2026
Journal
User Acceptance of Smart Home Emergency Response Systems: Mixed Methods Study
JMIR Human Factors, 13:e93003
About Me
Profile
I have worked on digital health applications at Fraunhofer ISST in Dortmund since 2016 and have headed a research group there since 2022. My work combines data science and machine learning with user-centered design to bring research results into practical use.
My research ranges from pattern recognition in biosignals and gamified therapy to smart home emergency response systems. In research and industry projects I am mainly responsible for project management and requirements engineering and coordinate interdisciplinary teams.
Focus Areas
Research & Practice
Smart Home & Emergency Care
Automated detection of emergencies at home and structured transfer of relevant data to emergency responders. The systems are designed together with people with disabilities and evaluated in user studies. The topic is also the subject of my doctoral thesis.
AI-based Biosignal Analysis
Machine learning methods for classifying ECG, auscultation and other biosignals, for example to detect cardiac disease or to recognize pain automatically.
Digital Health & eHealth
Design and evaluation of digital health interventions, such as the e‑mental health training “Make It” for reducing distress in cancer patients within the Reduct trial.
User-Centered Development & Requirements Engineering
Participatory requirements elicitation and evaluation of user acceptance, for example in mixed-methods studies. The methods follow IREB CPRE and Scrum.
Gamified Therapy (VR/AR)
Therapy and training approaches using game elements, VR, AR and neurofeedback to promote motivation and therapy adherence.
Research & Team Leadership
Leading interdisciplinary teams of up to 20 staff, with responsibility for an annual third-party funding budget of around €1.5M.
Career
Work & Education
Professional Experience
since 2022
Fraunhofer ISST
Team Lead / Senior Engineer
since January 2022
Leading a team of research associates and student assistants working on health applications, with a focus on data science and data ecosystems.
2016–2021
Fraunhofer ISST
Research Associate
August 2016 to December 2021
Project management and requirements engineering in numerous research and industry projects on topics such as VR/AR, gamified therapy, voice interaction, digital health, digital learning, smart laboratories, pattern recognition in biological signals, machine learning and data analytics.
2015
TU Dortmund
Student Assistant
May to 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.
2013–2015
Fraunhofer ISST
Research Assistant
June 2013 to April 2015
Development of a portal interface using Vaadin, Java, Spring, (S)CSS and GWT for attendance tracking via RFID and rule monitoring using complex event processing around an operating room in the hospital of the future.
2012–2013
Heitmann IT GmbH
Working Student
May 2012 to February 2013
Rollout of PC systems and management of legacy hardware.
2008–2009
Prosper-Hospital
Civilian Service
August 2008 to April 2009
User support and system implementation across all hardware and software areas.
Education
since 2021
Uni Witten/Herdecke
Doctoral Studies (Dr. rer. medic.)
Doctorate in Health Sciences, Witten/Herdecke University
Conception of an automated detection, reporting and guidance system for emergency responders.
2013–2016
TU Dortmund
Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Computer Science
TU Dortmund University
Focus areas: software development, database systems. Leadership of project group 579 “CyberReha”.
2009–2013
TU Dortmund
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Computer Science
TU Dortmund University
Minor in Physics.
2005–2008
Max-Born-Berufskolleg
University Entrance Qualification
Max-Born-Berufskolleg, Recklinghausen
Certifications
Qualifications
Certifications in requirements engineering, Scrum and agile leadership.
IREB
CPRE
Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering by the International Requirements Engineering Board
Scrum.org
Professional Scrum
Five certifications: Scrum Master, Product Owner, Agile Leadership, Evidence-Based Management and Product Discovery & Validation
Nintendo
Nintendo Switch Developer
Registered developer for the Nintendo Switch platform
Publications
Research
Articles in journals, conference proceedings and edited volumes. The full list is available on Google Scholar and ORCID.
2026
Conference
Data Integration and Sharing Architecture for Rapid Emergency Response
2026 IEEE 14th International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI), pp. 921–926
2026
Conference
Participatory Design of a Smart Home Emergency Response System: Study on Attitudes, Expectations, and Perceived Safety Among Disabled People and Caregivers
Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction (HCII 2026), LNCS, Springer, pp. 141–157
2025
Conference
HEART – Hybrid ECG Analysis for Recognizing Chagas Traits
Computing in Cardiology (CinC) 2025
2025
Conference
Improving AI-Based Canine Heart Disease Diagnosis with Expert-Consensus Auscultation Labeling
47th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), Copenhagen, pp. 1–7
2025
Conference
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
2025
Conference
Curriculum Sequencing as a Generalised Travelling Salesperson Problem: A Novel Perspective on Learning Path Generation
Adaptive Instructional Systems (HCII 2025), LNCS, Springer, pp. 96–114
2024
Journal
Evaluation of the e–Mental Health Intervention Make It Training From Patients' Perspectives: Qualitative Analysis Within the Reduct Trial
JMIR Cancer, 10:e53117
2022
Journal
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
2022
Patent
Analysis of an Acoustic Signal
WO2022023420, WIPO / PCT
2022
Conference
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
2020
Conference
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) 2020
2018
Book chapter
Digital Health: How digital media are used to support our health
In: Medienproduktion
