Robert Thomas

Background

About Robert Thomas

After successfully completing my diploma in lightweight engineering and polymer technology at the technical university of Dresden, I have been responsible since 2012 for plastics and fibre-reinforced composites at the AUDI AG and now at the Volkswagen Group Innovation of the Volkswagen Group. In addition to evaluating and qualifying a wide range of materials and enabling and optimising manufacturing processes for large-scale automotive production, I also support the various development departments in the context of potential assessments and feasibility studies. I was able to acquire and deepen the following knowledge and skills during my professional career: • Profound material understanding of plastics, especially fibre-reinforced composites • Hands-on experience of various testing and manufacturing processes • Technological and economical evaluation of composite design and derivation of improvement measures • Utilization of different software tools (MS Office, CAE, data analysis and graphing) Furthermore, I had the opportunity to apply and expand this knowledge in several internal and public projects and to share it at various national and international symposiums. I was also able to demonstrate my professional and social skills in various fields- Organisation and management of research and development projects (e.g. BMBF Prolei, BMBF STYQZAHL, internal projects)- Publication of selected results in different journals (i.e. Composite Part A - DOI: 10.1016/j.compositesa.2020.105857, Materials Today - DOI: 10.1016/j.matpr.2020.03.550)- Presenting of selected project contents at professional conferences (i.e. 1st international conference on industrial Applications of adhesives 2020, Automotive Circle - Fügen im Karosseriebau 2019)- Acting in a multi-national project environment - Supporting project work by supervising student internships and theses