Distinguished lecturers
Brendan Halleman
Expert in the field of road safety policy
Senior Road Safety Advisor, European Investment Bank (EIB)
Brendan Halleman is a French and Irish national with a background in transportation policy evaluation, stakeholder engagement, and program management gained through work experiences with the OECD’s International Transport Forum (Paris), the International Road Federation (Washington DC), and the World Bank. Mr. Brendan is currently a Senior Road Safety Advisor at the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Assoc. prof. Marko Ševrović, Ph.D.
Expert in the field of road safety and road safety inspection
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences (Croatia)
Marko Ševrović works as an Associate Professor on the position of Head of the Department of Transport Planning at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb (Croatia), where, besides teaching in the field of traffic flow theory, public transport planning, transport infrastructure design and CAD, he continued to do research on GNSS related applications in transport. In September 2018 he became part-time employee of the European Institute of Road Assessment (EIRA) based in Slovenia, on the position of a road safety expert. In 2011 he became associate of the Royal Institute of Navigation. He is a member of Organizational committee of the Baška GNSS Conference International. From 2012 he is a member of the Croatian chamber of Engineers of Transport and Traffic Technology, Chartered engineer (Road Transport).
He is expert member of EuroRAP (European Road Assessment Programme) and Certified Road Safety Auditor. In the last fifteen years he conducted and participated in more than 120 national and international professional and scientific projects in the field of road safety (EuroRAP/iRAP projects, road safety audit), traffic planning and sustainable urban mobility planning.
Harald Mosböck
Expert in tHE FIELD OF ROAD MARKINGS
VP of the RMS department for Europe, SWARCO AG and president of the European Union Road Federation – ERF
Harald Mosböck is the VP of the RMS department for Europe, SWARCO AG and is currently president of the European Union for Roads (ERF). He holds a Master of Science degree in Traffic Telematics from Austrian Donau-Universität Krems and graduated in export trade at Vienna’s University of Economics. He has more than 25 years of experience in the road painting and marking system industry with employees in Rembrandtin, Herberts in Austria and Dupont Performance Coatings Austria. In 2000, Harald joined Manfred Swarovski‘s SWARCO Group and later became Managing Director of SWARCO road marking contracting companies in Austria and Germany. In November 2016, Harald Mosböck became SWARCO’s Head of the Road Marking Systems Division for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Asst. Prof. Dario Babić, Ph.D.
Expert in the field of traffic signalling and road safety
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences (Croatia)
Dario Babic is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb (Croatia) with extensive experience in the field of road safety, road infrastructure management as well as road markings and signs. In 2018 he obtained his Ph.D. with the thesis entitled: “Road markings service life prediction model”. Currently he is Vice Dean for Science and External Cooperation at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences. In 2019, he completed postdoctoral research at the Transportation Research Institute, Hasselt University (Belgium). He was a member of the team that won the IRF GRAA 2018 (International Road Federation) award in the category “Quality Management” for the project: “Implementation of RFID Technology in Traffic Signs Database Inventory”. He is a member of Croatian Chamber of Transport Engineers and several EU standardization working groups: Croatian Committee for Standardization – Technical Committee DZNM/TO 509: Road equipment and CEN/TC226 WG2 (Road Markings), CEN/TC226 WG3 (Traffic Signs), CEN/T226 WG12 (Road Interaction – ADAS). He is the author of several scientific and professional papers.
Prof. Darko Babić, Ph.D
Expert in the field of traffic signaling and road safety
Darko Babić is full professor at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb (Croatia) where he actively participates in the teaching process and work on scientific and professional projects. Currently he is the Head of the Laboratory of the Department for Traffic Signalling. From 2012 to 2015, he was postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pardubice (Czech Republic), where he participated in a scientific project called “Enhancement of R&D Pools of Excellence at the University of Pardubice”. As a member of the team from Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb, he won the IRF GRAA 2018 (International Road Federation) annual award in the category “Quality Management” for the project: “Implementation of RFID Technology in Traffic Signs Database Inventory”. He is the president of the Croatian Committee for Standardization – Technical Committee DZNM / TO 509: Road Equipment. Also, he is a member of several EU standardization working groups: Road equipment and CEN/TC226 WG2 (Road Markings), CEN/TC226 WG3 (Traffic Signs), CEN/T226 WG12 (Road Interaction – ADAS) and the leader of the EC Sub-Group Road Markings and Road Signs. Also, he is a member of the Croatian Chamber of Engineers of Transport and Transportation Technology and president of the Croatian Association of Engineers (Alumni) from the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb. He has worked on a number of projects related to quality control of traffic signalling, road safety. He is the author of several scientific and professional papers.
