Statistify – Statistik- & Methodenberatung DE / EN

about_me

Felix Kretschmer, M. Sc. Human Factors

I do research and teach at TU Berlin, at the Chair of Cognitive Psychology and Ergonomics, focusing on social interaction between people, virtual agents and robots. Alongside that I have worked as a freelance statistics and methods consultant and IT coach since 2016.

I studied industrial psychology with computer science as a minor and then deepened that combination in a Master’s in Human Factors – a connection between people and technology that still shapes my work today. I find my balance in sport, above all anything involving a racket and a ball.

> summary(kretschmer)
Degrees:M. Sc. Human Factors,
B. Sc. Industrial Psychology
Experiments:Social interaction with robots and in VR
Tools:LimeSurvey · R Markdown · Moodle
Roles:TU Berlin · freelance since 2016 (statistify.de)
Based in:Berlin
 

cv

Curriculum vitae

since 2024
Research and Teaching Associate, TU BerlinIPA, Chair of Cognitive Psychology and Ergonomics
  • Lecturer on “Psychology for Engineers”
  • Research focus: social interaction with virtual agents and robots

I developed “Psychology for Engineers” (PfI) into an asynchronous online lecture with teaching videos, lessons, quizzes and an e-exam in Moodle/ISIS, now taken voluntarily by more than 1,000 students each semester.

since 2016
Freelance statistics and methods consultant / IT coachstatistify.deSpecialised in LimeSurvey, R and Excel. Training courses and complex questionnaire projects for federal and state authorities, city administrations, universities and companies.

“Statistify” = statistics + simplify. And the figure in the logo is built entirely out of statistics: the head is a σ (spread), the body a μ (expected value), and the legs form a hat ^ – the symbol for an estimator. Freely interpreted: a good estimator stands on solid legs, has the expected value at its centre and always keeps the spread in mind.

2023–2024
Project Manager, Charité – Universitätsmedizin BerlinOffice of the Vice Dean for Teaching and LearningThe “Inter-Agent” project on integrating an AI-supported, interoperable intelligent tutoring system (ITS) into higher education.

I introduce the project in a short video contribution:

“Lightning Talks: Innovative Lehre und KI – U:FF 2023” · YouTube channel: Hochschulforum Digitalisierung (HFD) · 10 May 2023, from minute 21:05. In German. The video loads only after you click (youtube-nocookie.com).

2020–2022
Research and Teaching Associate, TU BerlinIPA, Chair of Cognitive Psychology and Ergonomics
  • “Psychology for Engineers” (asynchronous online lecture)
  • “Usability in SMEs” (advanced seminar)
  • “Perception and action in VR” (advanced seminar)

The regional newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reported on my lecture, which is also open to school pupils. (In German.)

2018–2019
Research Associate, TU BerlinIPA, Chair of New Media and MethodsDevelopment of a framework for millisecond-accurate reaction time experiments in virtual reality. Funded by TU internal research funding.

Differences of milliseconds reveal whether people unconsciously treat a virtual agent as a social counterpart – presented at IEEE VR 2018.

2011–2018
M. Sc. Human FactorsTU BerlinFocus areas: research methods & statistics · virtual reality · informatics in healthcare

Alongside my studies

  • Statistics tutor for “Statistical methods for complex experimental designs”, Chair of New Media and Methods, TU Berlin
  • Student assistant, Chair of Human-Machine Systems, TU Berlin
  • Part-time research assistant, HFC Human-Factors-Consult GmbH, Berlin
  • Part-time research assistant, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg

Master’s thesis: “Social Inhibition of Return in Virtual Reality. Reaction time differences as an indicator of social interaction with virtual agents.”

2008–2011
B. Sc. Industrial PsychologyLeuphana Universität LüneburgMinor: computer science
  • Student assistant from 2010 at the Institute of Experimental Industrial Psychology (LüneLab), on-road driving study on emotion research in traffic
  • Two internships and the bachelor’s thesis at Volkswagen AG

Bachelor’s thesis: “Impact of complexity on the usability of Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)”

research

Publications (selected)

Kretschmer, F. & Wiese, E. (2025). sIOR from afar: Does social context information modulate social inhibition of return (sIOR) in an online task with central cues? [Poster]. 10th Joint Action Meeting (JAM X), Turin, Italy, 9–12 July 2025. Poster as PDF
Wienrich, C.*, Gross, R.*, Kretschmer, F.* & Müller-Plath, G. (2018). Developing and Proving a Framework for Reaction Time Experiments in VR to Objectively Measure Social Interaction with Virtual Agents. IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), Reutlingen, pp. 191–198. doi:10.1109/VR.2018.8446352

* Shared first authorship

Research interests

  • Social interaction with virtual agents and robots
  • Virtual reality as a research method and as a research subject
  • Serious games, e-learning and VR/AR learning
  • AI and digitalisation in education

Committees & reviewing

  • Ethics committee of the Institute of Psychology and Ergonomics, TU Berlin, since 2024
  • “XR-Learning” (before 2025: “VR/AR-Learning”) workshops, DELFI/HDI/GMW, since 2018
  • VS-GAMES – 10th International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications, 2018

Profiles: Google Scholar · ResearchGate · ORCID

teaching

Teaching

My own courses, TU Berlin

  • “Psychology for Engineers” – asynchronous online lecture with e-exam, since 2020
  • “Perception and action in VR” – advanced seminar
  • “Usability in SMEs” – advanced seminar

Courses I have covered

  • Cognitive psychology
  • Cognitive ergonomics and systems design
  • Methods of usability engineering and testing

Voices from the course evaluations

From the official, anonymous evaluations of my courses (2020–2026), translated from the German originals.

impressions

From the lab and the lecture hall

Portrait of Felix Kretschmer
Felix Kretschmer · Photo: Christian Kielmann
NAO robot with a pen and a notepad beside a laptop
Minutes are being kept conscientiously here.
Felix Kretschmer in conversation in front of his research poster
Joint Action Meeting (JAM X), Turin 2025
A virtual agent in VR on the left, the same setup in the lab with a motion capture suit on the right
A virtual agent at the experiment table, beside the same setup in reality with motion capture
Felix Kretschmer at his desk with a NAO robot at the keyboard
Close human-robot collaboration
Course overview of my online lecture in TU Moodle with a weekly structure
Course overview of my online lecture: a weekly structure with videos, lessons and quizzes.
Still from a lecture video: lecture hall experiment on sensory memory
An excerpt from my lecture: a lecture hall experiment on sensory memory.
Bar chart of reaction times with error bars
Reaction times from the VR experiment (IEEE VR 2018)

Impressions from my research and teaching · click to enlarge

collaboration

Work together?

Whether a permanent position, a study or a research collaboration – I look forward to hearing from you.

Get in touch

Also on LinkedIn and Xing.