About Me
I am currently employed at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel as a doctoral researcher through the Helmholtz School for Marine Data Science (MarDATA).
In my PhD project at GEOMAR I investigate how geoscientists use interactive and immersive 3D data visualization and how these workflows can lead to reproducible results and insights.
I am working with the Unreal Engine to create immersive tools for interactive visualization, both in VR as well as spatially immersive multi-projection environments using Virtual Production technology.
Previously my interest and experience has been mostly in functional programming and natural language processing, where I have worked with Haskell, Scala, and Python, my "daily driver" programming language.
I have worked with machine learning pipelines on high-performance computing clusters using CI/CD, Docker, and Kubernetes.
My tech stack is rounded out by Web development experience using Angular and Python Flask.
In my free time I am interested in a lot of different things. Topics on which I could probably hold a spontaneous, improvised 30 min talk include:
Experience
Doctoral Researcher & Software Developer
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
& Helmholtz School for Marine Data Science (MarDATA)
since Nov. 2021
- Development of interactive and immersive scientific 3D data visualizations
- Research on the reproducibility of (collaborative) scientific sensemaking workflows in immersive environments
- Maintenance, calibration, and operation of a multi-projection dome
- Science communication, outreach, and scientific publishing
Software Developer & Research Assistant
University of Würzburg
Chair for Human-Computer Interaction
2018 - 2020
- Front- and Backend development in Haskell and JavaScript
- Project: Decker, an e-authoring tool for web-based teaching content
- Part of an agile five-person development team
B.Sc. and M.Sc. Computer Science
University of Würzburg
2014 - 2021
Projects
Virtual Fieldwork in Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine project for immersive virtual fieldwork, visualizing 3D photogrammetry models of the seafloor
Built for head-mounted display VR and the ARENA2, a spatially immersive projection dome
- Unreal Engine
- VR
- Virtual Production
- Photogrammetry
- Visualization
The Digital Lab Book
Web application built in Angular with a Python Flask backend
A provenance visualization and management tool for immersive and collaborative visual analytics
Connects to a visualization application (e.g. Unreal Engine) via REST API and tracks interaction and visualization states
Allows history management (undo/redo), organization of observations in a mind-map, annotation of interaction steps, and git actions such as branching
Overview video: https://youtu.be/SuQaYorDuTU
- Python
- Flask
- TypeScript
- Angular
- CI/CD
- REST API
ARENA2 ROV Previsualization
Unreal Engine project for the ARENA2 as previsualization demo for a new remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and deep-towed undersea camera sled for photogrammetry
Preview video: https://youtu.be/R_I8qIaQZmE
- Unreal Engine
- Virtual Production
- Photogrammetry
- Visualization
Personal Portfolio Website
A responsive, single-page web application built using the latest version of Angular.
Hosted on GitHub Pages using the custom domain arbertrary.dev
Includes interactive sections, seamless navigation, and a clean, modern design
You're already here! View the code on GitHub:
- Angular v19
- TypeScript
- HTML/SCSS
Angular MindMap
A simple mind map application implemented in Angular, currently for use on desktop browsers.