Slaviša Babić, eng.
Expert in the field of road safety
Head of Traffic Department at Croatian Roads Ltd.
Slaviša Babić graduated from the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences in Zagreb in 2004. In 2016 he graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb with the thesis entitled “Perspectives of the application of the toll collection system through vignettes in the Republic of Croatia” and acquired the professional title of Professional Applicant for Economics. From 2005 to 2012 he was an employee of company Peek Traffic, where he worked on the design, programming and implementation of ITS systems in the Republic of Croatia and Europe. He was also a “key account manager” for the cities of Zagreb and Split. From 2012 to 2016 he worked in the company Autocesta Rijeka – Zagreb d.d. where he was engaged in the maintenance of ITS systems (regular and extraordinary), preparation of traffic studies and implementation of projects co-financed through EU funds. Out of many working groups where he is a member, he is engaged the most in the one related on traffic safety. Since 2016, he has been an employee of the company Hrvatske ceste d.o.o. where he is the head of the Department of Transportation. He is a member of the Assembly of the Croatian Chamber of Transport and Transport Technology Engineers, and he has been a certified road traffic engineer
since 2011. Also, in 2017, he successfully completed the training for a road infrastructure auditor and passed the exam for a certified auditor. He is the author of several professional papers and studies and has participated in numerous conferences, expert meetings, and round tables on the topic of traffic safety and intelligent transport systems.
Assoc. prof. Ali Pirdavani, Ph.D
Expert in the field of road design and safety
Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Hasselt (Belgium)
Ali Pirdavani works as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Hasselt (Belgium). Ali became a Civil Engineer in 2004 and in 2007 he obtained his Master’s degree in Road & Transportation Engineering. He obtained his Ph.D. in Transportation Sciences in 2012. He became a post-doctoral fellow of the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) in 2013 and is appointed as a professor at the Faculty of Engineering Technology of Hasselt University since 2016. He managed and participated in various projects (both applied and fundamental scientific research) in the field of road safety. During his career, conducted various reviews for leading international scientific journals and conferences.
Prof. Marco Bassani, Ph.D
Expert in the field of road geometrics and road safety
Deparment of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino (Italy)
Full professor at the Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino (Italy). In 1998 he obtained his Ph.D. in Road, Railway and Airport Construction. He teaches Design of Transportation Infrastructures and Road Safety at the MS and PhD programs in Civil and Environmental Engineering programs. Since 2012, he is a member of the AKD10 Standing Committee on Performance Effects of Geometric Design. In 2013, he was visiting professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Maryland in College Park (MD, US). Currently he is the Head of the Laboratory of Road Safety and Driving Simulation. He is the author of scientific articles related to alternative and innovative road materials and operational and behavioral effects of road geometrics (Scopus H-index = 16). He is a member of the Editorial Board of Transportation Letters – The International Journal of Transportation Research since 2016, and Academic Editor of the journal PloSONE since 2018.
Prof. Tomaž Tollazzi, Ph.D
Expert in the field of road design and road safety
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture, University of Maribor, Slovenia
Tomaž Tollazzi is a Full Professor in Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture at the University of Maribor in Slovenia. He has a thorough and broad understanding of the sustainable safe road infrastructure design, through his active involvement for more than 25 years as engineer, academic and advisor in all areas of road infrastructure design, road safety and engineering at national and international level. His specialization area is sustainable safe road infrastructure design, with particular focus on intersections, interchanges, roundabouts and vulnerable road users. He has participated in more than 190 research and engineering projects and studies, published 49 scientific papers widely cited worldwide, five patents and patent applications, two scientific monograph, two professional monograph, as well as four text books. Recently, he published a book specially focused on motorcyclist safety entitled „Key Components of Motorcyclists’ Safety. Motorcycle – Rider – Environment“ and manual ”Motorcyle Safe Riding Academy”. He is also author of the Slovenian technical specification ”Guidelines for Motorcyclist Safety”.
