Hi there! I am Nicolai and I am an Associate Professor at DTU Health Tech within the Digital Health research section. Before I led a Research Group on Biosignal Processing within University Medical Center Göttingen. Other stations of my academic journey were the Peter L. Reichertz Institute (TU Braunschweig & Hannover Medical School) as well as the Erwin L. Hahn Institute (University Duisburg-Essen) and University of Applied Sciences Dortmund.

My research interest lies in extracting information from physiological signals. The data can stem from high-quality study datasets, everyday clinical practice, or consumer devices, and I apply traditional signal processing as well as deep neural networks, depending on the use case.

Here you will find information regarding my research and teaching. Contact me right away if you are interested in collaboration or you want to write a thesis under my supervision.

News

• 04/2025: 📓 In April I invested the majority of time in setting up new collaborations and student projects. Moreover, a study led by colleagues from Medical University of Graz on vagal nerve function in patients with depression and healthy controls where we added our ECG expertise was published in Gut Microbes.

• 03/2025: 🪧 We really enjoyed the 2-day meeting of the Expert Committee Biosignals in Kiel hosted by Gerhards' DSS institute. Moreover, I had the pleasure to attend a poster session organized by the Ph.D. students of DTU Health Tech. It was great to see what is going on at the department and to connect with my new colleagues. Moreover, Michael and Angelika both handed in their B.Sc. and M.Sc. theses - congratulations to both of you! Angelika will continue her research in the UMG Cognitive Neurology group as Ph.D. student - fantastic development!

• 02/2025: ⚓ I had a great start at DTU and met many colleagues with shared research interests in the last weeks and prepared joint projects with them. Congratulations Sven, our paper together with multiple colleagues from Jena, Berlin, and Heidelberg is finally available at BSPC! Next week I will be in Kiel for the spring meeting of the DGBMT expert committee on biosignals and I am looking forward to that.

• 01/2025: 🇩🇰 Hej sammen. I am very glad to be affiliated with DTU Health Tech since January. As part of this new role I am also looking forward to help in organizing EMBC 2025 in Copenhagen. I am looking forward to welcome many of your here in summer!

• 12/2024: 🗳️ Congratulations Philip for the first paper of your PhD! Together with Antônio Ribeiro from from Uppsala and colleagues from Greifswald our paper "Explainable AI associates ECG aging effects with increased cardiovascular risk in a longitudinal population study" has just been accepted. In other news, I was elected as speaker of the ''Biosignal Processing'' TC of the German Society for Biomedical Engineering and for a second term as YP representative of the IEEE Engineering Medicine and Biology Society. Thank you for your trust! I will work for the best of both societies.

• 11/2024: 🌠 In November, my group was proud to host one event of the Night of Biosignals in Göttingen (Report). I attended at the event in Krefeld which was a real pleasure. Moreover, I took part in the German Sleep's societies annual conference and met many SOMNOLINK colleagues. Finally, we were lucky to meet Hossein Estiri from Harvard Medical School who was visiting Göttingen to network and exchange research ideas. PS: If you are an EMBS member, please remember to vote as part of the AdCom elections as well as the Germany chapter election!

• 10/2024: 🌃 October was a busy month for the group, preparing papers and the Night of Biosignals in Göttingen. Tabea presented our HFrEF study in the "AI Bus" and answered many questions from the audience. We were also fortunate to have Franz and Miriam from TU Dresden visit our institute. Lastly, October concluded with the IEEE Germany Section AdCom meeting in Bochum which was an interesting event an opportunity to visit the Ruhr area again. PS: Date and location for the 4th IEEE GECon has been defined: 21st-23rd July in Hamburg. The CfP is also available - please spread the word.

• 09/2024: 🏆 I am very proud to announce that Philip Zaschke was awarded the GMDS Förderpreis for his M.Sc. thesis. In September I could enjoy multiple activites we have organized throughout the year: At the GMDS 2024 meeting in Dresden, the Xtra Tracks Webinar series concluded with a panel session featuring many of the speakers. Tabea presented first results on the feasibility of using Apple Watches for heart failure monitoring. Afterwards, I went with Philip to the YDZHK retreat in Frankfurt where we met many colleagues and friends and celebrated its 10th anniversary. The following week the the BMT 2024 meeting took place in Stuttgart where we organized a jam-packed session on synthetic biosignals. Moreover, we had our expert committee meeting where we planned the upcoming activites. The month concluded with the ISMT conference at FAU where I was attending as EMBS representative. In addition, Tabea's TDS paper together with Ronny Bartsch and Jan Kantelhardt is finally online!

