CV

Experience

  • Since 2025: AI Expert / Software Developer, IMES Solutions GmbH (Germany)
    • Research and development of AI for industrial automation
    • Advising large chemical companies on data science and AI topics
    • Developing proof of concepts for data driven and AI powered features
    • Establishing AI guidelines and standards (IP, data protection in AI/software development) and AI roadmaps with stakeholders
  • 2023 to 2025: Head of Data Science, Fronyx GmbH (Germany)
    • AI service development for electromobility applications
    • EV charging recommendation system based on availability predictions
    • Conversational AI interface (ChargeGPT, a multiagent LLM system) for natural user interaction
    • Scalable service configuration and team leadership
  • 2022 to 2023: Postdoctoral Researcher, Social Cognitive Systems Group, Bielefeld University
    • Computational modeling of goal-directed behavior in social contexts
    • Principles of “social enactivism”: social closure located in interaction
  • 2015 to 2021: Research Assistant (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter), Social Cognitive Systems Group, Bielefeld University
    • Project COMPAS: computational cognitive modeling of the active self
    • Research on sense of agency during control tasks
    • PhD research on “Social Motorics: a predictive processing model for efficient embodied communication”
  • 2014: Research Assistant, Excellence Cluster Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), Sociable Agents Group, Bielefeld University
  • 2013 to 2015: Research Assistant, Collaborative Research Center 673, Project B1 “Speech-gesture Alignment”, Bielefeld University
    • Computational cognitive modeling of social virtual agents
    • Communication via speech and gesture with humans

Education

  • 2015 to 2020: PhD (Dr.-Ing.), Bielefeld University
  • 2010 to 2013: Master of Science in Intelligent Systems at Bielefeld University
    • Thesis: “Detecting semantic incongruity in human machine interaction using low cost EEG” (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Kopp)
  • 2009: Internship at the Human Media Interaction group, University of Twente (Netherlands)
  • 2006 to 2010: Bachelor of Science in Cognitive Science at University of Osnabrück
    • Thesis: “Multimodal Scene Generation” (Prof. Dr. Peter König)
  • 2005 to 2006: Civilian Service
  • 2002 to 2005: University Qualification

Selected Publications

  • Kahl S, Kopp S (2023). “Interlinking the Social and the Cognitive Loops: Socially Enactive Cognition for Human Compatible Intelligent Systems”. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0474
  • Kahl S, Wiese S, Russwinkel N, Kopp S (2022). “Towards Autonomous Artificial Agents with an Active Self: Modeling Sense of Control in Situated Action”. Cognitive Systems Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsys.2021.11.005
  • Poppe I, Kahl S, Kopp S (2021). “Resonating Minds: Emergent Collaboration Through Hierarchical Active Inference”. Cognitive Computation. DOI: 10.1007/s12559-021-09960-4
  • Kahl S (2020). “Social Motorics: A Predictive Processing Model for Efficient Embodied Communication”. Dissertation, Bielefeld University. DOI: 10.4119/unibi/2945718
  • Kahl S, Kopp S (2018). “A Predictive Processing Model of Perception and Action for Self vs. Other Distinction”. Frontiers in Psychology 9: 2421. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02421
  • Kahl S, Kopp S (2015). “Towards a Model of the Interplay of Mentalizing and Mirroring in Embodied Communication”. Proceedings of the EuroAsianPacific Joint Conference on Cognitive Science 2015.

Full lists of talks, conference contributions, and teaching are on the publications page.

Memberships

Awards

  • Best Paper Award, 2nd Place, KogWis 2014: How is information distributed across speech and gesture? A cognitive modeling approach. Bergmann K, Kahl S, Kopp S (2014)
  • Best Paper Award, IVA 2013: Modeling the semantic coordination of speech and gesture under cognitive and linguistic constraints. Bergmann K, Kahl S, Kopp S (2013)