Assoc. Prof. Luka Novačko, Ph.D
Expert in the field of road design and road safety
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb
Traffic Engineer with 15 years of experience in the field of road traffic planning and design of road traffic infrastructure. He was involved in more than 15 projects and some of them were financed by EU funds. His Ph.D. thesis was focused on the estimation of OD matrices in cities. He is the Head of the Department for Road Transport and Head of the Laboratory for planning and modeling in road and urban traffic at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia.
Assoc. prof. Željko Šarić, Ph.D
Expert in the field of road safety and accidents analysis
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences (Croatia)
Željko Šarić is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb (Croatia) at the Department of Traffic Accident Expertise where he actively participates in the teaching process and work on scientific and professional projects. He defended his doctoral dissertation on in 2014 at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, entitled: “Model of identification of dangerous places in the road traffic network”. Since 2012, he has been the Head of the Laboratory for Traffic Technical Expertise at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences. He has published several scientific and professional papers and is one of the organizers of the PC Crash workshop at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, which conducts scientific research and simulations of all types of traffic accidents (Crash tests). He is a permanent forensic expert for traffic and vehicles and an active member of the international association of forensic experts European Association for Accident Research and Analysis.
Darko Žvan
Expert in the field of intelligent sensors
MICRO-LINK ltd., Croatia
Darko Žvan graduated in 1997 from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, in the field of radiocommunications. Since February 2010, he has been working as a sales director where he is managing all company sales activities, participating in the development of the company’s strategic plan, and supervising and controlling the professional staff and complete costs of the sales sector. Some of the most prominent projects in which he participated: Hot Spot Croatia 2014, a project to implement Wi-Fi coverage of select cities in Croatia for the Ministry of Tourism, Wireless Implementation Project for Croatian Parliament, the project of building a UHF radio communication network based on digital radio modems designed to monitor NAV devices in the Pula region, Upgrade of transmission and VHF network, VHF radio planning and prediction. Currently, he is a Sales Director at MICRO-LINK Ltd., a company that designs and integrates complex ICT solutions.
Assoc. Prof. Marko Šoštarić, Ph.D
Expert in the field of road safety and road safety inspection
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Marko Šoštarić is charted road transport engineer and certified road safety auditor with PhD in traffic and transport technology and 17 years of experience in transport planning and engineering. As a transport expert or project team leader, he has participated in more than 100 traffic studies, transport plans, transport related projects, and models. During the last ten years, he was team leader of many Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans for Croatian cities, co-financed by EU funds. He also worked on cost-benefit analyses, feasibility studies, and strategic environmental assessment projects for transport system and road safety projects. He participated in the implementation of Directive 2008/96/EC and road safety audit in the transport system of the Republic of Croatia. Currently he is at the position of Dean of Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences.
Prof. Goran Zovak, Ph.D
Expert in the field of road safety and accidents analysis
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences / Head of Vehicle testing department in Center for vehicles of Croatia (Croatia)
Goran Zovak is a Full professor at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb (Croatia) in the position of Head of the Department of Traffic Accident Expertise. He is also the Head of the Vehicle testing department in the Center for vehicles of Croatia. He obtained his Ph. D. in Transport Sciences in the scientific field of Traffic and Transportation technology in 2007. He participated in different projects in the field of road safety and conducted various reviews for international scientific journals and conferences. He is a member of the European Association for Accident Research and Analysis; President of EVU Croatia; permanent Court expert of Mechanical Engineering, Transportation and vehicles, Zagreb Country Court; member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Scientific Council for Traffic.
Mario Fiolić, Ph.D.
