Bio

Research&Interests

• I am curious about the foundations of computational intelligence, specifically methodologies that bridge the areas of connectionist and symbolic learning applied to real-world AI and NLP applications. I am passioned about enabling an open, interdisciplinary research & innovation culture with meaningful impact to enhance people`s lives. (see Publications and Talks)

Wordly&Vita

Ulli Waltinger is the Global Head for Artificial Intelligence & New Technologies at Siemens Advanta, before the Vice President and Global Head for Artificial Intelligence & IoT (#AIoT) at Siemens Advanta and a Fellow of the Siemens AI Lab. Prior he was the Head of the Machine Intelligence Research Group and the Technology Head of the Siemens AI Lab at Siemens Corporate Technology, Siemens’ global research organization, before, he worked at the Artificial Intelligence department and the Center of Excellence of Cognitive Interaction Technology at the University of Bielefeld.

He is curious about the foundations of computational intelligence, specifically methodologies that bridge the areas of connectionist and symbolic learning applied to real-world AI and NLP applications. He is passioned about enabling an open and interdisciplinary research and innovation culture with a meaningful impact to people`s lives. Ulli contributes with > 50 projects and products,  >40 publications and >100 talks to the fields of computer science, artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, and cognitive science.

Over the last years, he pushed and led, within Siemens, various AI initiatives, such as the Core Technology Initiative on Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence 2015, various Hackathons and Bootcamps on AI, and founded together with a passionate team in 2017 the Siemens Artificial Intelligence Lab in Munich. 

Bits&Pieces

• October 2025 – today: Global Head of Artificial Intelligence & New Technologies at Siemens Advanta

  • Leveraging Siemens‘ unparalleled deep domain knowledge, along with the proven learnings and best practices from our own factories, to deliver truly value-added services for our partners and customers.
  • It’s all about empowering them to thrive in an increasingly digital world by driving innovation in the current technologies that are already revolutionizing industries today & actively scouting and incubating emerging technologies that are poised to transform the future of our work.
    • Responsible for scaling the global AI & New Technologies practice from portfolio, capability management, strategic positioning, G2M strategy, to leading the technical implementation
    • Leading & scaling high-performance digital consulting teams from 45 people onwards
    • 8 digit budget responsibility per fiscal year

• January 2023 – September 2025: Vice President & Partner – Artificial Intelligence & IoT at Siemens Advanta

  • Combining AI & IoT technology, with digital consulting, the deep domain know, the learnings and best practices from our own Siemens factories as a value-added service for our partners and customers.
  • Responsible for scaling the global Advanced Analytics & AI practice from portfolio, capability management, strategic positioning, G2M strategy, to leading the technical implementation
    • Leading and scaling high-performance digital consulting teams from 25 to 45 people
    • 8 digit budget responsibility per fiscal year
  • Nominated Top10 for the Werner von Siemens Award 2024
    Excerpt Impact Stories:
  • Key Manufacturing Digitalization Program (F&B): Development and deployment of core applications and Azure-based IoT platform, data-driven rollout to four, then 20+ plants with impact increased overall productivity and reduced downtimes, as well as admin, maintenance and repair effort
  • Industrial Copilot for Software Automation: Development of Generative AI capabilities to generate, validate and document Siemens PLC control system code with impact leveling automation and worker efficiency
  • Optimize Production Process (F&B): Setting up a company-wide industrial AI program with clear end-to-end processes and reusable assets including industrial edge devices and AI models​ with impact cost-efficient enabling of end-2-end AI use cases
  • Forecasting Service for Cartoning MachineForecasting Service for Cartoning Machine (F&B): Implemented forecasting model with torque and temperature monitoring for cartoning machines with impact reduced material waste and unplanned machine downtimes
  • Forecasting Product Quality Control​ (F&B): An end-to-end digital solution to forecast intermediate product quality issues with impact reduce waste and increase OEE
  • Modernize Sales Process​ (Energy): Develop a Digital Sales Assistant application to enhance sales and product team productivity with impact faster lead-to-contract conversion and a ​robust data infrastructure for AI-powered ​pricing and product configuration

• May 2021 – January 2023: Associate Vice President – Artificial Intelligence & IoT at Siemens Advanta

  • Initiating new AIoT business opportunities for our partners at a global scale by shaping a culture of innovation, open collaboration, technology excellence, and customer obsession.
  • Responsible for defining the global Industrial AI practice from portfolio, capability management, strategic positioning, G2M strategy, to leading the technical implementation
  • Data-driven OEE Improvement (Battery): Improving Overall Equipment Efficiency of the laminating & stacking process of battery production by double digit OEE
  • AI-based Asset Health Analysis (Utilities): Enabled digital work order generation and asset registry update by AI asset identification and visual health assessment​ with impact reduced visual inspection and audit costs by 25%
  • AI-based Root Cause Predictor (Automotive): Implemented root cause identification for automotive bodyshop down-time leveraging domain models & process, and PLC data to increase double digit percentage efficiency
  • Predictive Maintenance for Packaging Machine (F&B): Leveraged sensor data and AI to notify operators and recommend actions to avoid unplanned downtime and to anticipate maintenance with impact reduced spare part consumption and unplanned machine downtimes
  • Forecasting Service for Filtration Process (F&B): Implemented forecasting service, that predicts volume, clogging time, and output performance of a filtration with impact of increased filtration efficiency​ & reduced efforts for operators

• April 2021 – today: Technical Fellow of the Siemens Artificial Intelligence Lab at Siemens Corporate Technology.

