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Technical University of Munich

M.A. Svenja Breuer

Doctoral candidate

Science and Technology Policy

Svenja Breuer is a research associate and doctoral candidate at the Department of Science, Technology and Society (STS) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Since 2020, she has been part of the Science and Technology Policy research group. From 2020 to 2023, she worked on the bidt research project Responsible Robotics. Since 2023, she has been affiliated with the Center for Responsible AI Technologies (CReAITech), where she is part of the center’s pilot project MedAIcine (Social and Ethical Aspects of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine). In 2024, she joined the Robotics Institute Germany (RIG), contributing to the Institute’s Robotics and Society cluster. Her doctoral research examines imaginaries of healthcare robotics and AI, tracing how they take shape across public policy, technology development, and healthcare practice. 

Previously, she completed her Bachelor’s in Management of Social Innovation at the University of Applied Sciences Munich and her Master’s in Science and Technology Studies at TUM. During her Master’s, she worked at the Friedrich Schiedel Endowed Chair in Sociology of Science as part of the DFG Research Group “Practicing Evidence – Evidencing Practice“. 

  • Imaginaries of healthcare technologies
  • Robotics
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Embedded Ethics and Social Science 

ongoing projects 

completed projects 

  • Willem, T., Fritzsche, M.-C., Zimmermann, B. M. and Sierawska, A., Breuer, S. et al. (2025) “Embedded Ethics in Practice: A Toolbox for Integrating the Analysis of Ethical and Social Issues into Healthcare AI Research”, Science and engineering ethics, 31/3: 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-024-00523-y.
  • Breuer, S., Witz, S., Skerlj, J. and Braun, M., Bak, M., Naceri, A., Tigard, D. W., Haddadin, S., Buyx, A., Müller, R. (2024) “Putting Embedded Ethics and Social Science into Practice: The Role of Peer-to-Peer Relationships”, Journal of Responsible Innovation. https://doi.org/10.1080/23299460.2024.2426854.
  • Tigard, D. W., Braun, M., Breuer, S., Fiske, A., McLennan, Stuart, Buyx, A. (2024) ‘Embedded Ethics and the “Soft Impacts” of Technology‘, Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society.
  • Breuer, S., and Müller, R. (2024). “Digitalization, AI, and Robotics for Good Care and Work? German Policy Imaginaries of Healthcare Technologies.” Science and Public Policy. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scae036 
  • Breuer, S., and Penkler, M. (2024). “Between Open Deliberation and the Capturing of Public Opinion: Producing Opinions in Public Engagement.” Science, Technology, & Human Values, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/01622439241251525
  • Meissen, F.; Breuer, S.; Knolle, M.; Buyx, A.; Müller, R.; Kaissis, G.; Wiestler, B; and Rückert, D. (2024). “(Predictable) Performance Bias in Unsupervised Anomaly Detection.” EBioMedicine 101:105002. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105002 
  • Tigard, D. W.; Braun, M.; Breuer, S.; Ritt, K.; Fiske, A.; McLennan, S.; and Buyx, A. (2023). “Toward Best Practices in Embedded Ethics: Suggestions for Interdisciplinary Technology Development.” Robotics and Autonomous Systems 167:104467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2023.104467 
  • Jörg, S.; Ziethmann, P.; Breuer, S. (2023). “MedAIcine: A Pilot Project on the Social and Ethical Aspects of AI in Medical Imaging.” In HCI INTERNATIONAL 2023 POSTERS: 25th International Conference. Vol. 1832, edited by Constantine Stephanidis, Margherita Antona, Stavroula Ntoa, and Gavriel Salvendy, 455–62. Communications in Computer and Information Science. [S.l.]: Springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-35989-7_58
  • Skerlj, J., Braun, M., Witz, S.; Breuer, S.; Bak, M.; Scholz, S.; Naceri, A.; Müller, R.; Haddadin, S.; and Eisenberger, I. (2023). “Data Recording for Responsible Robotics.” In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics and Its Social Impacts (ARSO), 103–9. https://doi.org/10.1109/ARSO56563.2023.10187414
  • Breuer, S.; Braun, M., Tigard, D.; Buyx, A., and Müller, R. (2023). “How Engineers’ Imaginaries of Healthcare Shape Design and User Engagement: A Case Study of a Robotics Initiative for Geriatric Healthcare AI Applications.” In Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction (TOCHI). https://doi.org/10.1145/3577010 

  • “STS 1: Practices and Politics of Science and Technology”, Winter semester  2025/2026. 

  • Robotics in and with Society: Embedding Social Science Perspectives (SS 2025) 

  • Understanding Society (WS2024/2025)  

  • STS-STEM Mentorship: Informatics – AI – Data Science (SS 2024) 

  • Project Week: Responsible Robotics (RR-AI) (WS 2022/2023) 

  • Immersion Project: Collaborating Responsibly in Robotics & AI Research (WS 2022/2023) 

  • Responsibility for Environment and Health. Social and Cultural Perspectives on Environment, Health, Science, and Technology (SS 2022) 

  • Immersion Project: Responsible Robotics & AI (WS 2021/2022) 

  • Herausforderungen der Biomedizin (engl. Challenges of Biomedicine) (SS 2021) 

  • Immersion Project: Gene Editing in Media Discourse (WS 2020/2021) 

  • Embedded Ethics and Social Science
  • Social and ethical aspects of healthcare AI and robotics 

  • Digitalization, AI, and Robotics for Good Care and Work? German Policy Imaginaries of Healthcare Technologies, 09-Jan-2025, MA Course Making a Mess with Methods, STS Department, TUM
  • Responsible Robotics and AI for Healthcare, 13-May-2024, Seminar Biomedicine, Health & Society: Between Empowerment & Control, STS Department, TUM
  • Imaginaries of Healthcare Robotics, 22-May-2024, Lecture Series Responsibility for Environment and Health, School of Management, TUM
  • How Engineers’ Imaginaries of AI Shape Design and User Engagement, PhD Seminar Designing Human-Centred AI in Healthcare, 04-Apr-2024, University of Copenhagen
  • How Engineers Understandings of Healthcare Shape Robotics Research, Panel on Epistemologies of AI, 10-Jan-2024, NYU
  • Imaginaries of Healthcare Robotics, 17-May-2023, Lecture Series Responsibility for Environment and Health, TUM School of Management, TUM
  • Ethical, Legal, and Social Aspects in Robotics, TUM-Beijing University of Technology Exchange, 08-Feb-2023, TUM
  • Embedding Ethics in a German healthcare robotics and AI research initiative (with Maximilian Braun), iHuman Seminar Series, 16-May-2023, University of Sheffield
  • Embedded Ethics and Social Science in Responsible Robotics, 28-Sept-2022, Skydeck Spectrum, Deutsche Bahn AG
  • Responsible Robotics, 26-Jan-2022, Lecture Series of the STS Department, TUM
  • Responsible Robotics and the Ethics of Robots in Nursing, 14-Oct-2021, Schwesternschule Rotkreuzklinikum, Munich
  • Responsible Robotics (RR-AI) Working with Embedded Ethics and Social Science (with Maximilian Braun and Daniel Tigard), Ethical and Trustworthy Artificial and Machine Intelligence (ETAMI) reading circle, 16-Apr-2021, ETAMI, online 

  • STSing e.V. (board member: co-chair 2025-2027)
  • European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)
  • Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)
  • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 
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