Dutch researcher in AI & optimization with international experience in research, teaching, and research management. The full academic CV is available as a PDF download above; this page summarizes education, experience, skills, grants, supervision, service, and languages. It complements the research, projects, teaching, and talks pages.
PhD (Promotion), LIACS, Leiden University
Leiden, Netherlands · Defense: December 7, 2021
Discovering the Preference Hypervolume: an interactive model for co-creative computation. Interactive human-AI model built on Quality-Diversity optimization, Gaussian process models, and generative Variational Autoencoders to explore extremely large solution spaces and open up the hypervolume of user-preferred solutions.
Gaussian Process Summer School
University of Sheffield, UK
M.Sc. Autonomous Systems
Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (H-BRS), Sankt Augustin, Germany
Focus on practical methods for autonomous systems, robot perception, and mobile robotics. Active member of the b-it-bots RoboCup@Home team (ROS, C++, Python); independent R&D project on transparent-object recognition with an RGB-D camera; Master's thesis on hierarchical ML methods for dimensionality reduction.
Summer School on Computer Vision
Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (MOOC)
Stanford University, California, USA
Taught by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig. Of 104,000 registered students, 13,000 successfully completed the course.
B.Sc. Computer Science
Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (H-BRS), Sankt Augustin, Germany
Specialization: embedded systems, computer vision, and robotics. Bachelor's project and thesis at Fraunhofer IAIS in autonomous mobile robotics.
Vocational Training — IT Specialist for System Integration
City of Troisdorf, Troisdorf, Germany
Project Leader (Principal Investigator), OpenSKIZZE-Praxis (DBU)
H-BRS (TREE), Sankt Augustin
Follow-up to OpenSKIZZE that operationalizes the AI assistant within formal municipal Bauleitplanung (land-use planning) processes. Develops a standardized "climate-resilience building block" — an adapted OpenSKIZZE tool plus action guides and text modules — piloted and validated with the City of Bonn, and published as open-source modules for established GIS (GRASS GIS, QGIS) in cooperation with the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). Partners: Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), City of Bonn. Case study
Co-Lead / Deputy Head, Digital Twin 4 Multiphysics Laboratory (A²S)
H-BRS, Sankt Augustin
Interdepartmental research and teaching cooperation between Prof. Dr. Sebastian Houben (Dept. 02) and Prof. Dr. Dirk Reith (Dept. 03) for the collaborative study of multiphysical digital twins at the interface of simulation and physical robotic systems. Case study
Research Associate, CytoTransport Project (DFG)
H-BRS, Sankt Augustin
Interdisciplinary DFG research cluster across Departments 02, 03, and 05 and the IFGA and TREE institutes (with Dr. Karl N. Kirschner). Focus on Human-AI Interaction for molecular conformation prediction, force-field parameter optimization, and predicting the impact of protein mutations. Case study
Project Leader (Principal Investigator), OpenSKIZZE (DBU)
H-BRS, Sankt Augustin
Interactive, applied AI and co-creative decision support for climate-adapted urban planning at neighborhood level. Responsible for interactive surrogate-assisted multi-solution optimization, integration of the DWD cold-air outflow model KLAM_21, supervision of three students, and an interactive prototype application with workflow and visualization. Partners: Montag Stiftung Urbane Räume gAg, Neue Stadtgärtnerei e.V. Case study
Research Associate, UMMBAS Project
H-BRS, Sankt Augustin
Interdisciplinary work across Departments 02, 03, and 05 and the IFGA and TREE institutes (with Prof. Dr. Dirk Reith). Human-AI Interaction in scientific applications and collaborative data analysis in a shared immersive VR environment. Co-supervised Lennard-Jones force-field parameterization and generative graph neural networks for molecular conformation generation; developed the virtual screening framework MolFuSE. Case study
Project Leader (Principal Investigator), FullDA-FM
H-BRS, Sankt Augustin · Funded by the VP2 start-up grant
Simulation- and optimization-assisted decision support in urban planning: built an early prototype including all core machine learning and optimization algorithms and secured follow-up funding. Partners: Montag Stiftung Urbane Räume gAg, Neue Stadtgärtnerei e.V.
