After his service at NATO air force Hayo A. Knoop studied political economics at the University of Essen and computer science at the University of Dortmund. His diploma thesis covered 3D planning of single-step skull bone resections within the German Research Foundation project Eu-49-1/1. In 2005 he received a PhD at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) after writing his thesis on automatic device registration based on intraoperative computed tomography supported by a cooperation with MAQUET GmbH & Co. KG, Rastatt and the National Research Center 414. After that he worked in a