The AsTeRICS Foundation team is an interdisciplinary group of people with backgrounds in computer science, electronic engineering, health and rehabilitation engineering. We develop individual solutions together with our clients and share the enthusiasm for Open Source Assistive Technology. The core staff of the AsTeRICS Foundation are:

Beni is a passionate Embedded Systems engineer with a strong background in both HW and SW and the lead developer of the FLipMouse and other hardware-related projects. He acts as the CTO of the AsTeRICS Foundation.

Veronika lead the competence field for biomedical engineering at the UAS Technikum Wien, where she teached in the study program health and rehabilitation engineering. She applied Assistive Technologies and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) in research and teaching. Veronika now works as clinical project manager at Otto Bock Austria.

Martin is currently the main developer of the AsTeRICS software and a Java enthusiast. In his role as CFO of the AsTeRICS foundation, he is also responsible for the financial tasks of the organization. Furthermore, he has a background in rehabilitation engineering and worked as personal assistant for people with disabilities.

Steffi works as an occupational therapist and conducted a comprehensive survey on AsTeRICS Ergo with a peer group. She organizes user involvement and contributes to the workshop program.

Benjamin is the lead software engineer for web-based technologies and the creator of AsTeRICS Ergo and Ergo Grid. His developments constantly improve the user experience of various AsTeRICS solutions.

Alija is fluent in web technologies and software development, and especially interested in AI-based embedded assistive tools, in particular for supporting people with visual disabilities. He is currently working at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien in the Inclusion International project, together with Martin Deinhofer.

Gerhard is deputy managing director and technical manager at the Competence Network Information Technology for Promoting the Integration of People with Disabilities (KI-I). He studied computer science at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz and has been involved in more than 50 projects with partners from the public sector, directly with business partners, and in national and European research projects. He has been involved in accessible web design since 1997 and has been an advocate for open source technology ever since.

Martina is a psychologist with practical experience in addiction prevention and many years of expertise in the field of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). She has written scientific papers on drug initiation and consumption behavior among adolescents in Austria and has led integration groups of an after-school care center of the municipality of Vienna as well as support and learning groups of children with dyslexia and dyscalculia. For the past 12 years she has been managing the LIFETool Vienna Counseling Center for Assistive Technologies for people with a physical and/or cognitive impairment.

Manuela Santos is a communication pedagogue (AAC course, University of Cologne) and works at a special school. She supports the development of AsTeRICS Grid with marketing, ideas for features and the creation of grid sets.

Johannes develops, produces and distributes the mobile Braille keyboard Oskar. Together with blind and visually impaired people, he develops new approaches to digital manufacturing and the Maker Movement.

Chris is one of the initiators of the AsTeRICS research project (EU FP7, 2010-2013), which laid the basis for further R&D projects in the sector of ICT-based Assistive Technology at the UAS Technikum Wien. He is responsible for project management and currently acts as the chairman of the AsTeRICS foundation.

Wolfgang studied electrical engineering at the Vienna University of Technology. Since 1986, he has headed Fortec Elektronik, where technical aids for disabled persons as well as for old and infirm people are developed. In 2006, he accompanied the founding of Treventus Mechatronics. Zagler came up with the product idea for the ScanRobot, a fully automatic scanner for books, which was awarded the EU's Information and Communication Technologies Prize at the Cebit trade fair in Hanover in 2007. Zagler also created a reader for the blind, various types of Braille displays, printing systems and translation software for Braille, and is now engaged in the company Tetragon and in Open Source Assistive Technology Solutions for low income countries.

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