Für die deutsche Version klicken Sie bitte hier

There is more than one reality

Don’t be surprised if things start to get twisty. Because my career path has been anything but straightforward.

I started my career as a secondary school teacher – first in Rapperswil-Jona and later at the Swiss International School in Rome. I taught mainly languages (German, English, French and Latin) but also history and geography. At that time, the subject “computer science” had just been introduced and no one really dared to take it on. Despite my linguistic-historical background, the adventure appealed to me and so I somehow slipped into it.

Although I enjoyed teaching a lot – after a few years it became clear to me that I was looking for a new professional challenge. So I started looking for further training at the interface of information and technology. I found it in the form of a part-time international master’s degree in “New Media Journalism”. At the same time, I switched to the media business and became a journalist at Südostschweiz Medien (now Somedia).

After completing my master’s degree, I wanted to gain more in-depth online experience – ideally at a company where the internet is the central pillar of the business model. So I joined Scout24 as a project and content manager and was responsible for corporate communications for the ImmoScout24 real estate platform.

I’m attracted by the interplay of technology and content

I had written my master’s thesis on augmented reality, and during the many discussions I had with experts, it became clear that there was a real awareness problem. At that time, the technologies were still largely unknown and hardly anyone had the opening potential on their radar. That was the reason for me to publish a practical handbook for augemented reality in 2015 together with my co-author Dirk Schart. A second and expanded edition came out in 2017: “Augmented and Mixed Reality for Marketing, Media and Public Relations“.

My next professional station combined my accumulated experience as a journalist and in the online business. I became Head of Digital Content at Ringier Axel Springer Switzerland and was responsible for building up and managing the online editorial team of the Swiss magazine “Beobachter”.

My passion for immersive technologies never faded though. Through the two book projects, I received more and more consulting requests from companies, for lectures and articles in journals. It became more and more difficult to reconcile both career paths and at some point I had to make a decision.

The circle closes

So I became a lecturer (and later professor) at the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons for Digital Business Management and Extended Reality and besides teaching, I was able to lead interesting research projects. One example is «In 5 days around the world» – the first Virtual Reality English course in Switzerland, which we designed and implemented together with Migros Club Schools (co-financed by Innosuisse).

Since 2021, I am now working at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts as a professor in the Immersive Realities Center of the department of computer science.

Getting in touch

Are you interested in immersive technologies, spatial computing or Web3? Do you want to know if you should/need to get in there right now and how to get started? Are you interested in education/further training opportunities? Do you have ideas for research projects, student internships and bachelor theses? Do you need assistance with ongoing projects? Then just get in touch with me. I look forward to getting to know you!