Expert in the field of traffic signaling and road safety
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences (Croatia)
Mario Fiolić is Assistant at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb (Croatia) and the Department for Traffic Signalling. He is expert in the quality control of road markings and signs, road asset management and overall road safety. He actively participates in the teaching process and work on scientific and professional projects with emphasis on road safety, road markings and signs, driving simulator research, eye tracking, etc. He defended his doctoral thesis in 2021 titled: “Determining the correlation between the driver’s psychophysical load and the quality of the traffic signalling during night-time conditions”. He was the member of the team that won the IRF GRAA 2018 (International Road Federation) award in the category “Quality Management” for the project: “Implementation of RFID Technology in Traffic Signs Database Inventory”. His research interests include influence of road markings and signs on driver’s behavior, driving simulator research, eye tracking, road safety etc. Also, he is the author of several scientific and professional papers as well as member of Croatian Chamber of Transport Engineers.
Tomislav Kučinić, MSc traff. eng
Expert in the field of road safety and accidents analysis
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences (Croatia)
Tomislav Kučinić is an Assistant at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb (Croatia) and the Department of Traffic Accident Expertise where he is in the preparation and performance of laboratory exercises in the Laboratory for Traffic Accidents Expertise and the preparation of traffic expertise. He has participated in several projects relative to road safety and he is one of the PC Crash workshops at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, which conducts scientific research and simulations of all types of traffic accidents (Crash tests). He is a permanent forensic expert for traffic and vehicles and an active member of the international association of forensic experts European Association for Accident Research and Analysis.
Antonio Avenoso
EXPERT IN THE FIELD OF ROAD SAEFTY POLICY
European Transport Safety Council,
Executive Director
Antonio Avenoso has more than two decades of experience in the field of road safety policy, with 16 years as Executive Director of the European Transport Safety Council. He represents ETSC on high-level groups and is a regular keynote speaker at road safety conferences in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Mr Avenoso has extensive professional experience of working groups involving large numbers of stakeholders including the ETSC Main Council, which encompasses members of some 60 organisations. He has also worked in the “Railway and Interoperability Unity” of the Directorate General for Energy and Transport of the European Commission. He holds an academic degree cum laude in Political Science from the University of Pavia and an M.Phil. in European Studies from the University of Cambridge.
Asst. Prof. Marijan Jakovljević, Ph.D
Expert in the field of road safety and road safety inspection
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences (Croatia)
Marijan Jakovljević was born in 1988 in Požega. He graduated from Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences of University of Zagreb in 2013 where he also successfully defended his doctoral thesis in 2020. From 2014 to 2015, he worked as a researcher on project on Faculty and was engaged in scientific research and expert work in the field of transport planning and design and road safety. Since 2015, he works as an assistant at Department of Transport Planning of Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences where he is involved in undergraduate and graduate programmes. Results of his scientific and research work were published in 16 scientific and professional papers and he participated in numerous national and international conferences. As a team leader, researcher, author or associate, he partook in over 120 scientific, development and expert projects.
Andrew P. Tarko, Ph.D.
EXPERT IN THE FIELD OF TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEMS
Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of Center for Road Safety (CRS)
Andrew P. Tarko is professor of Civil Engineering and serves as the Director of the Center for Road Safety (CRS) at the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, Purdue University. Prof. Tarko holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, earned in 1994, and another Ph.D. from Cracow University of Technology, completed in 1993. He also obtained his M.S.C.E. from Cracow University of Technology in 1981. His primary research interests revolve around road safety measurement, modeling, and management, with a focus on surrogate measures of safety, highway design and evaluation, and traffic operations. Prof. Tarko is actively engaged in teaching several key courses including Highway Operation Characteristics, Geometric Design of Highways, and Highway Traffic and Safety Analyses.
Carmelo D’Agostino, Ph.D.
EXPERT IN THE FIELD OF ROAD SAFETY, GEOMETRIC DESIGN OF ROADS AND HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
Associate professor at Lund University (Sweden)
Carmelo D’Agostino is an Associate professor at Lund University Faculty of Engineering, specializing in the Department of Transport and Roads. Since 2018, has been actively involved in the Traffic Safety and Behaviour unit at Lund University. Prior to his position at Lund University, Carmelo D’Agostino served as a Research Associate at the University of Catania in Sicily, Italy, from 2014 to 2018. During this time, he was affiliated with the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture (DICAR). It was at this institution that Carmelo completed his Ph.D. studies, spanning from 2011 to 2014. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of transportation research, Carmelo D’Agostino was honored with the TRB (Transportation Research Board) Best Paper Award in 2016.
