Researcher, Entrepreneur, Manager, and Dance Teacher
“Tell me — and I forget. Show me — and I remember. Let me do — and I understand.”
[attributed to Confucius]
Already during my time at school, more precisely in April 1999, I launched my first large online project — “Saarparty” was one of the first events guides available online in Germany. Motivated by quick success both of this and other projects, I started my own business in the very beginning of my studies in computer science in order to test acquired academic knowledge in praxis and to gain more experience at a practical level.
Consequently, for my diploma thesis I chose a topic that conjoined latest research in software engineering and concrete needs in industry. In my doctoral studies, which followed directly, I also had been working on methods that automate finding failure causes and simultaneously make debugging more efficient.
This interlocked learning at the university and in two companies owned by myself has constantly been complemented by specific further training on topics like style of leadership, communication, business management, consulting, and project management. In this way, I have had the opportunity to acquire versatile formal knowledge, and also to gain many years of practical experience in software engineering, project management, and business management.
Postdoctoral Researcher (Postdoc) at Saarland University, Germany
I got my diploma in computer science (Dipl.-Inform.) at Saarland University in December 2005 after I had completed my thesis on the subject of “Locating Failure-Inducing Code Changes in an Industrial Environment”, a joint work with 1&1 Internet AG (formerly WEB.DE AG) where I worked as intern.
Since January 2006, I had been working as scientific assistant and PhD student in the Software Engineering Group of Prof. Dr. Andreas Zeller at the Department of Computer Science, Saarland University. Since July 2011, I have been working there as Postdoc. The focus of my research is on automated debugging — finding the cause of a failure automatically: Why does my program fail? What exactly is the root cause of the failure?
In June 2011, I successfully defended my PhD thesis and finished my work on JINSI: Taking a single failing run, JINSI records and minimizes the interaction between objects to the set of calls relevant for the failure. The result is a minimal unit test that faithfully reproduces the failure at will: “Out of these 14,628 calls, only 2 are required”. In a study of 17 real-life bugs, I reduced the search space to 0.22 % of the source code, with only 1-12 calls left to examine.
See www.st.cs.uni-saarland.de for details (in English). There you can find more information about my research, all my publications, teaching, and how to pay me a visit at Saarland University.
Co-founder and partner of the civil law partnership netbeyond
Already at the very beginning of my studies in computer science — in 2000 — I founded the company netbeyond together with Daniel Barth in the Starterzentrum (start up center) at Saarland University. The perfect opportunity to transfer academic knowledge into reality right away and to align with praxis.
We put knowledge from different disciplines, as computer science, information systems, information science, and psychology into practice. In more than ten years, we have implemented many projects for different clients, from small businessmen to medium-sized businesses to stock corporations active on a global scale. As a result, we have a strong industrial background in software engineering, usability, design, and web technologies.
Our company develops custom software, offers content management system solutions, and provides services related to web design including the design itself and consulting.
See www.netbeyond.de for details (in German). There you can find information on how to contact us and about exemplary projects realized by netbeyond.
Manager and owner of the Salsa dancing school Chili 'n' Salsa
In April 2007, I acquired a well established Salsa dancing school called Chili 'n' Salsa and became CEO (managing director) of the school. The school was located in Saarbrücken, Germany. Besides general management (human resource management, marketing, controlling, etc.), I was responsible for organizing classes with internationally renowned Salsa dancers. In September 2007, I decided to resell the school in order to concentrate on my studies.
Trained dance teacher for the Latin-American dances Salsa and Bachata
Furthermore, I have been giving dance classes myself where I taught the Latin-American dances Salsa and Bachata. Next to social dancing and taking group lessons, I still take private lessons regularly from internationally renowned dance and drum trainers (eg. from Cuba and Brazil) to continuously improve both my dancing and my teaching skills. And the best thing: it's terrific fun.
Engaging in activities like dancing, drumming, and yoga as well provides an ideal counterbalance to my academic and work schedule.