Sessions Day 2

Daniela Mitterberger is an Austrian architect and researcher in digital fabrication and human-machine interaction. Her research focuses on extended reality, spatial computing, and robotics. Since January 2026, she has been an Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich, where she leads the Architecture and Human Augmentation group. She serves on the Board of Directors of the COMPAS Association and leads the development of COMPAS XR. Prior to ETH Zurich, she was an Assistant Professor at Princeton University and co-led the Immersive Design Lab at ETH Zurich. She received her doctorate in architecture from ETH Zurich in 2023 and co-founded the multidisciplinary architecture and transmedia art office MAEID.

Zan Gojcic is Director of Research at NVIDIA in Zurich, where he leads a team focused on advancing neural reconstruction and generative world simulation for Physical AI. Their mission is to develop high-fidelity simulation environments that enable autonomous agents to be trained and evaluated in closed-loop systems. Before joining NVIDIA, he completed his PhD at ETH Zurich where his thesis was awarded the ETH medal.

Minou Afzali is Head of Research at the Swiss Centre for Design and Health (SCDH). Prior to that, she was Deputy Head of the Institute of Design Research and Professor of Social Design at Bern Academy of the Arts. Minou was also the coordinator of an interdisciplinary research group at the Bern University of Applied Sciences including experts from the fields of design, architecture, nursing, medical informatics and economics.Minou is a trained Product Designer, holds a PhD in Social Anthropology and in 2025 she received the Bern Design Award for her achievements in the field of Social Design.

Gwyllim Jahn is the co-founder and CEO of Runchat, a technology startup building design agents to augment and automate creative workflows. He is also the Creative Director of Fologram, a company he co-founded in 2017 to develop software for fabrication in mixed reality. Fologram's work has been internationally awarded, including for the 2019 Tallinn Architecture Biennale and the 2024 ACADIA Digital Practice award. Gwyllim holds a PhD from RMIT University where is a lecturer in Architecture and Design. His research on digital craft, generative design and mixed reality fabrication is the subject of an upcoming book from Actar.

 

Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Laboratory for Creative Computation, EPFL

Michael A. Kraus is Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Structural Mechanics at Technische Universität Darmstadt since April 2024. His interdisciplinary research bridges civil engineering and computer science, focusing on computational methods and artificial intelligence (AI) to transform engineering workflows from computer-aided (CAx) to AI-assisted (AIx) design, analysis, and planning. By combining human intuition with algorithmic power, his work aims to enable more sustainable yet reliable built environments. As a research-active engineer, he adheres to rigorous scientific principles to translate results into practical recommendations, standards, and scholarly publications

Demi Fang is Assistant Professor at Northeastern University (Boston) School of Architecture with an affiliate appointment in Civil & Environmental Engineering. Her research addresses the intersections of data-driven design, the human experience of structural design, and environmental impacts of structural systems. Since 2022, Demi has also been an active contributor as a subcommittee member of SE 2050, a commitment program under the Structural Engineering Institute urging the structural engineering profession to reach net zero embodied emissions by 2050.

From miner to data miner. Artem Boiko started his career underground - as a mining engineer - before becoming a BIM specialist and data-manager at leading German contractors. Today, as founder of DataDrivenConstruction.io, he mines a different kind of resource: construction data trapped in proprietary silos. He is the author of "Data-Driven Construction" book and platfom and creator of the open-source CWICR database with 55,000+ multilingual construction work items. His work combines AI agents, vector databases, and reverse-engineered CAD-BIM formats to bring transparency and automation to an industry that resists both.

Dr. Aaron Shon is Chief Scientific Officer of external page Benetics AG, a Zürich-based SaaS platform incorporating AI and improved communication to make construction field crews drastically more efficient. Prior to co-founding Benetics, Dr. Shon was at Google for 15 years, where he was an engineering director and area tech lead managing teams in YouTube and Ads. Dr. Shon holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Washington, with a research background in machine learning, computational neuroscience, and neuromorphic VLSI.

Mariana Popescu is a computational architect and structural designer exploring innovative, sustainable fabrication methods and material use in construction. She is the Class of 1942 Development Chair Assistant Professor at MIT in the Department of Architecture and the Schwarzman College of Computing. She specializes in computational design with a focus on digital fabrication and sustainable design. She earned a PhD from ETH Zurich (2019), developing KnitCrete, a 3D-knitted fabric formwork for casting doubly curved concrete geometries. She is the lead author of the award-winning KnitCandela shell and was named a “Pioneer” in MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 (2019). She has developed a number of high-profile projects, including KnitNervi at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, the Common Thread pavilion at the Triennale in Brugges and Necto at the Arsenale within the 25th Venice Architectural Biennale. Recently, she obtained a European Innovation Council Pathfinder grant to further develop fabrication-aware design methods for knitted fabric formworks.

Marija Mateljan is a lecturer and PhD candidate in the Design, Data and Society Group at TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. Her research explores perception, representation, and reasoning at the intersection of architecture and artificial intelligence. She also contributes to the interdisciplinary Data Refinery Lab, rethinking the role of data in architecture. From 2014 to 2021, she worked as an architect at KAAN Architecten in Rotterdam, contributing to diverse Dutch and international projects, where she developed expertise in design development and interdisciplinary coordination. She holds an MSc in Architecture from TU Delft.https://sites.google.com/view/marija-mateljan/work

Daniel Bolojan is a researcher and founder of Versur, an agentic AI platform for architects and designers. He is Associate Professor at Florida Atlantic University and Director of the Creative AI Lab, where his work focuses on Creative AI as a distributed, multimodal, and agentic design framework. His research develops workflow-based systems that turn design reasoning into executable processes, enabling practices to explore, evaluate, and iterate while maintaining control over decision-making. He collaborates with Coop Himmelb(l)au, where he founded and led the computational design group and developed the DeepHimmelblau project. His work spans research, teaching, and practice, and is actively translated into industry through deployed systems and platforms.

Maximilian Rietschel is one of the founders behind the widely used Grasshopper AI copilot Raven.After a BSc in Architecture he obtained an MSc in Integrated Building Systems from ETH and has since developed a host of XR and AI applications. In February 2025, he released Raven with his co-founders Moritz Rietschel and Philipp Hölzenbein.With Raven they are now exploring how AI can elevate the creative design process by deeply integrating intelligent systems into CAD-based design workflows.

Greg Demchak is vice president of emerging technologies at Bentley Systems. With over two decades of experience in architecture, engineering, and construction software, Greg has a deep understanding of digital twin technology and its potential to transform the built environment. He is responsible for leading a team of experts who work collaboratively to enhance human-computer experiences and unlock new modes of interactive communication, pushing the boundaries of what is possible through digital innovation. Greg holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree in architectural studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Deepika Raghu is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chair of Circular Engineering for Architecture, ETH Zurich, working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, computer vision, architecture, and the circular economy in the built environment. She completed her PhD at ETH Zurich and previously held a Visiting Research Scholar position at Stanford University. Deepika holds a Master’s degree in Advanced Architecture from Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, where she specialized in computational design and material reuse. Her current research develops vision–language model workflows for urban-scale facade material mapping, building stock analysis, and digital resource cadastres to support circular construction and material reuse planning.