• 07+08/2024: 🛫 July and August were full of travel. First, Tabea, Philip and me went to Orlando for the EMBC 2024. We had a great time at the social activities like the Student and YP reception or the "How to build your research profile" workshop with Bjoern Eskofier as panelist. After that, I went to GECon 2024 at TU Munich where I am serving as TPC chair. It is a great pleasure to see our community growing. At the end of August I went first to ACM KDD 2024 in Barcelona where we hosted a tutorial on Explainable Artificial Intelligence on Biosignals for Clinical Decision Support together with the UMG CDSS group. Afterwards I traveled to EFMI MIE 2024 in Athens. Here, we presented our activites on ECG integration for automatic workflows in the clinic and it was a pleasure to meet many colleagues and friends.

• 06/2024: 🚀 June brought many changes to the team: First and foremost, Theresa decided to set sail for new adventures. The whole team wishes you all the best!! Moreover, Hyun from New York joined for a 3-month undergraduate research stay and Mohammed joined for a month as a guest scientist. In addition, Ennio visited us with his Colombian students in Göttingen, this was a great intercultural experience. To keep up with the pace regarding international cooperations, I am happy to report that a project application I submitted together with Kana (Kyoto University) and Axel (KIT) as accepted by the HeKKSaGOn consortium. In the next three years, we have funding to realize a joint project. Next week, I will travel with Philip and Tabea to EMBC 2024. You can find me at the Minisymposium 1 organized by Thomas Penzel and Ralf Seepold, the Student and YP reception, or at various other places. Looking forward to meet you!

• 05/2024: 🧑‍🏫 April was fun! Tabea and I finished our part of the new M.Sc. course "Medical Signal and Image Processing" which was very rewarding. I visited the Wispermed panel in Essen and met many old friends and colleagues. Moreover, we are happy to introduce Arsh from IIT Hyderabad as a DAAD summer research intern to the lab! Moreover, our cooperation with the Clinical Decision Support Group resulted in an accepted workshop at ACM KDD 2024 entitled Explainable Artificial Intelligence on Biosignals for Clinical Decision Support. Make sure to join if you are in Barcelona!

• 04/2024: 🤝 Meetings start again: In April the group joined the retreat of the Heart and Brain Center Göttingen and I joined the final event of the Mentoring program of the DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research) which I enjoyed much. I learned a lot and got in contact with fascinating colleagues. In other news, I am happy to report that a joint paper with Kana Eguchi has been accepted for EMBC 2024. Looking forward to Orlando! As YP Committee we are organizing some "warm-up" sessions, the first one will be on predatory publishing: Registration

• 03/2024: 🎓 Teaching started again and I am happy to offer the new M.Sc. course Biomedical Signal and Image Processing together with my colleague Christian Dullin from Radiology. The course is open to all Computer and Data Science students, feel free to join. My content will be on continuous- and discrete-time signal processing with an emphasis on harmonic analysis and time-frequency transforms. Ennio left the group and moved for his next postdoc to Sebastian Zaunseder's group at University of Augsburg - all the best!!

• 02/2024: 🗨️ February was very busy and rewarding. Tabea, Angelika, and Shrinant joined the team - a warm welcome! We hosted the 3-day conference Workshop Biosignals with more than 80 participants (Proceedings). A little bit to late to the party, the paper of Ennio together with Thomas Penzel and Peter Kovacs was accepted at IEEE OJEMB! I was invited to the ELTE Faculty of Informatics for an online lecture and I am proud to recieve the "Outstanding Reviewer" award by Physiological Measurements.

• 01/2024: 🎫 A quiet start to an exciting year. It was a great experience to visit Peter at the Department of Numerical Analysis at ELTE Budapest. Thank you very much for the warm welcome and fantastic day at your institute. Moreover, I am happy to report that the joint work with Friedrich Feuerhake and his team on crowdsourcing in digital pathology has finally been published at Scientific Reports. This was part of a M.Sc. and a MD thesis within the framework of the DigiStrucMed Graduate School and I was happy to be part of this journey. In one month, the Workshop Biosignals kicks off in Göttingen! Already got your ticket..?!

