Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johannes Betz

Main research topics

My research focuses on holistic software development for mobile robots and autonomous vehicles with the goal of developing the next generation of intelligent autonomous systems. By developing new algorithms for environmental awareness, path and behavior planning, and control, these robots will be able to interact with each other and with humans while operating safely, efficiently, and powerfully. A big focus of my research is the integration of Ai-based techniques to achieve end-to-end models. With these innovative algorithms, it will be possible to efficiently and effectively make the right decisions, especially in complex and uncertain environments. Simulation environments and various real-world vehicle platforms like autonomous cars, quadruped robots, and humanoids are used to generate data and validate these algorithms. With real-robot deployment, safe and trustworthy autonomy will be enabled across a wide range of highly integrated robotic applications.

Vita

Johannes studied Automotive Engineering at Coburg University of Applied Sciences (B.Eng., 2013) and the University of Bayreuth (M.Sc., 2013), as well as Philosophy of Science and Technology at the Technical University of Munich (M.A., 2019). From 2013 to 2018, Johannes was a research associate at the Technical University of Munich, where he earned his Dr.-Ing. degree in 2019 with a dissertation on the “Evaluation of an Intelligent Fleet Dispatching System for Mixed Vehicle Fleets.” From 2018 to 2020, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Automotive Technology at the Technical University of Munich, where he founded the TUM Autonomous Motorsport team, which has since competed successfully in international competitions. From 2020 to 2022, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, where he worked in the xLab for Safe Autonomous Systems. In 2023, he was appointed Rudolf Mößbauer Professor at the Technical University of Munich, where he holds the Professorship of Autonomous Vehicle Systems in the Department of Mobility Systems.

Full CV as PDF

Awards & Honors

07/2026     Supervisory Award - Excellent PhD Supervision (TUM, School of Engineering and Design)
07/2026     2nd Place, Teaching Award "Seminars" - BGU (TUM, School of Engineering and Design)
05/2026     Best Paper Award, CPS-IOT Week 2026, Saint Malo, France
10/2025     1st Place, Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League 2025 (with TUM Autonomous Motorsport)
07/2025     1st Place, Teaching Award "Lecture" - BGU (TUM, School of Engineering and Design)
10/2024     1st Place, Teaching Award "Lecture" - BGU (TUM, School of Engineering and Design)
10/2024     New Generation Star Project Award, IEEE IROS 2024, Abu Dhabi, UAE
08/2024     Best Interactive Presentation Award Finalist, IFAC NMPC 2024, Kyoto, Japan
04/2024     Outstanding Reviewer Award, IEEE IV 24, Jeju Island, Korea
04/2024     1st Place, Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (600k$ Prize - with TUM Autonomous Motorsport)
01/2024     1st Place, Indy Autonomous Challenge@CES Las Vegas (with TUM Autonomous Motorsport)
10/2023     1st place, Best Lecture Award (TUM, School of Engineering and Design)
08/2023     1st place, CommonRoad Challenge, IEEE ITSC 2023
02/2023     Best Presentation Award, IEEE ICCCR 2023    
12/2022     IEEE ITS Outstanding Application Award (with TUM Autonomous Motorsport)
11/2022     IEEE ITS Young Professional Travel Fellowship
03/2022     DAAD AInet Fellow 2022
01/2022     1st Place, 3rd Japan Automotive AI Challenge
01/2022     2nd Place, Indy Autonomous Challenge@CES Las Vegas (with TUM Autonomous Motorsport)
10/2021     1st Place,  Indy Autonomous Challenge (1 Million $ Grand Prize - with TUM Autonomous Motorsport)
06/2021     2nd Place, Indy Autonomous Challenge Ansys Simulation Race (with TUM Autonomous Motorsport)
10/2020     Best Paper Award, IEEE CiSt 2020, Agadir, Morocco
11/2019     Best Student Paper Finalist, IEEE ICCVE 2019, Graz, Austria
11/2019     PhD graduation with highest distinction (summa cum laude)
10/2019     1st Place, Roborace Season Alpha Event 5 (with TUM Autonomous Motorsport)
07/2019     Young Author Award, IFAC IAV 2019, Gdansk, Poland
11/2018     Selected for German-Japan Young Professional Exchange Program 2018
05/2018     1st Place, Roborace “Human + Machine Challenge” (with TUM Autonomous Motorsport)
09/2017     Nvidia GPU Grant: Sponsoring of one “Titan Xp” GPU
04/2012     3rd best graduate in Bachelor of Engineering at FH Coburg

Service to Academic Community

Journal Committees
06/2024 – present      Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles (T-IV)
01/2023 – present      Associate Editor, IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems (OJ-ITS)
05/2022 – 05/2023     Guest Editor, Field Robotics Journal, Special Issue on “Autonomous Racing”
10/2020 – present      Associate Editor, SAE International Journal of Connected and Automated Vehicles

Conference Committees
05/2026       Student Activies Co-Chair & Organizer, 2026 IEEE ICRA, Vienna, Austria
12/2025       Organizer, 1st German Autonomy Summit (GAS), Munich, Germany 
11/2025       Program Committee, 12th Automated Driving Symposium 2025, Munich, Germany
03/2025       Organizer, 1st German Robotics Conference (GRC), Nürnberg, Germany
11/2024       Website Chair & Organizer, 2024 Conference on Robot Learning (CORL), Munich, Germany
05/2025       Program Committee, 2024 IEEE MOST Conference, Newark Delaware, USA
05/2024       Workshop Co-Chair & Organizer, 2024 IEEE ICRA, Yokohama, Japan
05/2024       Publicity Co-Chair & Organizer , 2024 IEEE MOST Conference
11/2023       Program Committee, 11th Automated Driving Symposium 2023
06/2023       Tutorial Co-Chair & Organizer, 2023 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), Alaska, USA
05/2023       Program Committee, 2023 IEEE MOST Conference
12/2022       Program Committee, 5th Robot Learning Workshop at the NeurIPS 2022
10/2022       Program Committee, 2022 IEEE EVER Conference
01/2022       Program Committee, ITS Workshop at  IEEE COMMSNET 2022
12/2021       Program Committee, 4th Robot Learning Workshop at NeurIPS 2021
10/2021       Program Committee, 2021 IEEE EVER Conference
10/2020       Program Committee, 2020 IEEE EVER Conference

Other Committees
01/2024 – present      Committee Member, VDI expert committee on automation/networking
01/2024 – present      Leading Co-Chair, IEEE RAS Technical Committee on AGV-ITS 
01/2023 – present      Committee Member, VDA  Working Group “Autonomous Driving”
05/2023                      Jury Member, Robothon – The Grand Grand Challenge
01/2023 – present      Strategic Planning Committee, The Autoware Foundation
03/2022 – 12/2023     Junior Co-Chair, IEEE RAS Technical Committee on AGV-ITS 
01/2021 – 12/2022     Working Group Leader (together with Christian John), The Autoware Foundation