Rafael Sterzinger

TU Wien

Vienna, Austria

Professional Experience

University Assistant

Computer Vision Lab at TU Wien

Oct 2024 - Present


Co-organizing the 'Machine Learning for Visual Computing' lecture and leading the exercise sessions, which covers topics such as linear models, deep neural networks, optimization methods, model selection, kernel methods, Bayesian approaches, Gaussian processes, clustering, and recent advances in computer vision.

Project Assistant

Institute for Computer Technology at TU Wien

Jul 2024 - Present


Evaluating machine learning to accelerate mixed-integer programming solvers for the mapping and scheduling of automotive applications on advanced driver assistance system platforms as well as designing software solutions that enable experts to interactively guide the scheduling process and refine model predictions.

Project Assistant

Computer Vision Lab at TU Wien

Aug 2023 - Sep 2024


Pioneered a pipeline to automatically segment engravings from surface normals (photometric stereo scans) of ancient Etruscan mirrors which is on-par with a human annotator, overcoming challenges such as deterioration and limited data (59 mirrors). Additionally, developed a methodology for efficient human-in-the-loop refinement of predictions.

Research Engineer Intern

IVADO/Hitachi Energy Ltd.

Aug 2022 - Jan 2023


Developed a neural network based on graph convolutions and the attention mechanism to detect critical transmission lines in power grids. When employing its predictions, solving for a cost-efficient schedule is 36% faster than the current industry standard, enabling cost savings on the scale of $100 million.

Guest Lecture on Neural Networks

iteratec GmbH

Nov 2019


For further training, I gave a presentation on neural networks to about 35 participants, accompanied by an exercise.

Software Engineer Intern

iteratec GmbH

Jul 2019 - Sep 2019


With a focus on usability and performance (optimizing database queries, Java/MongoDB), enhanced a React web application to improve the company's hiring process, facilitating the exchange of files and messages.

Education

PhD, Computer Science

TU Wien

Oct 2024 - Present


  • PhD Thesis on "Meta-Learning for Rapid Domain Adaptation of Vision-Language Models to Specialized Data-Scarce Domains"
  • Supervised by Prof. R. Sablatnig

MSc ETH, Computer Science

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich

Sep 2020 - May 2023


  • Major in Machine Intelligence with a Minor in Data Management
  • Thesis: "Learning to Predict Security Constraints for Large-Scale Unit Commitment Problems", Supervised by Prof. A. Krause

BSc, Business Informatics

TU Wien

Oct 2017 - Aug 2020


  • Thesis: "Weighting Intrinsic and Extrinsic Rewards in Reinforcement Learning"
  • Qualified for the Bachelor with Honors program (Top 5%) & received multiple Scholarships of Excellence