Curriculum Vitae

Florian Finkeldei joined the Cyber-Physical Systems Group as a Ph.D. candidate under the supervision of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Althoff in October 2022. For his Bachelor's degree, he studied Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University. Subsequently, he obtained two Master's degrees:  At RWTH Aachen University, he completed Automation Engineering with a focus on optimal control. He complemented this with a Master's degree in Management Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University, specializing in operations research and numerical optimization. Due to his academic achievements, he was accepted into the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.

His research interests include the automatic testing and falsification of autonomous vehicles, and microscopic traffic simulation. Methodologically, this involves, e.g., linking temporal logic with numerical optimization, and the data-driven calibration of human driver models.

Thesis Topics and Practical Courses

I am continuously looking for self-motivated students who want to work in my research area. If you are interested in writing your thesis or working on a practical project, please email me your CV, transcript, and a concise statement of motivation.

Open positions

• Falsification of Autonomous Vehicles file (Thesis)
• Systematic Synthesis of NCAP Traffic Scenarios file (Thesis)

Ongoing

• Automatic Labeling of Traffic Scenarios (Bachelor's thesis)
• Automated Falsification of AVs (Bachelor's thesis)
• Criticality Enhancement of Traffic Scenarios (Bachelor's thesis)
• Analysis and Optimization of an Autonomous Driving Business Use Case (Bachelor's thesis)

Finished

• Motion Planning for a Austainable Autonomous Vessel (Master's thesis; co-supervisor, 2023)
• Coupling of CommonRoad and Open Traffic Simulator file (Practical course, 2023)
• Coupling of CommonRoad with OpenTrafficSim for Scenario Generation and Human Driver Model Verification (Bachelor's thesis, 2024)
• Real-time Traffic Data Integration in Microscopic Traffic Simulation (Bachelor's thesis, 2024)
• Automated Labeling of Traffic Scenarios (Guided research, 2024)
• Automated Scenario Generation Pipeline file (Practical course, 2024)
• Automatic Conversion of Metric Temporal Logic Into Robustness Constraints for Numerical Optimization (Semester thesis, 2024)
• Modeling the Decision Process of Unprotected Left Turns (Master's thesis, 2024)
• Robustness-guided Falsification of Autonomous Vehicles file (Seminar, 2024)
• Automated Criticality Labeling of Traffic Scenarios (Bachelor's thesis, 2024)
• Data-fusion for High-fidelity Driving Maps (Practical course, 2024)
• Automated Scenario Handling and STL-Based Traffic Rule Interpretation for Robustness-guided Falsification of Autonomous Vehicles (Guided research, 2024)
• Falsification-Driven Reinforcement Learning for Maritime Motion Planning (Master's thesis, 2025)
• Development of a Simulator Interface for Autoware and SUMO Integration: Advancing Traffic Engineering and Autonomous Vehicle Research (Master's thesis, 2025)
• Incorporating Traffic Rules into Cost Functions to Evaluate Motion Planners in CommonRoad (Master's thesis, 2025)

Teaching

• Cyber-physical systems (lecture, IN2305): Continuous systems and control