Alumni of the Media Computing Group

Who has been part of our team in the past? Where did they go, and what are they doing now? Check out this list, and you'll get an idea for the careers that await you after working at our chair, be it as a Bachelor's or Master's thesis student, as a student researcher (Hiwi), or as a PhD student.

Several of our students and research assistants have worked as interns or employees at Apple's development headquarters in Silicon Valley. We've collected a separate list here.

Postdoctoral Researchers

Dr. Dr. Carsten Röcker was a postdoctoral researcher at the Media Computing Group, working in the HumTec Human-Technology Interaction center, a newly established project house established as part of the DFG-funded Excellence University program of RWTH Aachen University. He joined RWTH Aachen in December 2008, and worked with an interdisciplinary team on ubiquitous computing solutions for eHealth scenarios. Since September 2014, he is a Professor at the University of Applied Sciences Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) in Lemgo.

PhD Graduates (by Year)

Tico Ballagas graduated in 2007 about interaction techniques, toolkits, and evaluation methods for ubiquitous computing. He went on to become Principal Research Scientist for User Experience at the Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, California, founded Kindoma, a startup around video-based story sharing for families, and joined HP Labs in Palo Alto as a senior researcher and manager a few years later, working on topics ranging from 3D printing to AI.

Eric Lee graduated in 2007 about software frameworks for interactive audio and video. He immediately started working at Apple in Cupertino, California, first as a software engineer and later as project manager, where he's since been working on stuff he can't really tell us about. :) See our Apple Alumni list for more.

Daniel Spelmezan graduated in 2011 about wearable computing and full-body tactile feedback systems. After working as a postdoctoral researcher in HCI and haptics with Wendy Mackay and Michel Beaudouin-Lafon at the insitu Situated Interaction Lab at INRIA in Paris, and with Sriram Subramanian at the Universities of Bristol and Sussex, he moved into industry, joining Düsseldorf-based Valtech as a consultant and software developer.

Malte Weiss graduated with distinction ("summa cum laude") in 2012 about interactive tabletops and tangible user interfaces. In February 2013, he became Senior Software Engineer at Capgemini Deutschland GmbH in Cologne/Bonn. Since 2017, he is a Professor at the Institute of Informatics at the Hochschule Ruhr-West (HRW) University of Applied Sciences.

Jonathan Diehl graduated in 2013 about multi-device interactions. In December 2013, he quickly became the head of usability at Inform GmbH in Aachen. After several years there, he briefly joined P3 Group as a consultant, before becoming the head of UX at MOQO in Aachen in 2019. He has been an organizer of the Aachen Usability Meetup for several years.

Max Möllers graduated in 2013 about capturing the expressiveness of touch on interactive surfaces. He then joined Lufthansa Consulting as an IT Consultant, worked for e-Spirit AG as a Project Manager, then in 2019 became CEO of about:content, a new technical web content consultancy startup.

Thorsten Karrer graduated with distinction ("summa cum laude") in 2013 about semantic navigation in digital media. After continuing as a postdoctoral researcher, he joined lab equipment manufacturer and Eppendorf subsidiary DASGIP GmbH in 2015, where he became the Head of UX/UI.

Leonhard Lichtschlag graduated in 2015 on zoomable user interfaces. He then worked at Inform GmbH, before joining Thorsten Karrer at DASGIP GmbH.

Jan-Peter Krämer graduated in 2016 about improving the usability of software development environments. In December 2016, he joined Inform GmbH in Aachen, Germany. In 2018, he moved to Daimler AG in Stuttgart to work on the future of the in-car user experience.

Chat Wacharamanotham graduated in 2016 about input accuracy on and above touch screens. Upon graduation, he was immediately appointed Assistant Professor in Interaction Design at the People and Computing Lab at the University of Zurich, where he focused on interactive statistical analysis.In 2022, he became Lecturer in Computer Science at Swansea University in the UK.

Moritz Wittenhagen graduated in 2016 about navigating source code versions and other time-dependent hierarchically structured media. He then joined Apple's headquarters in Cupertino as a software engineer.

Gero Herkenrath graduated in 2016 about designing location-based games. He then joined Trusted Shops in Cologne as a software developer.

Simon Voelker graduated in 2016 about interactive desk workspaces. He continued as a postdoc and deputy head of our lab, and became the head of the new study center of our Computer Science Department in 2020.

Florian Heller graduated in 2016 about physical interaction with audio. In June 2016, he joined the Expertise Center for Digital Media at the University of Hasselt in Belgium as a postdoctoral researcher.