Andrija Novaković Msc
EXPERT IN THE FIELD OF TRAFFIC SIGNING AND PAVEMENT MARKING
Specialist Application Engineer, 3M
For more than 20 years Andrija Novakovic is working in 3M company, world leader in manufacturing of retroreflective materials. He is expert in application of these materials in traffic signing and pavement marking, currently covering region of South East Europe. He obtained his Msc degree in Traffic and Transportation Engineering in 1995 at Belgrade University. In his long career he was working on different positions in 3M Traffic Safety Division in more than 30 countries in Europe and Asia. In addition to application of retroreflective materials he is actively involved in regulatory upgrade of national regulations and putting them in line with EU documents in domain of traffic safety in the countries of his responsibilities. He is also 3M traffic signs quality inspector and manufacturing sites auditor.
Prof. dr Kris Brijs
Transportation research institue (imob) – hasselt university (belgium)
Certified intervention mapping trainer
Kris is Professor affiliated to the Transportation Research Institute (IMOB) at Hasselt University. He holds a PhD in Management Sciences from Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands) and has been head of the Traffic Psychology & Behavior Unit within IMOB for more than 10 years. His main area of expertise is the development, implementation and evaluation of behavioral interventions aimed at the promotion of road safety. He is a certified Intervention Mapping trainer and works on a variety of road safety-related topics, e.g. ergonomic road design, gamified driver telematics, persuasive communication, human factor aspects of ADAS. He publishes regularly in international scientific journals. Moreover, Kris was involved in several national and international research projects in the field of road safety, such as the Horizon 2020 projects CAST, INDEV and iDREAMS.
Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios Ph.D.
EXPERT IN THE FIELD OF HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING
Faculty of Technology, Policy, and Management (The Netherlands)
Dr. Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios, an Assistant Professor at the Delft University of Technology, is a recognized specialist in Responsible Risk Management & Human Factors Engineering. He has built an extensive body of research work that encompasses key areas such as human factors, misuse of technology, sustainable development, and transport safety and security. One of his notable areas of research is distracted driving, with a focus that extends to issues such as mobile phone use while driving, roadside advertising, smartwatch usage, sexual activities, chronic pain, and the impact of infotainment systems. His studies on risk compensation and behavioral adaptation in mobile phone use while driving have facilitated changes in policy globally, solidifying his international reputation in this crucial domain. As a skilled mixed-methods researcher, Dr. Oviedo-Trespalacios leverages both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to delve into these critical areas. His work has earned him the Australasian College of Road Safety’s Inaugural Young Leaders Oration Award and his research findings have been widely reported in major media outlets
Frank Mütze
EUROPEAN TRANSPORT SAFETY COUNCIL
Road safety education as well as automated driving and vehicle safety
Frank Mütze is a policy and project manager at the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), responsible for the LEARN! (Leveraging Education to Advance Road safety Now!) project on improving the quality and provision of traffic safety and mobility education to children across Europe. The LEARN! project provides guidance, recommendations, resources and inspiration to road safety (education) professionals, authorities, schools and teachers on ensuring that all children across Europe receive high quality educational material that is tested and evaluated. He is also works on policy related to assisted
and automated driving as well as vehicle safety technologies, and in this context represents ETSC in the various working groups at EU and UNECE WP.29 levels. He is an honours student that obtained his master’s degree in European Studies from Maastricht University, specialising in the EU’s public policy and administration, and was awarded the student prize for best bachelor’s thesis. Prior to ETSC, he worked as a policy analyst for the field of transport at an EU regulatory monitoring firm.
