In 2015, Niels Brandenburger joined the Human Factors department´s scientific staff at the German Aerospace Center, situated within the Institute for Transportation Systems in Berlin, Germany. His mission is to transfer Human Factors methods and experience to the mobility industry shaping an operating environment for automated main line passenger trains from a user perspective. His special interests lie on remote- control work environments for high grades of railway automation mainly in degraded operations, stemming from earlier work on sensor operators in the context of remotely piloted aircraft systems and works on remote assistance in automated shuttle-buses. Currently, Niels serves project leader in national projects such as 5G-Reallabor or ATO-Cargo, which research user requirements, operational rules and workplace design for future automated rail operation and he is participating in Europe´s Rail on an European level.
Niels received his master degrees in Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Groningen (2015) and Human Factors at the Berlin Institute of Technology (2015). During his studies, he joined the Research and Development Department of Daimler AG in Berlin with a focus of systematic strategic foresight. He finished his doctorate titled “Remote Control of Automation: Workload, Fatigue, and Performance in Unattended Railway Operation” at the Technical University in Brunswick in 2021. Since 2016, Niels is member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Europe Chapter (HFES EC).