Niels graduated with a Dipl.Ing degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Applied Science Hamburg, Germany in 2000; obtained his MSc degree in Technology Management from the University of Portsmouth, UK in 2001 and was awarded his PhD degree in Manufacturing Engineering and Operations Management from the University of Nottingham, UK in 2006. He joined Loughborough University in 2014 as Senior Lecturer in the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Intelligent Automation. In 2017 Niels became Intelligent Automation's Centre Director. He previously worked as a Lecturer at the University of Nottingham from 2006 - 2013. Niels' research interests are in the field of intelligent automation and include manufacturing system modelling, human-machine interaction, distributed control, diagnostics and design decision-support, with a primary focus on modular and evolvable production systems and applications of artificial intelligence techniques in manufacturing. He is a member of the IEEE and contributes to the Industrial Electronics Society, Robotics & Automation Society and the Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society. He is also a member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Industrial Agents and has received a number of awards for his work, including the Outstanding Paper (2012) and Highly Commended Paper (2004) awards from the Emerald Literati Network for his publications in Assembly Automation.