• 12/2023: 🎄 Christmas time again! This year passed so fast... In December Philip Z. and Tabea both finished her M.Sc. theses. Congratulations! Peter Marschik and I were able to secure funding from the Campus Institute Data Science (CIDAS) for a joint project which was a great early Christmas present! Moreover, I was lucky to being invited to Tunis for the EMBS Forum on Healthcare Innovation which was in parallel to the 11th IEEE Tunisian Students & Young Professionals Congress with more than 1200 participants: A great experience! In addition, I was in Berlin for the Annual Conference of the German Sleep Society (DGSM) and in Hamburg for the Excom Meeting of the IEEE Germany Section. Theresa, Philip and me recorded a special Christmas episode for the Signals for Life Podcast:
  

• 11/2023: 🎓 November was a blast: Theresa finished her PhD studies and is thereby now the first alumni of our group at UMG! Congratulations! Moreover, big congratulations to Jonathan, a pupil from Göttingen we supported a bit, who won the German National Artificial Intelligence Competition 2023 (TV spot featuring me as spear carrier)! Apart from that, I had great stays in Jena at the Institute of Medical Statistics, Computer and Data Sciences and Konstanz visiting the Ubiquitous Computing Lab. Thanks for the invitations! In addition, I co-edit a new special issue entitled Evaluated Methods for Signal Analysis: Promoting Open Science in Network Physiology" together with Ulrich Parlitz of MPI-DS within Frontiers in Network Physiology.

• 10/2023: 🏆 Congratulations to my fellow members of our team ''BrAInstorm'' M.Sc./Ph.D. students Philip and Philip as well as Miriam from TUD for reaching a fantastic 8th place of the George B. Moody PhysioNet Challenge 2023 and for winning the ''Best Team Name'' award! Moreover, I was happy to support the EMBS resume database initiative for EMBC 2024. During October I also visited Prof. Dörr in Greifswald as part of the DZHK mentoring program which was a very pleasant stay. This week, lectures started again and I am very happy to have around 20 students interested in Biosignal Processing.

• 09/2023: 🗨️ September was very busy with travels: Me and my team enjoyed the Y-DZHK retreat in Potsdam, the GMDS annual meeting in Heilbronn, and the BMT annual meeting in Duisburg. Our joint sessions were very well-received (reports BMT, GMDS). In between there was also the HeKKsaGOn conference in Göttingen where I met with Kana the first time in person.

• 08/2023: 🎁 August brougth two pleasant developments: I am honored to receive a Postdoc Start-up Grant by the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK). The project will evaluate the usage of wearables for risk prediction of HF patients. Moreover, congrats to Henning for acceptance of our joint paper in Physiological Measurement. In this work, we go far back in time and give the basics of electrocardiography a novel twist. The upcoming september will be very busy with the YDZHK retreat and the BMT and GMDS annual conferences. Don't miss the joint sessions we organized in a cooperation between both societies - we have a great line-up of speakers!

• 07/2023: 📝 The last month was busy for the group with lots of studies and travelling. Keshav from the University of Illinois joined our lab for 3 month and now returned home - all the best and hope to see you again! Also all the best to Leon who just started his B.Sc. thesis adventure in our group. After returning from EMBC in Sydney, I travelled right away to Berlin to this year's GECon. It was a great event with lots of interesting works and nice discussions. As a TPC chair I was happy that we could again reach and an acceptance ratio of around 66%. I am happy to annouce that GECon will return in August 2024 :-)

• 06/2023: 🛫 Time flies! Congratulations to Philip G. for acceptance of his CinC paper, Theresa for acceptance of her GECon paper, and Philip Z. for acceptance of his abstract to the George B. Moody Challenge. In addition, three abstracts for the BMT annual meeting of two for the GMDS annual meeting were accepted. Thanks for having me at the CIDAS Colloquium and for being invited to take part in the DZHK mentoring programme! I just returned from BVM Workshop in Braunschweig and in two weeks I will travel to Sydney for the EMBC.

