As a research assistant at MIT's Media Laboratory, Bernd worked in Neil Gershenfeld's Physics and Media Group and the Things-That-Think research consortium. His research focused on machine-learning techniques to model string instruments, with the ultimate goal of building a Digital Stradivarius. Bernd applied the modeling techniques in a variety of commercial and artistic applications including a digital marching cello and a giant polyphonic floorboard for the Flying Karamazov Brothers.

In the fall of 2000, right at the beginning of the dot-com bust, Bernd and four of his MIT colleagues co-founded ThingMagic, LLC in a garage not far from MIT. ThingMagic initially was run as a technology development and prototyping firm, but began to focus on the development of RFID reader technology within a couple of years of operation. In 2005, after five years of bootstrapping, ThingMagic converted itself into a C-Corporation, hired a full-time CEO, attracted tens of millions in venture capital investments, and completed its transformation into an RFID product company. The RFID marketplace was booming, and investors, users, and vendors alike fully expected to make millions . . . until it became clear that few users were willing to spend money on RFID. ThingMagic buckled down, shrunk, and survived the RFID crisis as well as the world economic crisis that followed soon thereafter.

In 2010, ThingMagic sold itself to Trimble Navigation, a multi-billion dollar, multi-national, public technology company. Since then, Bernd has held the role of VP Business Development, focusing his efforts on applying RFID within key Trimble verticals, such as c onstruction and mobile computing.

Bernd holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Rheinisch-Westphaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen, where he was Valedictorian of his class, and a degree in Industrial Engineering from Ecole Centrale de Paris. He received his Ph.D. from the MIT Media Laboratory in 2000. Bernd lives with his wife in Cambridge, Massachusetts and New York City.