Christian Corsten graduated in 2020 about handheld interaction techniques using force input. In October 2019, he joined IVU Traffic Technologies AG in Aachen as Senior Software Engineer in the UX Team.

Philipp Wacker graduated in 2021 about interaction techniques for mid-air pen input in Handheld Augmented Reality. He then continued as a postdoctoral researcher at our lab until the end of 2022.

Krishna Subramanian graduated in 2022 about lowering the barriers to hypothesis-driven data science. He then joined devolo AG in Aachen as a software developer, UX specialist, and data scientist.

Christian Cherek graduated in 2022 about tangibles on multitouch tabletops. He then joined lab equipment manufacturer and Eppendorf subsidiary DASGIP GmbH in Jülich.

Alumni Research Assistants

René Bohne worked in user interfaces and software tools for Personal Design and Personal Digital Fabrication, and was the first head of our Fab Lab. As of 2017, he is Startup Program Manager at Telefónica Germany in Berlin, where he is developing a consumer IoT platform called geeny. You can find him at http://www.rene-bohne.de.

Jan Thar worked in software tools for Personal Design and Personal Digital Fabrication and took over from René Bohne as our Fab Lab Master, until 2019.

Sören Schröder worked in deceptive patterns and textile interfaces. As of 2022, he is Product Owner at Ehrhardt + Partner Group in Boppard-Buchholz (near Koblenz). You can find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Ricarda Rahm worked on persuasive systems for sustainability from October 2022 until July 2023. She then joined IVU Traffic Technologies, first as a project engineer, then product manager. You can find her on LinkedIn.

Visiting Researchers

Blum, Jeffrey (PhD Student at McGill University, 2016)
Huang, Elaine M. (Visiting Researcher from Motorola Labs, 2007): now Associate Professor, University of Zurich
Nakajima, Kosuke (PhD Student)

BSc/MSc/Diploma Thesis Students and Student Assistants

Abdelhalim, Nourhan (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Alessi, Roger (UROP Student)
Al-Sulaimani,Nusaiba (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Antón Sánchez, David (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Assad, Michael (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Asselborn, David (Bachelor Thesis Student, Master Thesis Student, Student Assistant)
Atanasova, Zornitsa (Project Consultant, Office Administrator)
Atak, Deniz (Master Thesis Student)
Avellino, Ignacio (Master Thesis Student, Student Assistant)
Avci, Ceyda (Student Assistant)

Bagre, Deeksha (Master Thesis Student)
Bayer, Patrick (Master Thesis Student)
Bayer, Julia (Master Thesis Student)
Bardos, Laszlo (External Diploma Thesis Student)
Beck, Johanna (Office Assistant)
Beck, Nils (Postgraduate Research Assistant) - now software engineer, Apple, Cupertino, California
Becker, Thomas (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Beckers, Sascha (Diploma Thesis Student)
Belzmann, Ewgenij (Diploma Thesis Student)
Bemtgen, Claude (Master Thesis Student)
Bergmann, Jerome (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Bernatzki, Lukas (Student Assistant)
Bhat, Jayesh Sudhir (Student Assistant)
Bitter, Lilith (Intern)
Bocoi, Mariana (Student Assistant)
Bohnenberger, Ray (Diploma Thesis Student)
Borggrewe, Sebastian (Master Thesis Student) - now founder at CodeScouts
Braun, Lucas (Student Assistant)
Braun, Stefan (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Brauner, Philipp 'Lipflip' (Diploma Thesis Student)
Brixius, Hendrik (Student Assistant)
Brocker, Anke (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Brockly, Christian (Diploma Thesis Student)
Browaldh, Erik (Student Assistant)
Buchholz, Jan (Research Assistant, Diploma Thesis Student)
Burger, Sebastian (Diploma Thesis Student)
Busch, Florian (Student Assistant, Admin, Bachelor Thesis Student, Master Thesis Student)
Busch, Sören (Diploma Thesis Student)
Bußmann, Till (Bachelor Thesis Student)

Chang, Heng-Wei (Student Assistant)
Cheung Ruiz, Irene Meiying (Master Thesis Student)
Chilaka, Ravindra (External Diploma Thesis Student)
Chiu, Kuan-Lin (Student Assistant)
Cihan Aydinoglu (Student Assistant)

Dao, Huy (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Dählmann, Björn (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Dedenbach, Saskia (Diploma Thesis Student)
Deininghaus, Stephan (Diploma Thesis Student)
Drescher-Manaa, Laura (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Drobny, Dieter (Diploma Thesis Student, Scientific Assistant)
Dumont Norbert (Master Thesis Student)
Dymek, Andreas (Student Assistant and Bachelor Thesis Student)

