Scientists/Scholars

Project lead

Wolfgang Kastner received the Dipl.Ing. and Dr.Techn. degrees in computer science from Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria, in 1992 and 1996, respectively. Since 1992, he has been with the Automation Systems Group, Institute of Computer Aided Automation, Vienna University of Technology, Austria, where he has been holding the position of an Associate Professor for computer engineering since 2001. From 1992 to 1996, he was working on reliable transmission protocols for distributed real-time systems. Since 1997, his research interests have been in the areas of control networks and automation systems with a special focus on home and building automation. His current research targets the field- and management-level integrations of building automation networks, concentrating on the open standards BACnet, LonWorks, KNX, and IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee. Dr. Kastner is a Founder Member of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Technical Committee for Building Automation, Control, and Management.

Core PhD Students

Wolfgang Granzer is senior researcher at the Automation Systems Group at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien). He received his master's degree in Computer Science and Computer Science Management at the Vienna University of Technology in 2005 and 2008 respectively. In 2006, he initiated the FWF research project "Security in Building Automation". Within this project he was responsible among others for WP1 "Secure Building Automation Network" where he finished his PhD summa cum laude in March 2010. His PhD dissertation is focused on "Secure Communication in Home and Building Automation Systems". Wolfgang Granzer is working on several research projects related to the field of automation. His main research interests are Automation Systems (especially in the field of Home and Building Automation), Security, Information Modeling, Embedded Systems, and Distributed Systems.

Fritz Praus received the Dipl.Ing. degree in computer science and the Mag.rer.soc.oec. degree in computer science management from Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria, in 2005 and 2008, respectively, where he is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree. His Ph.D. dissertation is about secure control applications in building automation. From 2005 to 2006, he was with the Research Unit of Integrated Sensor Systems, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Wiener Neustadt, Austria, where he was working on high-precision clock synchronization. Since 2006, he has been with the Automation Systems Group, Institute of Computer Aided Automation, Vienna University of Technology, where his research interest is in the area of automation systems. His focus lies on security, hardware–software codesign, and home and building automation.