• 05/2023: ☔ Slowly the meetings are re-starting: I was in (rainy) Venice for a meeting of the HARPOCRATES project where we contribute to the sleep medicine use-case. Theresa presented our work towards noise in ECGs at MIE 2023. Philip is now officially part of the GGNB Cardiovascular Science PhD programme, congratulations! In addition, my group organized an online talk series on novel AI ECG applications featuring international rising stars from that field. Thanks to everybody for joining and making these events a success!

• 04/2023: 🚀 Big congratulations to Theresa for acceptance of the first journal paper of her Ph.D. project in IEEE JBHI! Moreover, congratulations to Ennio for receiving scholarship for the 20th NSF International Summer School on Bio-X! Vittorio initiated a special issue with the topic "Remote Physiological Measurement: Novel algorithms and application areas" at Biomedical Signal Processing and Control. Looking forward to your submissions! Pssst...and did you know about the first German Autumn School on Biomedical Engineering organized by IEEE EMBS?

• 03/2023: 🤝🏼 March was busy with in-person meetings: Thanks for invitating us Jan to the Germany Excom meeting in Hamburg and thanks for the invitation to the bootcamp at the IEEE HQ to the EMBS Excom. In Göttingen, we hosted the meeting of the TC Biosignals of the DGBMT. In addition, we are setting in the process of setting up an EMBS MSA Young Professionals Committee, stay tuned. On April 11 5pm CEST there is a "Meet the Excom" of the German EMBS Chapter - feel free to join. Moreover, mark your calendars - in spring 2024 we will host the Workshop Biosignals in Göttingen!

• 02/2023: ⏳ Can't believe it's already been a year in Göttingen! Thanks to Peter for inviting me to SIAM CSE in Amsterdam to talk about XAI and thanks to Julian for inviting me to talk about secure HPC of biosignals at the GWDG Workshop. Congratulations to the team of TU Freiberg and Hochschule Stralsund for securing the 1st Educational Project Funding worth 3000€ awarded by the IEEE Germany Section. Furthermore, congratulations to Theresa for her accepted paper at EFMI MIE!

• 01/2023: 🤞 Happy new year! Thanks to the SHIP team for acccepting our application for analyzing their ECG data in joint project together with Marcus. Additionally, the collaborative work on STEM education together with Jan and Jorge has been accepted for IEEE EDUCON 2023. Theresa and Philip submitted works to EFMI MIE and IEEE EMBC conferences - fingers crossed! Apart from that, my term within the IEEE EMBS Adcom and YP committee started. I am looking forward to the new responsibilities.

• 12/2022: 🎄 Philip and Tabea both finished their internships at our group and will stay part of the team for the M.Sc. theses. Our joint work together with Julian's HPC group was just published in Future Generation Computer Systems. Have a look if you are interested in how to process sensitive data on a HPC cluster. Apart from that, I am happy to announce that starting 2023 we work heavily towards re-instituting the IEEE EMBS Germany Chapter - stay tuned. Last but not least: Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

• 11/2022: 👨‍🏫 It was a pleasure to be panelist at the "Seven Dialogues for Future Research and Science with Early Career Researchers" of the HeKKSaGOn initiative. Thanks for having me! Apart from that, during december the election for the IEEE EMBS Germany Chapter is running with me offering my duty as chair together in a team with Knut Möller (UAS Furtwangen), Thomas Schauer (TU Berlin), and Jannis Hagenah (Uni Oxford). Please vote! GeCon 2023 has been scheduled to 02.-04.08.2023 - mark your calendars!

• 10/2022: 👨👨 Double trouble incoming - two Philips joined my group at UMG. Philip Zaschke will start his research internship and Philip Gemke, former TUBS M.Sc. student, starts his quest towards a Ph.D. A warm welcome and all the best! Here and here are reports of our joint GMDS/DGBMT session. Slides can be found on the GMDS website. Furthermore, our podcast on biosignals already reached 16 episodes and is now finally available on Spotify. Additionally, the proceedings of GeCon 2022 that I overlooked as TPC chair were recently published on IEEE Xplore. On the research side, we summarized our works towards XAI in ECG in a paper with the preprint being available on Arxiv. Enjoy!

