About us

We are proud of our diversity and interdisciplinarity.
Passionate, tolerant and courageous.

Our Team

Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Frank Thomas Piller

Institute Director

frank.piller@ifu.rwth-aachen.de

Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Kathleen Diener

Managing Director - IfU e.V.

kathleen.diener@ifu.rwth-aachen.de

Christian Gülpen

Managing Director - IfU GmbH

christian.guelpen@ifu.rwth-aachen.de

Tabea Förster

HR & Controlling

tabea.foerster@ifu.rwth-aachen.de

Christoph Henke, M.Sc.

Research Group Leader

christoph.henke@ifu.rwth-aachen.de

Christina Ionescu, M.Sc.

Research assistant

christina.ionescu@ifu.rwth-aachen.de

Alexander Redlich, M.Sc.

Research assistant

alexander.redlich@ifu.rwth-aachen.de

David Schnermann, M.Sc.

Research assistant

david.schnermann@ifu.rwth-aachen.de

Konstantin Zähl, M.Sc.

Research assistant

konstantin.zaehl@ifu.rwth-aachen.de

Pepper

Humanoid Robot

Oscar

Mobile Service Robot

TORsten

Mobile Intralogistics Robot

Members

As a registered not-for-profit association, IfU e.V. is supported by its members. Members benefit from direct access to a wide range of information on the current state of cybernetics, new methods for innovation and value co-creation, and new business models. They participate at the insights in the fields of economics and engineering gained by IfU through its wide range of applied projects.

At our annual meeting, but also in direct exchange, members gain direct access to current topics from research and industry. A profound program ensures active networking and exchange among members and further institute partners.

Above all, however, we repeatedly involve our members’ companies in our research projects (however, memnership is no nessessary conditions for participation — we are open to all interested research partners).

If you would also like to become part of the IfU network, please feel free to contact us.

We would be happy to welcome you at our next general assembly.

Annual Report 2021

Organigram

Statutes

Membership application

Executive board

The Executive Board of IfU steers the work of the Institute in close consultation with the Scientific Board of Trustees and the Management. It is responsible for the affairs of the association and is elected every three years at the general meeting.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Sabina Jeschke

Chief Executive Officer

CEO of Arctic Brains AB, Former Member of the Management Board and CTO/CDO of Deutsche Bahn

Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Frank Piller

Scientific director and Vice Chief Executive Officer

Lehrstuhlinhaber Institut für Technologie- und Innovationsmanagement an der RWTH Aachen University

Prof. Dr.-Ing. em. Klaus Henning

Board member

Senior Partner of the umlaut transformation GmbH

Dr.-Ing. Christian Jacobi

Board member

Management of Agiplan GmbH, Mülheim an der Ruhr

Dipl.-Ing. Michael Bernas

Board member

Head of Research Production Systems, Festo AG & Co. KG, Esslingen

Scientific Board of Trustees

In addition to the board of directors and the scientific management, the scientific board of trustees – consisting of renowned representatives from research and industry – supports the institute in an advisory and pioneering capacity. The board of trustees advises, examines and accompanies our research projects and ideas, especially with regard to the scientific and economic benefit of the research results for practice. The aim is to give small and medium-sized enterprises access to the latest state of the art and thus increase their international competitiveness. The feedback of the trustees flows directly into the processing and acquisition of excellent research projects and ensures the high scientific quality standards of the institute.