Research Associate, KISs-BiS Project
H-BRS (Dept. 02), Sankt Augustin
With Prof. Dr. Alexander Asteroth. Authored a systematic review of AI/ML in sport and developed proposals to bridge gaps in resource access, expert availability, and method/data handling. Partners: Technical University of Munich, University of Mainz. Case study
Research Associate, AErOmAt Project (BMBF)
H-BRS (Dept. 02), Sankt Augustin
With Prof. Dr. Dirk Reith and Prof. Dr. Alexander Asteroth. Developed methods for computational creativity, efficient optimization, and problem decomposition to reduce aerodynamic simulations, applied to airfoils, recumbent bicycles, a Formula Student racing car, cabin airflow, and passenger car side mirrors. Partners: DLR, Fraunhofer SCAI, University of Siegen, SIDACT GmbH, Beyss Leichtfahrzeuge (Go-One). Case study
Research Associate, E-LaBoR Project
H-BRS (Dept. 02), Sankt Augustin
With Prof. Dr. Stefanie Meilinger, Prof. Dr. Alexander Asteroth, and IZNE. Developed a phased rollout strategy for charging infrastructure in Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg district, plus a planning guide for detailed siting. Partners: City of Bonn, Rhein-Sieg District, SWB Energie und Wasser, rhenag, Stadtwerke Troisdorf, RheinEnergie, RWE. Case study
Student Assistant, Fraunhofer IAIS
Sankt Augustin · NIFTi Project
EU search-and-rescue robotics and human-robot interaction. NIFTi researched cooperative teamwork between humans and robots in urban search-and-rescue scenarios to reduce operator cognitive load and optimize joint team workflow. Partners: DFKI Language Technology Lab, TNO, Fraunhofer IAIS, Bluebotics, ETH Zurich, Czech Technical University in Prague, Sapienza University of Rome, Dortmund Fire Department, Corpo Nazionale Vigili del Fuoco.
Vocational Training, City of Troisdorf
Troisdorf, Germany · IT Specialist for System Integration
Freelancer (Freiberufler)
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Graphic design, web design, and web development.
Principal Investigator capability
As project manager of third-party-funded projects — OpenSKIZZE and FullDA-FM — I have held budget responsibility, coordinated consortium partners, and supervised scientific student assistants. I actively contribute to drafting research proposals for external funding and support administrative and collaborative tasks for faculty.
OpenSKIZZE (PI) · UMMBAS · DT4MP co-lead · supervision record
Successful primary, secondary, or tertiary supervision of over 40 student theses and projects at H-BRS, frequently in cooperation with industry partners.
See the Teaching page for a curated selection of supervised works.
Selected collaborations arising from supervised theses, research projects, and transfer activities:
Research partners have also included Montag Stiftung Urbane Räume gAg, Neue Stadtgärtnerei e.V., the German Weather Service (DWD), TUM, University of Mainz, DFKI, TNO, Bluebotics, ETH Zurich, CTU Prague, and Sapienza University of Rome.
Rhama Dwiputra, Matthias Füller, Frederik Hegger, Sven Schneider, Nico Hochgeschwender, Iman Awaad, Jos{\'e} Loza, Alexey Ozhigov, Saugata Biswas, Niranjan Deshpande, "The b-it-bots Robo-Cup at Home 2014 Team Description Paper." Joao Pessoa, Brazil, 2014.
Alexander Asteroth, Alexander Hagg, "How to successfully apply genetic algorithms in practice: Representation and parametrization." In the proceedings of 2015 International Symposium on Innovations in Intelligent SysTems and Applications (INISTA), 2015.
Helge Spieker, Alexander Hagg, Alexander Asteroth, Stefanie Meilinger, Volker Jacobs, Alexander Oslislo, "Successive evolution of charging station placement." In the proceedings of 2015 International Symposium on Innovations in Intelligent SysTems and Applications (INISTA), 2015.
Alexander Hagg, Maximilian Mensing, Alexander Asteroth, "Evolving parsimonious networks by mixing activation functions." In the proceedings of Proceedings of the genetic and evolutionary computation conference, 2017.
Alexander Hagg, "Hierarchical surrogate modeling for illumination algorithms." In the proceedings of Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion, 2017.
Helge Spieker, Alexander Hagg, Adam Gaier, Stefanie Meilinger, Alexander Asteroth, "Multi-stage evolution of single-and multi-objective MCLP: Successive placement of charging stations." Soft Computing, 2017.
Alexander Hagg, Frederik Hegger, Paul Pl{\"o}ger, "On recognizing transparent objects in domestic environments using fusion of multiple sensor modalities." In the proceedings of RoboCup 2016: Robot World Cup XX 20, 2017.
Alexander Hagg, Alexander Asteroth, Thomas B{\"a}ck, "Prototype discovery using quality-diversity." In the proceedings of Parallel Problem Solving from Nature--PPSN XV: 15th International Conference, Coimbra, Portugal, September 8--12, 2018, Proceedings, Part I 15, 2018.
Alexander Hagg, Alexander Asteroth, Thomas B{\"a}ck, "Modeling user selection in quality diversity." In the proceedings of Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, 2019.
Alexander Hagg, Martin Zaefferer, J{\"o}rg Stork, Adam Gaier, "Prediction of neural network performance by phenotypic modeling." In the proceedings of Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion, 2019.
Alexander Hagg, Alexander Asteroth, Thomas B{\"a}ck, "A Deep Dive Into Exploring the Preference Hypervolume." In the proceedings of International Conference on Computational Creativity, 2020.
Alexander Asteroth, "AErOmAt Abschlussbericht." In the proceedings of Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, 2020.
