Jakob Welner

My mindset is R&D through a mixed background of arts, biology and engineering where I often reach beyond my curriculum for solving interdisciplinary challenges. Through 8+ years of professional experience my broad know-how has repeatedly been a valuable asset, both as a specialist and for communicating between departments, sparring with experts and developing holistic solutions across many fields.

I have successfully applied my proficiencies for: designing motion and gestures for creating empathetic and appealing robots, developing and building interactive robot prototypes, developing behaviour for hero characters on Hollywood movies at Oscar-winning animation companies, software R&D and implementation of streamlined digital workflow at various production companies, understanding and translating customer needs into concrete products and consulting for product development of an inertia-based motion capture suit.
I have participated in several award winning projects including a novel soft-robotic exoskeleton based on my own idea, a Carlsberg commercial winning Commercial of the Year in Denmark, as well as being featured both as a software developer of an Open Source toolbox that I created for Autodesk Maya and as artist on a high-ranking website for animation artist portfolios.

I am passionate about robotic behaviour, interaction and appeal, a sustainable future and healthcare systems through the lens of behavioural sciences, arts and engineering.

My skills further extend to a deep specialization in 2 key areas:

• Bio-Inspired robotics (6 yrs): Combining biomechanics and neuroscience with mechanics, electronics an control engineering
  
• Character animation (8 yrs): Leading an audience through a story, understanding human empathy and attention and creating appealing behaviour