• „Habilitation“, Business Administration (esp. Information Systems) and Statistics, January 2010
    Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany
  • PhD, July 2003
    Research focus on Statistics/Information Systems
    Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany
  • Diplom, Business Administration, May 2000
    Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany
  • MA, Economics, May 1999
    Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

  • Principal Data Scientist, October 2018 – Present
    GfK SE, Nürnberg, Germany
  • Senior Data Scientist, February 2017 – September 2018
    GfK SE, Nürnberg, Germany
  • Adjunct Professor, February 2017 – Present
    Chair of Statistics and Econometrics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany
  • Assistant Professor, July 2007 – January 2017
    Chair of Statistics and Econometrics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany
  • Researcher and Consultant, October 2007 – August 2009
    imbus AG, Möhrendorf, Germany
    Project „TestBalance“; additional partners: SAP Research, Darmstadt, T-Mobile, Münster, Fraunhofer Institut Experimentelles Software Engineering, Kaiserslautern, and Fraunhofer Institut Techno- und Wirtschaftsmathematik, Kaiserslautern
  • Researcher, July 2007 – June 2009
    Project „Classifying software faults to improve fault detection effectiveness“; partners: Jet Propulsion Laboratory/NASA, Pasadena, USA, and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
  • Assistant Research Professor, September 2006 – June 2007
    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, July 2004 – August 2006
    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
  • Researcher, Jan. 2001 – Feb. 2003
    Project PETS (Prediction of software Error rates based on Test and Software maturity results), funded by the European Union; industrial partners: imbus AG, Möhrendorf, AS Aprote, Tartu, Estonia, Procedimientos-Uno, Málaga, Spain, and Acron Communications, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Researcher and Consultant, June 2000 – December 2000
    imbus AG, Möhrendorf, Germany
    Development of approaches for predicting software failures during systematic testing
  • Researcher and Lecturer, June 2000 – June 2004
    Chair of Statistics and Econometrics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany
  • Intern, Sept. 1999 – Oct. 1999
    imbus GmbH, Möhrendorf, Germany
    Evaluation of models and tools for software reliability prediction
  • Intern, May 1999 – Aug. 1999
    Department of Information Systems, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany
    and COI GmbH, Herzogenaurach, Germany
    Design and implementation of a Java applet for modeling and simulating business processes
  • Intern, Feb 1998 – Aug. 1998
    mediaWays GmbH, Gütersloh, Germany
    Design and implementation of an online monitoring system for network traffic data

  • Test-of-Time Award, 50th IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks for the following 2010 paper: M. Grottke, A. P. Nikora, and K. S. Trivedi. An empirical investigation of fault types in space mission system software. In Proc. 40th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, pages 447-456, 2010, July 2020.
  • Fellowship awarded by the Dr. Theo und Friedl Schöller Research Center for Business and Society, Nürnberg, May 2011
  • Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) Fellow, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA, August 2006 – May 2007
  • Fellowship within the Postdoc-Program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for appointment as a Research Associate at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA, July 2004 – June 2006
  • Promotional Award for Science of the State Bank of Bavaria (Bayerische Landesbank), Munich, awarded for the dissertation, Feb. 2004
  • Ph.D. award of the Hermann Gutmann Foundation, Weißenburg, July 2003
  • Student Paper Travel Grant of the 12th International IEEE Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering, Nov. 2001
  • Award of the WiSo-Fakultätsbund Nürnberg e.V., awarded for the diploma in Business Administration, July 2000
  • Scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for graduate studies at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA, Sept. 1998 – May 1999

  • Dependability (reliability, availability, etc.) and performance of software-based systems
  • Software process maturity/capability
  • Software aging and software rejuvenation
  • Software economics
  • Innovation and corporate foresight
  • Social online networks
  • Crowdsourcing
  • Analytic customer relationship management
  • Econometric analysis
  • Multivariate statistical analysis (e.g., regression analysis, cluster analysis, LISREL)
  • Stochastic modeling (e.g., self-exciting point processes, semi-Markov processes)
  • Urn models and combinatorial problems (e.g., occupancy problems, coupon collector’s problems)
  • Online monitoring systems

  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
  • Deutsche Statistische Gesellschaft (DStatG)
  • ESOMAR