Ruben Franz studied Industrial Engineering (B.Sc.) with focus on Production and Logistics at the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (DHBW) in Karlsruhe, in association with the Siemens AG. To follow his passion for cities and answer questions about their structure and functions he decided to leave the company and follow up with studying Sustainable Urban Development (M.Sc.) at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). During that time, he extended his practical experience with a one-year student trainee position at Bosch Software Innovations, a company working on digital solutions, also for urban systems. Since winter 2019 he is employed as a PhD student in the field of smart cities and sustainable urban development at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Essen.
His research interest lies in the connection of needs, functions and structures of urban spaces and how to improve their development and realisation in a changing environment. This includes questions about the viability of systems, sustainability of decisions and the necessity of shared interdisciplinary visions. Ruben’s PhD project builds upon a novel and interdisciplinary understanding of urban needs and how these are to be defined, recorded, tracked and further developed.

Contact Details

University of Duisburg-Essen
Faculty of Economics
Chair of Business Informatics and Strategic IT Management 
Prof. Dr. Frederik Ahlemann 
Universitätsstraße 9, 45141 Essen 

+ 49 201 18-34907
R09 R01 H53
ruben.franz@uni-due.de
sitm.wiwi.uni-due.de