CV
Contact Information
| Name | Kevin Bretz |
| Professional Title | MSc student in Computer Science & AI |
| k.o.bretz@umail.leidenuniv.nl | |
| linkedin.com/in/kevin-bretz |
Professional Summary
MSc student in Computer Science & AI at Leiden University, graduating January 2027. I’m most drawn to real-time interactive systems, reinforcement learning, and AI that collaborates with people in creative work rather than replacing them, and I’m looking for PhD and research positions in that direction.
Education
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2025 - 2027 Leiden, The Netherlands
MSc
Leiden University
Computer Science — Artificial Intelligence
- Coursework across: reinforcement learning, deep learning, audio processing, robotics, sports data science, game AI, evolutionary algorithms, AI & art, recommender systems, AutoML, and multi-criteria optimization and decision analysis.
- Thesis on causal rhythmic and harmonic grounding for real-time music accompaniment, supervised by Prof. Aske Plaat and Dr. Derya Soydaner.
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2019 - 2023 Cologne, Germany
BSc
Cologne University of Applied Sciences (TH Köln)
Media Technology
- Specialised in image analysis, audio/visual production and computer graphics.
- Thesis (at KLIPPEL GmbH): “Automated measurement of the directivity of loudspeakers and microphones under non-ideal conditions.”
Experience
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2023 - 2024 Dresden, Germany
Student Assistant / Data Scientist
EKFZ — Kather Lab, Dresden University Medical Center
AI-driven cancer research.
- Trained and evaluated computer-vision models that predict molecular biomarkers from tumour-tissue scans, with data from collaborating hospitals worldwide. Ran preprocessing and training on HPC clusters with cross-validation. Co-author of the BMC Biology paper above.
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2022 - 2023 Dresden, Germany
Intern & Bachelor Thesis Student
KLIPPEL GmbH
Loudspeaker & acoustic measurement technology.
- Automated loudspeaker and microphone directivity measurement outside an anechoic chamber, using a robotic polar scanner and impulse-response windowing. Benchmarked against anechoic and near-field holography measurements (IEC 60268).
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2021 - 2022 Cologne, Germany
Student Assistant
Cologne Cobots Lab
Human–robot interaction research lab.
- Helped develop a customer-service robot for train stations, working on the NLP and on creating, animating, and lip-syncing its avatars.
- Ran and evaluated user studies.
Teaching
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2026 - 2027 Leiden, The Netherlands
Teaching Assistant
Leiden University
Courses in the Computer Science & AI programme.
- Robotics (Feb – June 2026).
- Audio Processing & Indexing, Evolutionary Algorithms, and Introduction to Deep Learning (Sept 2026 – Jan 2027).
Publications
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Nov 2026 Towards Intelligent Instruments: From One-Shot Tools to Collaborative Music AI - A Survey and Position
MW:MR 2026, Berlin — accepted, preprint on PubPub
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Nov 2026 Playing Along in Time and Key: Causal Rhythmic and Harmonic Grounding for Real-Time Music Accompaniment
ISMIR 2026 Late-Breaking Demo, Abu Dhabi — accepted
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Sept 2026 Silent Metronome: Rhythmic Grounding for Live Music Accompaniment
arXiv:2609.07688
Talks
- Towards Intelligent Instruments. MW:MR 2026, Berlin, 4 Nov 2026.
- Playing Along in Time and Key. ISMIR 2026 Late-Breaking Demo session (remote), 12 Nov 2026.
Skills
Machine learning: PyTorch, deep learning, reinforcement learning, computer vision, NLP, generative models (VAEs & diffusion), HPC / cluster computing
Programming: Python (primary); also Java, C#, JavaScript
Audio & creative tools: FL Studio, Unity, Blender
Languages: English and German (native), Spanish (B1)
Schools and conferences
- Una Europa Summer School on AI and Creativity, University College Dublin (June 2026), a programme for doctoral researchers.
- Conferences: AIMC 2026, Berlin (Sept 2026), MW:MR 2026, Berlin (Nov 2026), ISMIR 2026, Abu Dhabi (virtual, Nov 2026) and SMC 2026, Zagreb (Nov 2026).