As Team Lead and Senior Engineer at Fraunhofer ISST, I have been combining scientific excellence with practical innovation in Digital Health for over nine years. My work focuses on developing intelligent health applications that create real value through data science, machine learning, and user-centered design. From pattern recognition in biological signals to gamified therapy approaches and smart home-based emergency systems – I drive projects that unite research and practice. With a strong understanding of requirements engineering, agile methods, and interdisciplinary collaboration, I lead teams that transform complex challenges into well-designed, scalable solutions.

Team Lead / Senior Engineer @Fraunhofer ISST

since August 2016

Leading a team of researchers and student assistants to research and develop health applications with a focus on data science and data ecosystems.

Research Associate @Fraunhofer ISST

since August 2016

Project management and requirements engineering in numerous research and industry projects including VR/AR, gamified therapy approaches, voice interaction, digital health applications and digital learning, smart laboratory, pattern recognition in biological signals, machine learning and data analytics.

Student Assistant @TU Dortmund

May–October 2015

Development of a video game using Unity, C# and Autodesk 3ds Max to illustrate market-based optimization algorithms as part of the European project DYMASOS.

Research Assistant @Fraunhofer ISST

June 2013–April 2015

Development of a portal interface using Vaadin, Java, Spring, (S)CSS, GWT for attendance tracking via RFID and rule monitoring using complex event processing around an operating room in the hospital of the future.

Working Student @Heitmann IT GmbH

May 2012–February 2013

Rollout of PC systems and management of legacy hardware.

Civilian Service @Prosper-Hospital

August 2008–April 2009

User support and system implementation across all hardware and software areas.

Doctoral Studies in Health Sciences (Dr. rer. medic.) @Witten/Herdecke University

since 2021

Conception of an automated detection, reporting and guidance system for emergency responders

Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Computer Science @TU Dortmund

2013 - 2016

Focus areas: Software Development, Database Systems, Leadership of Project Group 579: "CyberReha"

Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Computer Science @TU Dortmund

2009 - 2013

Minor in Physics

University Entrance Qualification @Max-Born-Berufskolleg, Recklinghausen

2005 - 2008

• Bisgin, P., Sondermann, M., Eggoni, H., Werger, O., Bengaluru Kumar, P., Lübbe, F., Fecke, M., Tschorn, N., Mallick, M. K., Pantförder, M., & Wöhrle, H. (2025). HEART - Hybrid ECG Analysis for Recognizing Chagas Traits. Computing in Cardiology (CinC), 2025.
• Bisgin, P., Strube, T., Tschorn, N., Pantförder, M., Fecke, M., Ljungvall, I., Häggström, J., Wess, G., Schummer, C., Meister, S., & Howar, F. M. (2025). Improving AI-Based Canine Heart Disease Diagnosis with Expert-Consensus Auscultation Labeling. 2025 47th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), Copenhagen, pp. 1-7. DOI: 10.1109/EMBC58623.2025.11254776
• Weirauch, V., Wolf, E., Rietz, A., Dzieia, C., & Pantförder, M. (2025). Participatory Design of a Smart Home Emergency System: Preliminary Study on Affinity and Acceptance Towards Smart Technologies Among Disabled People. HCI International 2025 Posters (HCII 2025), pp. 216-225. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-94156-6_23
• Strube, T., Pokotylo, M., Fecke, M., Schmidt, A., & Pantförder, M. (2025). Curriculum Sequencing as a Generalised Travelling Salesperson Problem: A Novel Perspective on Learning Path Generation. In: Sottilare, R.A., Schwarz, J. (eds) Adaptive Instructional Systems. Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-92967-0_7
• Krakowczyk, J. B., Truijens, F., Teufel, M., Lalgi, T., Heinen, J., Schug, C., Erim, Y., Pantförder, M., Graf, J., & Bäuerle, A. (2024). Evaluation of the e–Mental Health Intervention Make It Training From Patients' Perspectives: Qualitative Analysis Within the Reduct Trial. JMIR Cancer, 10:e53117. DOI: 10.2196/53117
• Heinen, J. M., Bäuerle, A., Schug, C., Krakowczyk, J. B., Strunk, S. E., Wieser, A., Beckord, J., Jansen, C., Dries, S., Pantförder, M., Erim, Y., Zipfel, S., Mehnert-Theuerkauf, A., Wiltink, J., Wünsch, A., Dinkel, A., Stengel, A., Kruse, J., Teufel, M., & Graf, J. (2022). Mindfulness and skills-based eHealth intervention to reduce distress in cancer-affected patients in the Reduct trial: Intervention protocol of the make it training optimized. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13:1037158. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1037158
• (Patent) Pantförder, M., Bisgin, P., Schummer, C., & Beardow, A. (2022). Analysis of an Acoustic Signal (WO2022023420). WIPO / PCT.
• Pantförder, M., & Hellwig, A. (2022). Designing Neurogames to Support Patients under Psychotherapy Treatment: Opportunities and Challenges of the MUSE Headband. 15th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2022) - HEALTHINF, pp. 296-305. DOI: 10.5220/0010738500003123
• Pantförder, M., & Tokple, J. (2021). Automated pain detection: Comparing the performance of multiple convolutional neural networks. 65th Annual Meeting of the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS). DOI: 10.3205/20gmds186
• Meister, S., Deiters, W., Hellwig, A., & Pantförder, M. (2018). Digital Health: How digital media are used to support our health. In: Medienproduktion.