Ellers, Michael (Bachelor's Thesis Student)
Engelke, Valentin (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Engelmann (Student Assistant)
Enke, Urs (Diploma Thesis Student)

Falke, Eileen(Diploma Thesis Student)
Farivar, Omid (Visiting UROP student)
Farmaki, Georgianna (Master Thesis Student)
Feyerabend, Lars (Student Assistant)
Fiedler, Kevin (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Fraikin, Mario (Diploma Thesis Student)
Frohn, Christian (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Fundalewicz, Johannes (Student Assistant)

Gass, Christian (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Gassen, Rene (Student Assistant)
George, Mark Christy (Master Thesis Student)
Gleim, Lars (Student Assistant)
Gretzki, Christopher (Diploma Thesis Student)
Greenblatt, Daniel (Visiting Researcher) - now software developer, Motorola, Chicago
Grochowski, Marco (Student Assistant)
Grüll, Ingo (External Diploma Thesis Student, Ulm)
Guggenmos, Christian (Diploma Thesis Student)
Gupta, Sumit (External Master Thesis Student)


Hadjakos, Telis (External Diploma Thesis Student)
Hafeneger, Stefan (Student Assistant, Diploma Thesis Student) - now software engineer, Apple, Cupertino, California
Hajimiri, Yeganeh (Master Thesis Student)
Halstenbach, Christoph (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Hamadache, Salsabil (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Hameed, Bilal (Masters Thesis Student)
Haslem, David (UROP Student)
Hassan, Tarek (Masters Thesis Student)
He, Zhao (Student Assistant, Master's Thesis Student)
Heidemann, Matthias (Student Assistant)
Heidrich, Felix (Diploma Thesis Student)
Heinen, Björn (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Heiniz, Paul (Student Assistant, Bachelor Thesis Student)
Hemig, Tim (Student Assistant, Diploma Thesis Student)
Hariri, Artin Daniel (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Heesemann, Jan (Student Assistant)
Hellenkamp, Jannik (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Hennings, Michael (Master Thesis Student)
Heß,Thomas (Master Thesis Student)
Hilgers, Anke (Diploma Thesis Student, Hiwi)
Hilke, Nina (Student Assistant)
Hollan, Jim (Visiting Professor from UCSD)
Holman, David (Research Assistant)
Hoffmann, Alex (Diploma Thesis Student)
Huch, Carl Friedrich (Student Assistant, Diploma Thesis Student) - now software engineer for usability at Inform GmbH in Aachen, Germany.
Huber, Nikita (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Hueber, Sebastian (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Huebner, Janosch (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Hüttig, Andreas (Student Assistant) - now Computer Scientist at Topcom, Düsseldorf
Humme, Christian (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Huppertz, Martin (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Hurtmanns, Jan (Bachelor Thesis Student)


Isbiceanu, Adrian (Master Thesis Student)
Ivanov, Stefan (Master Thesis Student)

Jacobs, Mareike (Diploma Thesis Student)
Jakubowski, Simon (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Jang, Eunae (Master Thesis Student)
Jansen, Yvonne (Diploma Thesis Student) - now PhD student with INRIA AVIZ, France
Jenabi, Mahsa (Masters Thesis Student) - since 2011: User Interface Design Specialist, SAP AG, after a PhD at research assistant, ICON Group, Fraunhofer FIT, Bonn
Jevanesan, Jayan (Bachelor, Master Thesis Student)
Jha, Ajay Kumar (Master Thesis Student)
Jodl, Max (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Jonas, Markus (Diploma Thesis Student)
Jung, Sven (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Junga, Marten (Bachelor Thesis Student)

