO conference, and helped establish a new ESA conference on AI and space.
Team page →
What is better: having neurons spike only once, or multiple times? In our new preprint we show that both approaches are equivalent!
We released the call for papers of SPAICE 2026! This time, the conference will take place at ESTEC, the heart of space research in Europe.
I just published a new preprint introducing the concept of "causal pieces" to analyse and improve spiking neural networks.
As a german physicist, this one is a true highlight for me! My Brennpunkt article for the Physik Journal of the DPG has been published in the April edition.
I am honored to again be chair of the scientific committee of SPAICE, this time organized by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).
I had the pleasure to write a comment for a new paper on training spiking neural networks, published in the Physics Magazine (APS).
My latest publication on reprogrammable lattice structures for space applications has been featured on phys.org!
I am honored to be editor of Springer Astrodynamics' special issue on spAIce 2024: One small step for AI in and for space!
With more than 150 submitted papers and over 200 registrations, SPAICE was a huge success. Check out the proceedings published on Zenodo!
I started as a Marie Curie Research Fellow in the Machine Learning Group of Prof. Philipp Petersen at the University of Vienna!
I am very honored to have been invited to an upcoming Dagstuhl seminar on (Actual) Neurosymbolic AI: Combining Deep Learning and Knowledge Graphs!
We just launched the third edition of ESA's Space Optimization Competition! Check out the Programmable Cubes challenge that I designed :)
I was invited to give a talk about my work at the Neuromorphic technology: a giant leap for AI workshop of the AI UK Fringe events.
We opened the call for papers of the new conference SPAICE: AI in and for Space. I am super excited to be a chair of the scientific committee!
My publication Differentiable graph-structured models for inverse design of lattice materials has been published in Cell Reports Physical Science.
My proposal BASE: Biologically-inspired Autonomous Systems for Space Exploration has been funded under a Marie Curie (MSCA) Fellowship.
I had the pleasure to give an invited presentation about my scientific career and my work at the UCL AI Society in front of more than 30 students.