| Prof. Dr. Volker M. Koch, Switzerland |
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Biography |
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The Beginning In 1971, I was born in Paderborn, Germany. Already at age 4 I liked playing with soldering irons, burning myself at least once. Despite this painful experience, I have never lost my early passion for technology. Only a few years later, while still in primary school, I installed 220 V cables and appliances using large electric saws and drilling machines, much to the concern of my mother, who was worried I would electrocute or hurt myself. Also, taking apart old TVs and radios was both interesting and beneficial—there were resistors, capacitors, coils, loudspeakers, and other devices to be found that could easily be reused. Over time, my depot became larger than that of many professionals. Whenever I was not reading Perry Rhodan, I developed and manufactured my own (sometimes printed) circuit boards. I built alarm systems, remote controls, and RS232 interfaces to connect my Commodore 64 and those of my customers to 300 baud acoustic couplers. In those days, it was not unusual to observe the presence of a very long cable, reaching from my room on the second floor along the stairway to the telephone on the first floor. I also programmed, repaired, and damaged computers. Like Abenteuer Forschung with Joachim Bublath, the WDR-Computerclub with Wolfgang Back und Wolfgang Rudolph was a must-see event. And whenever an electrician or another craftsman showed up, I closely observed and helped (while other kids enjoyed open swimming pools)—an apprenticeship in electrical engineering was clearly a good choice.
Education After I had successfully completed such an industrial apprenticeship, high school, and mandatory national service in the technical service department of a hospital, I started my university studies in electrical engineering and information technology at the Universität Paderborn. After I had passed my intermediate examination, I became increasingly interested in biomedical engineering. But before moving to Karlsruhe to specialize in this field, I broadened his horizons by studying at the University of Waterloo in Canada for one year, where I also got in touch with EMG signal decomposition for the first time. Despite I had a great time in Ontario, I came back to Germany in 1997 to finish my studies at yet another university, the Universität Karlsruhe. In 2001 I graduated from this university with a diploma degree in electrical engineering and information technology. My area of specialization was biomedical engineering with a focus on medical imaging. From 2001 until 2006 I was a doctoral student at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, where I was also a member of the Doctoral School in Computer, Control, and Communications. In addition, from 2002 to 2004 I studied part-time for the Master of Advanced Studies ETH in Management, Technology, and Economics/BWI degree, which I obtained in the fall of 2004. From 2003 to 2010 I studied part-time for the ETH Certificate of Teaching Ability (Didaktischer Ausweis), which I obtained in 2010.
Research During my studies I worked at the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo (EMG signal decomposition with Professor Stashuk), at the Fraunhofer Institute for Information and Data Processing in Germany (automated image interpretation with Dr. Willersinn), at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in Japan (knowledge acquisition system with Dr. Tsujino), and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (face detection with Professor Poggio). I did my diploma thesis at Stanford University (medical imaging, vision, and fMRI with Professor Wandell). From 2001 to 2006 I was a research and teaching assistant at the Signal and Information Processing Laboratory of ETH Zurich in Switzerland (biomedical signal processing and algorithm development with Professor Loeliger). I earned my doctoral degree in 2007. In 2005 I was a research intern at the prestigious Brain Science Institute of RIKEN in Japan (biomedical signal processing with Professor Cichocki). Then, in 2006, I was a visiting biomedical engineer at the VA Palo Alto Rehabilitation R&D Center in California (EMG signal decomposition with Professor McGill), where I was also associated with the Department of Bioengineering of Stanford University. Since 2008 I am a full-time professor of biomedical engineering at the Bern University of Applied Sciences. My research interests are in the fields of electronic healthcare, electronic implants, and multi-sensor measurements.
Teaching Besides doing research at ETH Zurich, I also enjoyed supervising
more than 20 student projects and being a teaching assistant of 5
different courses: assembler programming of DSPs (6 semesters),
algebra, codes, and signal processing (3 semesters), stochastic
models and signal processing (1 semester), adaptive filters and
neural networks (1 semester), and signal and information processing
(1 semester). In 2005 and in 2006 Since 2008, I teach at the Bern University of Applied Sciences (analog electronics) and in the biomedical engineering master's degree program at the University of Bern (biomedical instrumentation).
Other Activities, Hobbies, and Interests From 2003 to 2007 I was chair of the IEEE Student Branch Zurich and president of an academic association at ETH Zurich. In addition, I represented the scientific staff in various committees, such as the teaching committee. In 2007 I became a board member (secretary and treasurer) of the IEEE Switzerland Section. In 2008, I founded the Swiss IEEE EMBS Chapter. Since 2009 I am the deputy program director of the Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering Program at the University of Bern. In my remaining spare time I enjoy doing sports (swimming, group fitness, running), reading good books or watching videos from MIT World, reading news about cutting edge and future technologies, being actively involved in the community, socializing, and a game of chess with a good glass of wine. I neither enjoy American series or movies dubbed into German nor discussions about operating systems.
Cities I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to live in some very beautiful places in five different countries (Germany, Switzerland, U.S.A., Canada, and Japan). Below are some impressions of cities where I have lived for at least three months.
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08/2008 |