Maximilian Schramek is a PhD Candidate in the Science, Technology, and Policy for Sustainable Change – STEP-CHANGE programme. His doctoral research, conducted in collaboration with the Innovation Task Force of the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD), investigates how Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) simulations and eco-design decision-making can inform policies for product redesign within humanitarian innovation processes, aiming to reduce environmental impacts across humanitarian aid supply chains.
He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Mechanical Engineering Management at TU Wien, where he worked in international teams on improving teaching and learning methods in engineering education. His research there also focused on the processes and tools used by engineering teams to develop innovative products, alongside supervising project-based courses designed to strengthen collaboration between academia and industry. During his master’s thesis, Maximilian participated in a joint research project between TU Wien, the Austrian Center for Digital Production, and the automotive component manufacturer Nemak, funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). His work focused on the development of a data analytics module to derive simulation parameters and automatically select probability density functions for discrete-event simulations, contributing to the creation of a digital shadow of the industrial partner’s manufacturing line.