Mobility and Technology Prof. Dr.-Ing. Tobias Leopold

Core Competences for Industry & Technology Transfer:

• Automotive Service Technology & Maintenance Strategies: Comprehensive service concepts, Prognostics and Health Management (PHM), and Remaining Useful Life (RUL) prediction.
• Reliability Engineering & Lifetime Testing in automotive engineering (incl. Accelerated Life Testing).
• Statistical Verification of product releases, failure forecasting (Weibull analysis), and statistical support of testing and field failures (for targeted warranty and liability mitigation).
• Experimental Methodology & Data-Driven Decision Making (Design of Experiments / DoE & statistical analyses).

Technology Transfer & Industry Collaboration

I welcome inquiries from industry partners regarding applied research projects, practical engineering challenges, and expert exchanges in reliability engineering and lifetime testing.

Lectures:

• Technical Mechanics (Bachelor FSB, FZB, ELB)
• Vehicle Technology seminar (Bachelor FSB, FZB)
• Vehicle Engineering 1 (Bachelor FZB)
• Service Engineering (Bachelor FSB, FZB)
• Testing and Field Monitoring (Bachelor FSB, FZB)
• Reliability Engineering (Master DDM, FZM)
• Design of Experiments (Master FZM)

• Since 2019: Professor of Automotive Engineering & Service Technology (Focus: Automotive Service Engineering) at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences
• Extensive industrial experience in leading engineering and management roles (e.g., BMW Group, Knorr-Bremse Systeme für Nutzfahrzeuge GmbH, Andreas Stihl AG & Co. KG):
  • Disciplinary team leadership for corporate reliability management as well as expert and methodological responsibility (incl. DoE, statistical validation, and series development)
  • Strategic quality management, field data analysis, recall management, and quality-driven review of sourcing decisions for the executive board
  • Responsibility for complex component and system testing and physical validation in safety-critical applications

Selected Publications, Presentations & Academic Activities

Selected Conference Papers & Publications

• T. Leopold: Reliability testing with or without failures – test planning and results evaluation. In: International Conference on Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering (CMAME), 2025.
• T. Leopold: Reliability Demonstration Testing of Redundant Systems. In: Proceedings of the 29th ISSAT International Conference on Reliability and Quality in Design, 2024.
• T. Leopold: Determination of sample size and test duration of Reliability Demonstration Tests. In: Eurobrake, 2023.
• T. Leopold: Estimation of uncertainties in sample results and their impact on Reliability Demonstration Tests. In: Proceedings of the 28th ISSAT International Conference on Reliability and Quality in Design, 2023.
• T. Leopold: Planning and evaluation of reliability demonstration testing with uncertainties. In: Proceedings of the Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference (PSAM 16), 2022.
• T. Leopold: Zuverlässigkeitsnachweis entlang des Produktentwicklungsprozesses – Herausforderungen in der praktischen Umsetzung. In: 30. VDI-Tagung Technische Zuverlässigkeit, 2021.
• M. Dazer, D. Brautigam, T. Leopold, B. Bertsche: Optimal planning of reliability life tests considering prior knowledge. In: Proceedings of the Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS), 2018.
• T. Leopold: Ganzheitliche Datenerfassung für verbesserte Zuverlässigkeitsanalysen. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Stuttgart, 2012.

Selected Presentations & Committee Activities

• Testing procedures for verifying a quantitative product reliability target – requirements, similarities, and differences. Presentation at the International Symposium on Reliability and Safety Engineering (ISRERM), 2026 (Mini-Symposium Organizer & Session Chair).
• Reliability testing with or without failures – test planning and results evaluation. Invited Plenary Talk at the International Conference on Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering (CMAME), 2025 (Invited Speaker & Session Chair).
• Dealing with redundant systems at Reliability Demonstration Tests. Presentation at the International Conference on Materials and Reliability (ICMR), 2024.
• Opportunities, Challenges and Limitations of Reliability Demonstration Tests. Presentation at the Reliability and Maintenance Management Review (RMMR), 2023.

Peer Review & Academic Engagement

Regular reviewer activity for international academic conferences in the fields of reliability engineering, system safety, and automotive engineering (long-standing reviewing commitments for leading conferences).