• 09/2022: 👨‍🏫 Thank you for your trust! Starting January 2023 I will serve as YP representative in the IEEE EMBS AdCom (report). Furthermore, Karin, Sebastian, and me have been re-elected as speakers of the DGBMT Technical Committee Biosignals - thank you! September was very busy with conferences, my group attended CinC, the DZHK retreat, the 3rd Infinity, and the BMT 2022. Our session on risk prediction in cardiovascular disease in Innsbruck was very well received (slides + pictures). We will continue on 20.10. 17:30 online! Last but definitely not least, teaching will start next month! I am looking forward to offer a lecture on biosignal processing within the Göttingen University Computer Science & Data Science B.Sc. degrees.

• 08/2022: 🚆 The team is growing: Tabea joined and will work towards physiological networks. A warm welcome! August was very busy for the group: We joined the Workshop Biosignals in Dresden which was a wonderful experience (report & pictures). Theresa presented our works on XAI of ECG Classification with deep learning models and Philip proposed his work for early MI detection in ECGs. On wednesday (31.08.) I will introduce our work within the Oberseminar Summer-Series - feel free to join! Next week, we will present our results on the George B. Moody challenge at CinC 2022. See you in Tampere!

• 07/2022: 🌊 My group just returned from ISINP-3 - what a great experience (Group Picture)! Furthermore, I am happy to announce that I will present the current state of our work on XAI for ECG classification at the Young DZHK retreat in Postdam and I am honored to give a keynote at the Workshop Biosignals in Dresden. Unfortunately, our session at the GMDS annual meeting has to be delayed; further updates coming soon.

• 06/2022: ‍🎓 Our team at UMG is growing: a warm welcome, Ennio starting as Postdoc and Susann writing her HAWK M.Eng thesis! Looking forward on the collaboration! Philips and Theresas works have been accepted as talks at the Workshop Biosignals and Philips CinC abstract for the George B. Moody Challenge was accepted - congratulations! Do you live nearby Göttingen? Consider to join our booth at the 5th science night on Juli 09th.

• 05/2022: 📝 Viktor finished his M.Sc. thesis - congratulations and all the best for your future! Two works have been published recently: i) The vision of a decision- and workflow support system for non-invasive ventilation together with colleagues from University Hospital Aachen and Philips Innovative Technologies Aachen, and ii) a systematic review of camera-based vital sign monitoring together with colleagues from TU Braunschweig, IIT Madras and RWTH Aachen.

• 04/2022: 🌊 April was busy with the preparation of upcoming conferences. If you are interested in research groups working in the field of data science in Göttingen please join the free MI Oberseminar Summer-Series - great speakers are invited! I will introduce my group on August 31st. Another great event is coming up with the International Summer Institute on Network Physiology - hope to meet you there. The deadline of the Workshop Biosignale has been extended until the 27th - hurry!

• 03/2022: 🎓 Congratulations to Philipp for sucessfully defending his B.Sc. thesis on stress detection in PPG signals! Philip started his M.Sc. thesis and will take part in the George B. Moody PhysioNet Challenge 2022 - good luck! Moreover, congratulations to Arne for being first author of our just accepted IEEE EMBC 2022 contribution and to my old team of the 5G Lab for reaching the final round of the BMWI Innovation Price. Apart from that, I am proud being part of the Young DZHK from now on!

• 02/2022: 🚀 With one eye weeping and one eye laughing I left Braunschweig and moved to Göttingen. I left behind a great team but I am looking forward for the new opportunity! More news: Similar to last year we organize joint sessions at the GMDS and DGBMT annual meetings in Kiel and Innbruck, more information will follow soon. Additionally, the date for the Workshop Biosignals 2022 in Dresden has been defined: 24.-26.08. Looking forward to meet many colleagues in person at all three meetings.

• 01/2022: 🐣 The new year brings new opportunities! Beginning March 1st I will establish a junior research group within the Department of Medical Informatics at the University Medical Center Göttingen. Stay tuned!

• 12/2021: 🎓 Congratulations to Carolin for finishing her thesis and receiving her B.Sc. degree! Philipp and Asma Linda both started their B.Sc. theses - good luck! Did you know there are already 4 episodes of our podcast "Signals for Life" available?