Kakoulli, Clio (Master Thesis Student)
Kallenbach, Manuel (Diploma Thesis Student)
Kamal, Mohibullah(Student Assistant)
Kanmogne, Linda (Master's Thesis Student)
Kaßel, Jan(Bachelor Thesis Student)
Kathrein, Anne (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Kaulen, Daniel (Master Thesis Student)
Kaulitz, Niklas (Master Thesis Student)
Kempin, Dennis (Student Assistant)
Kehrig, Dennis (Diploma Thesis Student)
Kessels, Phillip (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Kiel, Henning (Student Assistant)
Kindermann, Philip (Student Assistant, Bachelor Thesis Student)
Kirchhof, Jörg Christian (Student Assistant)
Klaja, Christoph (Diploma Thesis Student)
Klein, Jonathan (Diploma Thesis Student)
Kluth, Wolfgang (Senior Bachelor Thesis Student)
Knott, Thomas (Diploma Thesis Student) - Now PhD student at Virtual Reality Group, RWTH Aachen University
Kockelmann, Lena (Student Assistant)
Köhler, Christian(Diploma Thesis Student)
Köster, Immo (External Diploma Thesis Student)
Kolvenbach, Hendrik(Student Assistant)
Koster, Anna (Diploma Thesis Student): Software developer, Gevasys Finance Software, Kohlscheid
Kostrzewa, Krzystof (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Krämer, Aaron (Student Assistant, Bachelor and Master Thesis Student) - now Software Engineer at SALT AND PEPPER software solutions
Krämer, Jan (Diploma Thesis Student)
Krämer, Jonas (Student Assistant)
Kratz, Sven (Diploma Thesis Student)
Kreutz, Kerstin (Student Assistant, Master Thesis Student)
Krings, Maren (MATSE)
Krooß, Roksaneh (Office & Event Assistant) - Now program manager at HoloBuilder in Aachen
Kryvosheya, Vyacheslav (Master Thesis Student)
Kumar, Sughosh (Master Thesis Student)
Kuntze, André (Diploma Thesis Student)
Kurtz, Christopher (Student Assistant, Diploma Thesis Student) - now software engineer for usability at at IVU Traffic Technologies
Kuhr, Verena (Student Assistant, Bachelor and Master Thesis Student) - now at BSI
Kurz, Joachim (Student Assistant, Bachelor and Master Thesis Student)
Kosuru, Ravi Kanth (Student Assistant, Master Thesis Student)


Laas, Luis (Trainee)
Langenberg, Benedikt (Master Thesis Student)
Lauten, Justus (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Lavnikevich, Ulyana (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Lazar, Amanda (UROP Student)
Liau, Mei Fang (Master Thesis Student)
Lewandowski, Dennis (Student Assistant, Master Thesis Student)
Linden, Rene (Bachelor Thesis Student, Student Assistant, Master Thesis Student) - now project lead at topsystem in Würselen
Link, Andreas (Bachelor Thesis Student, Master Thesis Student)
Liu, Can (Student Assistant, Master Thesis Student)
Löhr, Simon (Student Assistant, Bachelor Thesis Student)
Lubosch, Damian (Student Assistant, Diploma Thesis Student)
Lukarov, Vlatko (Student Assistant)

Maas, Johannes (Master Thesis Student)
Malik, Vera (Student Assistant)
Majumdar, Urmimala (Master Thesis Student)
Mattar, Christian (Diploma Thesis Student)
Mattiussi, Sam (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Matviienko, Andrii (Master Thesis Student): Now a Professor at KTH Stockholm
Memon, Faraz Ahmed (Masters Thesis Student)
Meichsner, Julian (Master Thesis Student)
Mennicken, Sarah (Research Assistant) - now PhD student at ZPAC, University of Zurich.
Mendoza, Joel (Student Assistant)
Meng, Malte (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Menke, Frederik (Student Assistent, Bachelor Thesis Student)
Mehrotra, Siddarth (Master Thesis Student)
Messerschmidt, Moritz (Student Assistant, Master Thesis Student)
Mevis, Ingrid (Intern)
Mínguez Garrigues, José (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Mohammed, Farhadiba (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Mokhtarian, Armin (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Mokwe, Linda (Master's Thesis Student)

Nedorubkova, Ekaterina (Master Thesis Student)
Neumann, Alexander (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Nett, Andreas (Student Assistant, Diploma Thesis Student)
Niewianda, Rene (Student Assistant, Bachelor Thesis Student, Master Thesis Student)
Nikookhesal, Azadeh (External Master Thesis Student)
Ning, Tongyan (Master Thesis Student)
Noack, Birgit (Student Assistant)
Novosad, Alisa (Master Thesis Student)

Olberg, Nils (Student Assistant)
Olivares, David Garcia (Master Thesis Student, Student Assistant)
Omran, Hesham (Master Thesis Student)
Oßmann, Lukas  (Master Thesis Student, Bachelor Thesis Student, Student Assistant)
Ostberg, Anna (UROP Student)
Oster, Thomas (Student Assistant, Bachelor Thesis Student)
Osthege, Michael (Student Intern)
Ortmanns, Stephan (Student Assistant)

Palm, Torsten(Diploma Thesis Student)
Paluszak, Radek (Diploma Thesis Student)
Peters, David (Student Assistant)
Pettirsch, Sebastian (Master Thesis Student)
Pöpel, Cornelius (External PhD Student)
Popa, Alexandru (Master Thesis Student)
Poppe, Dominik (Student Assistant)
Powers, Adam (Visiting Student Assistant)
Pye, Marty(Bachelor Thesis Student, Student Assistant, Master Thesis Student) - now software engineer, Apple, Cupertino, California