  • Amplify and shape the profile, collaboration, and impact of the AI Lab together with the partners of the AI ecosystem from outside-in. Enabling an open and interdisciplinary research and innovation culture with an meaningful impact to enhance people`s lives.

• August 2016 – April 2021: Head of Research Group Machine Intelligence at Siemens Corporate Technology.

  • The Machine Intelligence research group drives the progress and adoption of AI technology with meaningful impact for Siemens
  • Responsible for Siemens AI and deep learning initiatives from strategic positioning, project acquisition, coordination, budget negotiations, to technical implementation
  • 7 digit budget responsibility per fiscal year
  • Leading and shaping high-performance teams (>20) of deep learning & machine learning experts, PhDs, and excellent students (+>8).
  • Developing the AI and Machine Intelligence research strategy within Siemens Corporate Technology leading to multi-year program on Machine Intelligence and within Siemens-Atos alliance
  • Defining and implementing the core technology initiative on AI and Deep Learning within Siemens Corporate Technology leading to double digit million research invest
  • Responsible for the design, implementation, and world-wide roll-out of the corporate AI trainings curriculum for top200 CEOs and 1500 top manager
  • Enabling an open and interdisciplinary research and innovation culture with meaningful impact through greenfield, hackweek, bootcamp and various other innovation initiatives pushing the transformation
  • Technology stack: deep learning, representation learning, tensor factorization, knowledge graphs, sequence mining, information retrieval, java, python, sinequa, apache lucene, weka, scikit-learn, tableau, sas, r, pandas, numpy

• October 2017- April 2021: Founder & Technology Head of the Siemens Artificial Intelligence Lab at Siemens Corporate Technology.

  • The Siemens AI Lab is drives the accelerated implementation of innovative ideas. We provide a space for collaborative focus, where talents can work on high-impact projects in an inspiring environment. You are contributing to the future of Siemens by doing the things you are most passionate about – with 100% commitment, zero politics and minimal distractions from your usual work obligations.
  • Responsible for strategic positioning, setup definition, staffing, from idea, management inclusion, budget negotiations, to realization, and scale – establishing the new entity
  • Implementation of the incubation, coding-sprints, and acceleration formats leading to high-performance team structures with double digit impact
  • Nominated Top10 for the Werner von Siemens Award 2018 & 2019
  • Winner German Design Award 2018 for Corporate Design
  • Enabling the Siemens AI Residency program on industrial AI from process, technology footprint, to implementation leading to new talent blueprint for HR
  • Driving the end-customer co-creation implementation within orientation and incubation phases leading to business impact leads
  • Facilitating 300x talents/year, colleagues and customers towards meaningful AI-driven innovation from coding sprints, to hackathon, from AI bootcamps, to internal start-ups
  • Accelerating 30x projects/year initiatives from ideation, incubation, to scale leading to high impact within business segments and products
  • Inception of 15x partners/year from internal and external open innovation eco-systems ranging from cloud-based start-ups, applied AI entrepreneur centers, to cross-industry collaboration towards the responsible use of industrial ai

• October  2015 – July 2016: Portfolio Project Manager Semantic Machine Learning at Siemens Corporate Technology

  • Responsible for the semantic machine learning research portfolio from strategic positioning, project coordination, budget negotiations, to technical implementation
  • Lead a team >6 of deep learning & machine learning data scientists
  • Developed AI-based predictive maintenance solutions for Siemens Health computed tomography within brown-field environment to optimize down-times and increase service fleet efficiency
  • Developed AI-based smart recommendation system for Siemens Health to optimize spare part tourism and increase exchange rate efficiency
  • Setup of agile scrum-based software development environment for Siemens Health across
  • 6 teams and >2 locations for incremental builds and delivery to customer
  • Lead corporate semantic search connectivity and architecture Initiative for Siemens Energy leading to biggest search and retrieval system index within Siemens worldwide
  • Developed multiple proof-of-concepts using machine learning
  • Technology stack: deep learning, representation learning, tensor factorization, knowledge graphs, sequence mining, information retrieval, java, python, sinequa, apache lucene, weka, scikit-learn, tableau, sas, r, pandas, numpy

• Januar 2012-September 2015,  Research Engineer and Senior Key Expert at Siemens Corporate Technology in Munich.