• 11/2021: 🎓 Congratulations to Arne, Valentin, and Marvin defending their works and receiving their well-deserved degrees! Arne and Valentin stay with the group while Marvin takes his leave into industry. Shrikant finished his research internship sucessfully. Good luck in your future endeavors! Additionally, Viktor started his M.Sc. thesis within the DigiStrucMed focusing on Digital Pathology.

• 10/2021: 🔊 October was busy for the students in our team with Arne, Carolin, Marvin, and Valentin submitting their theses. Additionally, I am proud to announce the new podcast "Signals for Life" that we as DGBMT technical comitte Biosignals established. A new episode will be released every two weeks, enjoy listening! Apart from that, we started with lectures being given in presence this semester which I look forward to.

• 09/2021: 🏆 I am deeply honoured for receiving the Johann Peter Süßmilch-Medaille at this year's GMDS conference. Furthermore, our submission to MEDINFO 2021 received the 3rd place best paper award. Last week, I attended the DGBMT conference and it was very nice to meet colleagues and friends again. Additionally, the transfer of our 5G-related research to products has started which makes us proud.

• 08/2021: 👨‍🎓 Benedikt and Jan joined the team, a warm welcome! Furthermore, our joint GMDS/DGBMT workshop miniseries was accepted at both annual meetings. Please join us, we have a great line-up of speakers! Furthermore, I am honoured being selected for the class 2021 of the IEEE Volunteer Leadership Training Program (VoLT) and our joint submission together with Prof. Gong was accepted for the upcoming MEDINFO.

• 07/2021: 📝 Three submissions to the IEEE EMBC 2021 (incl. collaborations with colleagues from the Mobile Radio Systems Group and Institute for Automotive Engineering) and two submissions to the ISISPA 2021 were accepted. Furthermore, I am proud being selected as member of the Methods of Information in Medicine student editorial board.

• 06/2021: 👨‍🎓 I am proud being selected as trainee in the Next Stop Prof program. Moreover, I am pleased to announce my participation in an invited session organized by Péter in this year's Asilomar conference. Congratulations to Willi and Calvin for having sucessfully submitted results of their thesis to the DGBMT conference. Furthermore, Carolin (B.Sc. student) joined the team and started her thesis.

• 05/2021: 🎓 Congratulations to Calvin (M.Sc. student) for successfully defending his thesis! Markus (student assistant) finished his studies and leaves us to industry. All the best! Mitali and Shrikant joined for a 3-month research internships and Luca joined as student assistant. A warmly welcome!

• 04/2021: 🛠️ We prepared contributions for the upcoming DGBMT and GMDS annual conferences. Furthermore, we organized a joint student project together with Jorge from TU Berlin.

• 03/2021: 🎓 The times they are a-changin'. Sophia (M.Sc. student), Christian (M.Sc. student), and Malte (student assistant) finished their studies this month. I heartily congratulate you and wish you all the best for your new endeavors! Furthermore, I welcome Marvin (M.Sc. student) as a new team member.

• 02/2021: 🎓 Welcome to the team, Willi (B.Sc. student) and congratulations to freshly graduated "Master of Science" Daniel to his graduation and our joint paper that has been accepted at MIE2021 conference.

• 01/2021: 🗳️ I am honoured being appointed member of the IEEE Germany Executive Committee responsible for university relations and treasurer of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society German Chapter.

• 12/2020: 🎓 Big congratulations to Robin for successfully defending his B.Sc. thesis! In other news, I am grateful for being elected as deputy speaker of the technical comittee "Biosignals" of the German Society for Biomedical Engineering (DGBMT).

• 11/2020: 📝 Welcome to the team, Malte (student assistant) and Calvin (M.Sc. student)! Furthermore, my dissertation entitled Time-frequency analysis of optical and electrical cardiac signals with applications in ultra-high-field MRI is now publicly available.

• 10/2020: 📝 Congratulations to Mohammad Taufeeque and Samad Koita from IIT Bombay who I supervised in a (virtual) summer internship. The results of their work have been accepted as a talk at the SPIE Medical Imaging 2021 conference. Furthermore, there is a nice short portrait of my trainee Madlen in the TU BS magazine

• 09/2020: 📺 Congratulations to my group of students participating in the Software Engineering Laboratory this year. Their final presentation is now available on Youtube.