Rackwitz, Christoph (Student Assistant)
Ravichandran, Dhanasekar (External Master Thesis Student)
Reim, Julia (Master Thesis Student)
Reiners, René (Postgraduate Research Assistant, Diploma Thesis Student) - now PhD student, ICON Group, Fraunhofer FIT, Bonn
Reijsmeijer, Paulina (Research Assistent)
Reinhard, Jenny (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Remy, Christian (Diploma Thesis Student) - now PhD student at ZPAC, University of Zurich.
Reul, Marcus (Diploma Thesis Student)
Röhl, Georg (Bachelor Thesis Student, Master Thesis Student)
Röllinger, Hendrik (Diploma Thesis Student)
Roth, Anna (Student Assistant)

Shadan Sadeghian (Master Thesis Student)
Schablowsky, Damian (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Schade, Sascha (Mission Specialist)
Schallenberg, Christiane (Student Assistant)
Schanowski, Adalbert (Diploma Thesis Student)
Schaper, Hauke (Master Thesis Student, Student Assistant) - now (May 2013) IT-Consultant.
Scheurer, Maren (External Master Thesis Student)
Schmidt, Christain (Bachelor Thesis Student, Master Thesis Student, Student Assistant)
Schmitz, Daniel (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Schnitzler, Jan (Student Assistant)
Schoonbrood, Pierre (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Schulz, Anja (Office Assistant)
Schulz, Torben (Master Thesis Student)
Schwarz, Florian (Diploma Thesis Student)
Seidel, Ronny (Diploma Thesis Student)
Sergiyenko, Yuliya (Master's Thesis Student)
Settels, Timo (Student Assistant)
Sheikh, Ahsan Nazir (Master Thesis Student)
Simha, Vyshantha (Master Thesis Student)
Smirnova, Tatiana (Master Thesis Student)
Sokolowski, Matthias (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Sopora, Bastian (Diploma Thesis Student)
Spychalski, Lukas (Diploma Thesis Student)
Stephan, Philipp (Student Assistant)
Strauch, Alexander (Diploma Thesis Student)
Strüver, Jakob (Master Thesis Student)
Stojadinovic, Predrag "Pedja" (External PhD Student)
Suleri, Sarah (Master Thesis Student)
Shams, Abdullah (Student Assistant)

Tai, Grace (Student Assistant)
Tegethoff, Michael (Student Assistant)
Tjandra, Ardi (Master Thesis Student)
Todi, Kashyap (Student Assistant, Master Thesis Student): Since October 2013: PhD student with Kris Luyten, Expertise Centre for Digital Media, Universiteit Hasselt
Tokarev, Paul (Student Assistant)
Tsoleridis (Student Assistant)

van Engelen, Dominik (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Vobis, Christoph (Master Thesis Student)
Vogel, Jonas (Master Thesis Student)
Vontin, Noriyasu (Diploma Thesis Student)
Völkel, Sarah Theres (Bachelor and Master Thesis Student)
Velasco, Tania Garcia (Master Thesis Student)

Wadhwa, Parth (Master Thesis Student)
Wagner, Julie (Postgraduate Research Assistant): PhD student with Wendy Mackay, in situ lab, Université Paris Sud
Warrier, Siddhu (Student Assistant)
Wehnert, Felix (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Wendler, Thomas (External Diploma Thesis Student)
Wermers, Martin (Diploma Thesis Student) - now software engineer for usability at DASGIP Information and Process Technology GmbH, an Eppendorf Company
Werner, Stefan (Technician, External Diploma Thesis Student, Stuttgart)
Wernerus, Monika (Diploma Thesis Student)
Will, Christoph (Diploma Thesis Student)
Winkler, Jan (Student Assistant)
Wolf, Marius (Postgraduate Research Assistant)
Wolf, Hendrik (Bachelor Thesis Student)

Yamcharoen, Onusa (External Diploma Thesis Student)
Yazdi, Mohammad Amin (Master Thesis Student)
Ying, Xiaojun (Master Thesis Student)
Yu, Eugen (Postgraduate Research Assistant)

Zenker, Pascal (Bachelor Thesis Student)
Zhang, Ying (Master Thesis Student)
Zimmer, Patrick (Diploma Thesis Student)
Zimmermann, Jan (Student Assistant)

Interns

Eichenbaum, Julian (Student Intern 2013)
Winzen, Daniel (Student Intern 2013)