Lena Heidemann has been part of the Fraunhofer IKS since November 2020. She initially joined the institute as a student assistant. Since November 2021, she has been a research engineer in the Industrial Sensing Systems department. Her curiosity, openness and willingness to simply try out new things led her to research.
June 26, 2025
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Lena Heidemann grew up in the east of Munich. Although the 29-year-old has always remained loyal to her hometown and completed her studies there, she also loves discovering new countries and languages. For that reason, she started learning Arabic during her studies and spent a semester abroad in Trondheim (Norway). "Another place of longing for me is definitely London." In general, she wants to see as much of the world as possible. Recently she traveled through Albania and there are already new destinations - Bosnia, Japan and South Korea are next on the agenda.
One motto runs through her life above all: "I have always tried to give myself the space to just try everything out." Although she already knew at school that she was good at math and technology, the path to AI research was not always clear for Lena. After graduating from high school, she first studied engineering science at the Technical University of Munich. It was there that she discovered her growing enthusiasm for programming and neural networks. Following her bachelor's degree, she went on to complete a master's degree in electrical engineering and information technology with a focus on machine learning and automation. For her master’s thesis, Lena researched how MRI images can be created more efficiently with the help of AI - with less data and therefore shorter scan time, but with the same image quality.
© Fraunhofer IKS
Lena Heidemann, research engineer in the Industrial Sensing Systems department at Fraunhofer IKS.
This made her realize once again: technological developments raise social and ethical questions. Her interest in those challenges and her openness to simply trying things out led her to pursue a second master’s degree. Alongside her work at Fraunhofer IKS, she began to study politics & technology, a program that brings together students from technical and political science fields. After several interesting lectures and projects, however, she chose to focus on applied AI research and her doctorate and paused her second master’s degree.
However: her enthusiasm for politics remains. At Fraunhofer IKS, she combines this political interest with her work as a researcher. She is particularly interested in the safe application and regulation of AI – especially in the context of the EU AI Act, whose regulations she knows well from projects and her work as a trainer.
In her research job at Fraunhofer IKS, Lena works together with her Industrial Sensing Systems team on making visual quality inspection more efficient and reliable with the help of AI. One of her projects is DEEP - an ML tool chain that bundles various Fraunhofer IKS technologies such as FAST, Robuscope and Modular Concept Learning. The aim is to develop robust models for industrial use with as little data as possible. Her day-to-day work is as varied as her life: it ranges from designing and programming experiments based on a research question to training and evaluating AI models for industrial application, as well as giving specialist presentations, visiting trade fairs and exchanging ideas with industry partners.
Her most recent attendance was at the renowned CVPR conference in the USA - one of the largest conferences in the field of computer vision with over 12,000 participants - where she presented her research findings and exchanged ideas with other scientists. These kinds of experiences motivate her to continue conducting application-oriented research that is both technologically and socially relevant.
When Lena is not working on innovations, she finds a balance to her research work in doing sports. Also in her free time, one thing is evident again - versatility. In addition to yoga, pilates and spinning, on weekends she can be found cycling on the routes in the south of Munich - towards Schäftlarn, Ludwigshöhe or Pupplinger Au, preferably with a panoramic view of the Alps.
But it's not just sport that excites her - she's also a fan of Munich's diverse cultural events. From concerts and stand-up comedy to art and theater, it's all covered. She recently attended a concert by indie artist nand from Würzburg - "I was particularly impressed by the artistic design and the atmosphere." But she also enjoys going to the theatre regularly. The last play that really impressed Lena – The Lobster at the Volkstheater.
