Railway Brake Systems

Raphael Pfaff is Professor of Rail Vehicle Engineering at the FH Aachen University of Applied Science. He also serves as a chair of Rail Vehicles at RWTH Aachen University since February 2025. After an apprenticeship as cabinet maker, he studied Mechatronics, Mathematics and Control Engineering in Bochum, Hagen and Coventry, respectively. He gained his master's degree in control engineering in 2006, and joined Siemens as a system engineer in that year. In parallel, he was pursuing his PhD studies in part-time at Coventry University . In 2008, Raphael Pfaff moved to Faiveley Transport, a railway company, which is now part of Wabtec. There, he started working as a brake system engineer e.g. for the Vectron locomotive and the new German high speed train ICE4. In 2014 he applied for a professorship role in rail vehicle engineering at the FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences, where he is currently responsible for the undergraduate course in rail vehicle engineering. His research interests cover: digitalization, modeling and simulation, prognostics and health management of rail vehicles, as well as the development of self-driving capabilities for railway shunting.