Demo: arbertrary.dev/angular-mindmap/
- Angular
- TypeScript
- HTML/SCSS
Semantic Change Detection (on Twitch.tv chat messages)
Master thesis source code (2021)
Investigated changes in the meaning of words over time and different domains on a text corpus of Twitch.tv chat messages
Found semantic change in words related to the Covid-19 pandemic (dataset spanning 2019-2021)
Found domain-specific semantic change between different Twitch.tv stream categories
- Python
- Kubernetes
- Docker
Fine-Tuning GPT-2
Programming project during M.Sc. (2019)
Implementation of a web crawler for a german internet forum
Successfully fine-tuned a small GPT-2 model to be able to complete prompts in the German language at a time where this was not yet supported by public GPT models
- Python
- Pytorch
- Kubernetes
- Docker
Decker
While not a personal project, I am proud to have contributed to the software Decker, a markdown based tool for slide deck creation based on Pandoc and Reveal.js
Presentation created in Decker: EuroVA 2023 Talk
- Haskell
- JavaScript
- HTML/CSS
Publications
Virtual Fieldwork in Immersive Environments Using Game Engines
2025Computers & Geosciences
@article{bernstetter2024virtualfieldwork,
title = {Virtual fieldwork in immersive environments using game engines},
journal = {Computers & Geosciences},
pages = {105855},
year = {2025},
issn = {0098-3004},
doi = {10.1016/j.cageo.2025.105855},
author = {Armin Bernstetter and Tom Kwasnitschka and Jens Karstens and Markus Schlüter and Isabella Peters},
keywords = {Immersive analytics, Virtual fieldwork, Ocean science data, Game engines, Virtual reality, Collaborative},
}A Practical Approach to Provenance Capturing for Reproducible Visual Analytics at an Ocean Research Institute
2023EuroVis Workshop on Visual Analytics (EuroVA)
@InProceedings{bernstetter2023practical,
author = {Bernstetter, Armin and Kwasnitschka, Tom and Peters, Isabella},
booktitle = {EuroVis Workshop on Visual Analytics (EuroVA)},
title = {{A Practical Approach to Provenance Capturing for Reproducible Visual Analytics at an Ocean Research Institute}},
year = {2023},
publisher = {The Eurographics Association},
doi = {10.2312/eurova.20231095},
}Spatially Immersive Visualization Domes as a Marine Geoscientific Research Tool
2023Workshop on Visualisation in Environmental Sciences (EnvirVis)
@inproceedings{kwasnitschka2023spatially,
added-at = {2023-07-20T16:27:05.000+0200},
author = {Kwasnitschka, Tom and Schlüter, Markus and Klimmeck, Jens and Bernstetter, Armin and Gross, Felix and Peters, Isabella},
booktitle = {Workshop on Visualisation in Environmental Sciences (EnvirVis)},
doi = {10.2312/envirvis.20231102},
keywords = {facility immersive visualization},
publisher = {The Eurographics Association},
title = {Spatially Immersive Visualization Domes as a Marine Geoscientific Research Tool},
year = 2023
}A Software Visualization Approach for Multiple Visual Output Devices
20242024 IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT)
@inproceedings{hansen2024softwarevisualizationapproachmultiple,
author={Hansen, Malte and Bielfeldt, Heiko and Bernstetter, Armin and Kwasnitschka, Tom and Hasselbring, Wilhelm},
booktitle={2024 IEEE Working Conference on Software Visualization (VISSOFT)},
title={A Software Visualization Approach for Multiple Visual Output Devices},
year={2024},
volume={},
number={},
pages={101-105},
keywords={Visualization;Urban areas;Collaboration;Virtual reality;Software systems;Browsers;Synchronization;Monitoring;—software visualization;city metaphor;web;3D;collaborative interaction;program comprehension},
doi={10.1109/VISSOFT64034.2024.00020}}
}Emote-Controlled: Obtaining Implicit Viewer Feedback Through Emote-Based Sentiment Analysis on Comments of Popular Twitch.Tv Channels
2020ACM Transactions on Social Computing
@article{kobs2020emote,
address = {New York, NY, USA},
articleno = {7},
author = {Kobs, Konstantin and Zehe, Albin and Bernstetter, Armin and Chibane, Julian and Pfister, Jan and Tritscher, Julian and Hotho, Andreas},
doi = {10.1145/3365523},
issue_date = {May 2020},
journal = {Trans. Soc. Comput.},
keywords = {Twitch analysis emotes feedback masterarbeit sentiment},
month = apr,
number = 2,
numpages = {34},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
title = {Emote-Controlled: Obtaining Implicit Viewer Feedback Through Emote-Based Sentiment Analysis on Comments of Popular Twitch.Tv Channels},
volume = 3,
year = 2020
}