Sabina Jeschke is a German university professor for information sciences in mechanical engineering at the RWTH Aachen University. As of 10 November 2017, she was named member of the management board of Deutschen Bahn AG for digitalization and technology. She is also the director of the Cybernetics Lab IMA/ZLW & IfU. In the summer semester of 2017, she is on sabbatical leave to develop her research in the area of artificial consciousness, and is involved in building a think tank "Strong Artificial Intelligence" at the Volvo Car Corporation in Göteborg. Since May 2015, Jeschke has been a member of the supervisory board of Körber AG, since April 2012chairman of the board of VDI Aachen
Life and work
Jeschke studied physics and computer sciences at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany. She completed her student research project during a research stay at the NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, California, USA under the direction of William Borucki. During her doctoral studies she worked as a scientific researcher at the Institut für Mathematik at the Technische Universität Berlin and as an assistant professor/instructor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, US. In 2004 she obtained her doctorate degree with honors. After two years, Sabina Jeschke became a :de:Juniorprofessur|junior professor for New Media in Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the Technische Universität Berlin. As from 2007 she held a full professorship at the Institute for IT Service Technologies and simultaneously became the director of the Central Information Technology Services at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Additionally she was a visiting professor and head of the former Center for Multimedia in Teaching and Research now innoCampus at the Technische Universität Berlin. In 2009 she followed the call of the RWTH Aachen University and became a professor and the director of the Institute Cluster IMA/ZLW & IfU at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Until 2010 she additionally functioned as a visiting professor with scientific direction of research projects at the Institut für Technische Optik of the University of Stuttgart, Germany. From October 2011 to September 2016, she was vice dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the RWTH Aachen University. Some of the main areas of her research are robotics and automation technology, traffic and mobility, Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems, Artificial Intelligence, human-machine interaction, innovation research and information management. She is a member and expert in numerous committees and commissions, inter alia Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers since 2011 and a member of the Program Committee "Robotics and Automation" of the German Aerospace Center since 2017. In July 2014, she was honored by the with the recognition of Germany's digital minds. For her contributions to a modern engineering education, she was awarded the Golden Nikola Tesla Chain of the International Society for Engineering Pedagogy in September 2015. Together with the team of RWTH Aachen University and the University of Applied Sciences of Aachen she won the World Championship title in the 2014, 2015 and 2016 for three years in a row. Jeschke heads the IMA/ZLW & IfU Cybernetics Lab. She has served as member of the supervisory board of Körber AG since May 2015 and member of the executive board of VDI – The Association of German Engineers since April 2012. Jeschke took a sabbatical during the 2017 summer semester to focus on her research in artificial/machine consciousness and was involved establishing the Strong Artificial Intelligence think tank at Volvo in Gothenburg, Sweden. Dr. Jeschke is considered an excellent public speaker and is fluent in German, English and Swedish.
Jeschke was appointed to the Management Board of Deutsche Bahn on November 10, 2017, effective mid-November of that year. On the board, she is responsible for digitalization and technology. Her contract, which was initially for three years, was extended by the Supervisory Board on December 11, 2019, for five years until the end of 2025. As of the beginning of 2020, she will also be responsible for heavy vehicle maintenance.