Alexander Hagg, Mike Preuss, Alexander Asteroth, Thomas B{\"a}ck, "An analysis of phenotypic diversity in multi-solution optimization." In the proceedings of International Conference on Bioinspired Methods and Their Applications, 2020.
Alexander Hagg, Dominik Wilde, Alexander Asteroth, Thomas B{\"a}ck, "Designing air flow with surrogate-assisted phenotypic niching." In the proceedings of International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, 2020.
Fabian Hammes, Daniel Link, Martin Lames, Alexander Hagg, Alexander Asteroth, Mark Pfeiffer, "Einsatz von Künstlicher Intelligenz im internationalen Spitzensport--Eine Erhebung des Status Quo." spinfortec 2020 digital, 2020.
Alexander Hagg, Alexander Asteroth, Mark Pfeiffer, Fabian Hammes, Daniel Link, "Einsatzmöglichkeiten und Transfer von Künstlicher Intelligenz im inter-nationalen Spitzensport--zwischen Small und Big Data." spinfortec 2020 digital, 2020.
Alexander Hagg, "Discovering the preference hypervolume: an interactive model for real world computational co-creativity." In the proceedings of Dissertation, 2021.
Alexander Hagg, Sebastian Berns, Alexander Asteroth, Simon Colton, Thomas B{\"a}ck, "Expressivity of parameterized and data-driven representations in quality diversity search." In the proceedings of Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, 2021.
Alexander Hagg, "Phenotypic niching using quality diversity algorithms." Metaheuristics for Finding Multiple Solutions, 2021.
Fabian Hammes, Alexander Hagg, Alexander Asteroth, Daniel Link, "Artificial intelligence in elite sports—A narrative review of success stories and challenges." Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 2022.
Alexander Hagg, Alexander Asteroth, Christian Rasche, Kevin Bach, Mark Pfeiffer, "K"unstliche Intelligenz f"ur den Spitzensport im Spannungsfeld zwischen Big und Small Data." In the proceedings of Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, 2022.
Max Müller, Alexander Hagg, Robin Strickstrock, Marco Hülsmann, Alexander Asteroth, Karl Kirschner, Dirk Reith, "Determining Lennard-Jones Parameters Using Multiscale Target Data through Presampling-Enhanced, Surrogate-Assisted Global Optimization." Journal of chemical information and modeling, 2023.
Alexander Hagg, Martin Kliemank, Alexander Asteroth, Dominik Wilde, Mario Bedrunka, Holger Foysi, Dirk Reith, "Efficient Quality Diversity Optimization of 3D Buildings through 2D Pre-optimization." Evolutionary computation, 2023.
Ludovico Scarton, Alexander Hagg, "On the Suitability of Representations for Quality Diversity Optimization of Shapes." In the proceedings of Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, 2023.
Alexander Hagg, Karl Kirschner, "Open-source machine learning in computational chemistry." Journal of chemical information and modeling, 2023.
Robin Strickstrock, Alexander Hagg, Marco Hülsmann, Karl Kirschner, Dirk Reith, "Fine-tuning property domain weighting factors and the objective function in force-field parameter optimization." Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, 2025.
Alexander Hagg, Adam Gaier, Dominik Wilde, Alexander Asteroth, Holger Foysi, Dirk Reith, "Full Domain Analysis in Fluid Dynamics." Machine Learning and Knowledge Extraction, 2025.
Robin Strickstrock, Alexander Hagg, Dirk Reith, Karl Kirschner, "Speed up Multi-Scale Force-Field Parameter Optimization by Substituting Molecular Dynamics Calculations with a Machine Learning Surrogate Model." ChemPhysChem, 2025.
Alexander Hagg, Dirk Reith, Matthias Preller, Karl Kirschner, "Dataset and Example Model for Molecular Function-guided Unsupervised Similarity-based Enrichment for Low-Data Virtual Screening." Zenodo, 2026.
Alexander Hagg, Tania Guerrero, Dirk Reith, "U-Net-Accelerated Quality-Diversity Optimization for Climate-Adaptive Urban Layouts." In Proceedings of the International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature (PPSN), Springer, 2026, pp. 354–370.
Tutorial at International Symposium on Innovations in Intelligent SysTems and Applications, Madrid, Spain
Guest Lecture at LIACS lectures, Leiden, The Netherlands
Guest Lecture at IUBH lectures, IU, Düsseldorf/Cologne, Germany
Workshop at H-BRS (PhD/M.Sc. programme), Sankt Augustin, Germany
Talk at Barcamp Nachhaltige Zukunft Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Talk at KLUGER Transfer Tandem Talk, Bonn, Germany
Workshop at H-BRS ZWT / DT4MP Lab, Sankt Augustin, Germany
Workshop at Stadt Troisdorf, Troisdorf, Germany
Talk at KI-Wrap, Bibliothek H-BRS, Sankt Augustin, Germany
Talk at Cytotransport Research Retreat 2026,
Poster at Cytotransport Research Retreat 2026,