Prof. Danijela Barić, Ph. D. – University of Zagreb
EXPERT IN THE FIELD OF MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING AND ACCIDENT PREVENTION AT LEVEL CROSSINGS
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences (Croatia)
Dr. Barić is a full professor and scientific advisor at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences. Her educational background is in transport engineering, and her primary research focuses on multi-criteria decision-making in transport with a particular interest in safety and accident prevention at level crossings (LCs), education, and safety promotion. She established an LC research group at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences and has designed and implemented numerous safety measures for accident prevention at level crossings. She actively participates in several scientific and professional associations and organizations dedicated to traffic safety and sustainable mobility. Dr. Barić is a member of two expert working groups in the International Union of Railways (UIC): GLCN (Global Level Crossing Network) and the TreSP-Network (Trespass & Suicide Prevention Network). She represents the Republic of Croatia in the European Union Agency for Railways and is a member and representative of Croatia at the World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS). In addition to her organizational roles, Dr. Barić has organized and moderated numerous domestic and international conferences, workshops and round tables. She is the author of over 100 publications, including book chapters, and scientific and professional papers and has participated in more than 100 scientific and professional projects. Her contributions have been recognized with prestigious awards and acknowledgements in the field.
Vidas Žuraulis
EXPERT IN THE FIELD OF ROAD VEHICLE DYNAMICS AND SAFETY
Ph.D. – Faculty of
Transport Engineering (Lithuania)
Vidas Žuraulis is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Transport Engineering, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH) (Lithuania) with extensive experience in the field of road vehicle dynamics and safety as well as vehicle testing and road users behaviour. In 2015 he obtained his Ph.D. with the thesis entitled: “Research of the dynamical parameters of vehicle moving in turning trajectory by slip mode”. Currently he is Professor of the Department of Automobile Engineering and Chief Researcher at Transport and Logistics Competence Centre participating in national and international projects on vehicle dynamics and safety. He is a member of Lithuanian Automobile Engineering Association (belongs to FISITA) and Associate editor for vehicle and traffic safety in peer-reviewed journal “Transport”. He is also a representative from VILNIUS TECH in the activities of the technical committee “Safety of non-rail surface vehicles” of the Lithuanian Standardization Department. He is the author of more than twenty highly rated scientific papers.
Zoltan Ferenc Magosi
Expert in automotive perception sensor technologies and on-road
measurements with ground-truth referencing.
M.Sc. – Institute of Automotive
Engineering, Graz University of Technology (Austria)
Zoltan-Ferenc Magosi holds the position of postdoctoral research assistant at the Institute of Automotive Engineering, Graz University of Technology (Austria). He has gained considerable experience in the field of sensor technologies for vehicle surrounding perception in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving systems (ADS). From 2010 to 2013, he had the opportunity to work at MAGNA STEYR Fahrzeugtechnik AG & Co KG, where he began his tenure as a development engineer in the E/E advanced development department. He subsequently assumed the role of project manager within the same department, with responsibility for the integration of new E/E components, with a particular focus on automotive environmental perception sensors. Since 2013, he has enjoyed the opportunity to serve as a laboratory engineer, project researcher and Ph.D. student at the Institute of Automotive Engineering at Graz University of Technology. His research activities include the development and validation of automotive radar sensor
models, the integration of perception sensors into the vehicle network, the definition and implementation of vehicle measurement setups, and the performance of on-road measurements. Since 2022, he has held the position of Head of Laboratory at the Institute of Automotive Engineering at TU Graz.
Tomislav Mihalj
Expert in the verification and validation of automated vehicles
Ph.D. – Institute of Automotive Engineering, Graz University of Technology
Tomislav Mihalj is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Automotive Engineering, Graz University of Technology, with a decade of extensive experience in research and development within the automotive and rail industries, specializing in simulation and modelling. In 2024, he earned his Ph.D. with distinction for his thesis titled “Sequential Sampling in Scenario-Based Simulation: A Framework for the Verification of Automated Driving.” Currently, he leads the Verification and Validation Research Group at the Institute of Automotive Engineering, focusing on Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS). In 2023, he co-founded DFT-Dynamics GmbH, a company offering services in functional safety and safety of intended functionality according to ISO 26262, IEC 61508, and ISO/PAS 21448 (SOTIF) standards. He is a certified Functional Safety Manager who has authored several scientific and professional papers.
