Bio

I recently graduated with a first-class master’s degree in Engineering Science from the Technical University in Berlin, specialising in numerical methods, simulation, and control theory. I also did my bachelor’s in engineering science at the same university.

My main research interests comprise neuroengineering and cardiovascular engineering. I have worked as a student assistant at ECP (a subsidiary of Abiomed, Inc.), supporting the development of the world’s smallest heart pump, the Impella ECP. While being a student assistant at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (National Metrology Institute of the Federal Republic of Germany), I optimised numerical simulations of a carotid flow. My interest in neuroengineering started during the research for my master thesis, where for spasticity alleviating therapy purposes, an array electrode was tested on five volunteers to determine whether treating selective locations lateral to the spinal cord (SC) can activate ipsilateral spinal sensorimotor networks.

Besides being a competent engineer, I am a certified EMT (Rettungssanitäter), working full-time for ten months in Berlin between my master’s graduation and starting in Oxford at the Podium Institute. Lastly, I love sports, and boxing has been my principal sport for ten years.

Research Project

Erik’s DPhil research will test and analyse cardiac electrophysiological modelling with Physics Informed Neural Networks in youth athletes aged between 11 and 18. Erik’s work seeks to gain more insight into the spatiotemporal propagation of innervated action potentials to prevent arrhythmias, syncope, and, ultimately, sudden cardiac death.

Supervisor: Prof. Mauricio Villarroel