Thomas & Luke accepted into DAAD RISE Professional Program

March 05, 2026

Thomas Zhao and Luke Guardino, both Master’s students at LiTrans, TMU, have been accepted into the DAAD RISE Professional program for summer 2026. They will spend three months at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Braunschweig, Germany, where Thomas will work on voice-based interaction in extended reality for drone operations, while Luke will focus on adaptive indexing and data structures for large-scale geospatial datasets.

Both students began their research careers at LiTrans as undergraduate research assistants, contributing to several extended reality and transportation research projects in the lab. Over the past few years, they have supported multiple studies and publications while developing technical expertise in immersive systems and data-driven transportation analysis. Their internships at DLR will allow them to apply these skills in an international research environment and further strengthen collaboration between LiTrans and leading European research institutions.