  • Responsible for strategic positioning of AI-based and semantic question answering from acquisition, planning, to implementation, and customer deployment
  • Lead development of the IAAI-award-winning corporate question answering system for Siemens Energy used by > 4000 users in production
  • Development of smart query builder interface for fleet intelligence for Siemens Energy leading to increase customization of fleet reporting and visual analytics
  • Setup of agile scrum-based software development environment across multiple teams > 15, countries >3 , and cities > 5, leading to high-performance team structure and incremental builds and customer delivery
  • Developed NLP-pipeline for market intelligence for Siemens Energy leading to continuous market, customer, and competitor analysis
  • Lead consulting of semantic search architectures for Siemens Energy
  • Developed multiple proof-of-concepts using ai, machine learning technologies
  • Technology stack: stanford core nlp, deep learning, representation learning, tensor factorization, knowledge graphs, sequence mining, information retrieval, java, python, sinequa, apache lucene, weka, scikit-learn, tableau, sas, r, pandas, numpy

• October 2010 – December 2011: Post-doctoral research at Artificial Intelligence Group at Bielefeld University at the Excellence Cluster 277 (CITEC) project Knowledge Enhanced Embodied Cognitive Interaction Technologies

  (since October 2009 affiliated to the Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology).

  • Developed wikiqa as a real-time question answering system which enables artificial agents to explore crowd sourced knowledge resources utilizing symbolic and data-driven knowledge representations
  • Implemented wikicat as an open topic modeling framework for graph-based topic retrieval
  • Implemented nlpproc as a Natural Language Processing Engine using C++ and Java for distributional semantics
  • Implemented NLP and IR for query answering and topic detection within multi-agent-architecture of max
  • Taught course on intelligent information retrieval
  • Advised two graduate assistants on data mining and information extraction
  • Research domains: question answering, sentiment classification, topic identification, Conversational agents, human avatars, cognitive interaction, information retrieval

• November 2010: PhD in Computer Science from the Technical Faculty at Bielefeld University.  PhD was advised by Prof. Dr. Alexander Mehler in the Text Technology Group, and co-adviser Prof. Dr. Ipke Wachsmuth in the Artificial Intelligence Group.

  • Developed and implemented a topic detection system for virtual avatar Max
  • Implemented a question answering system that connects Wikipedia with virtual avatar
  • Implementing natural language processing algorithms using C++ and Java
  • Advising and instructing of two graduate assistants on data mining and information extraction
  • Enabled to build a technology which enables artificial agents to explore “crowdsourced” knowledge resources generated by large communities of web users.
  • Technology: NLP, semantic spaces, machine learning, sentiment analysis, text clustering, topic detection

• 2007 to 2010: Text Technology and Applied Computational Linguistics Department at Bielefeld University.

  • Provided statistical modeling and information management
  • Implemented and evaluated a shallow parser and preprocessing software in C++
  • Advised and instructed three graduate assistants on database management and text technology
  • Affiliated with several DFG funded research projects:
  • Induction of Document Grammars for the Representation of Logical Hypertext Document Structures as part of the Research Group Text Technological Information Modelling the BMBF- joint research project Linguistic Networks – Text Technological Representation, Computational Linguistic Synthesis and Physical Modelling
  • DFG-research project Automatic Enrichment of OAI Metadata.
  • Developed and implemented a sentiment analysis system
  • Developed (Core-Developer Team) and integrated an online web- desktop system (http://hudesktop.hucompute.org/) for scientific research groups using C++, Java, JSP and ExtJS
  • Implemented and evaluated a shallow parser and preprocessing software in C++
  • Advised and instructed three graduate assistants on database management and text technology

• 2004 to 2007:  Master of Science from the University Bielefeld –Bertelsmann-Scholarship for Thesis.

• 2001 to 2004: Bachelor of Arts (hon) from the University of Middlesex London 

• 2005 – 2011: Founder – Mediacouch, Bielefeld

  • Designed, implemented and launched more than 80 web development projects for world-wide gaming industry from DTP entertainment to Daedalic
  • Large-scale software and media consulting for M-Events in Munich, Berlin, Stockholm and Barcelona
  • Corporate web- and software development work for Karstadt, Sat1 and Reise.de
  • Designed, developed and launched online tamagotchi for Pferd&Pony
  • Designed and launched logo for Anikids
  • Technologies: Web and Software Development, IT Consulting, Digital Communication, C++, Java, PHP, ASP and Adobe Flash AS / Adobe Photoshop / Adobe Illustrator

• 1999 – 2005: Co-Founder Majormedia, Regensburg

  • Responsible for strategic positioning, project management
  • Designed, implemented and launched more than 20 web development projects for various customers
  • Developed and launched one of the first online travel guidebooks with interactive city exploration features for Dumont publishing house
  • Advised and instructed two interns on web- and print development
  • Technologies: PHP, ASP and Adobe Flash AS, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator