About
Engineering Faculty
Bio
Dr. Ragnar Lesch is an AI and machine learning leader with over 20 years of industry experience designing and deploying large-scale data and ML systems across retail, marketing, logistics, and financial domains. He has held senior leadership roles at organizations including Kohl’s, Tiger Analytics, and Sephora, where he led teams building recommender systems, causal inference models, demand forecasting and optimization engines, and enterprise ML infrastructure used at scale.
He holds a PhD in Neural Computing from Aston University, with doctoral research focused on neural network architectures and nonlinear state-space models for financial time series. His work bridges theory and practice, with an emphasis on interpretable machine learning, experimentation frameworks, and production-grade AI systems.
Dr. Lesch’s current interests focus on the fusion of classical AI with modern generative AI. This includes using large language models for feature engineering, and applying deep learning–based demand forecasting within optimization and decision-making frameworks.
Degree & Academic Institution:
- PhD, Neural Computing
Aston University, Birmingham, UK - MSc
Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
Courses Taught:
- CS 570 - Big Data Processing and Analytics
Bio
Dr. Ragnar Lesch is an AI and machine learning leader with over 20 years of industry experience designing and deploying large-scale data and ML systems across retail, marketing, logistics, and financial domains. He has held senior leadership roles at organizations including Kohl’s, Tiger Analytics, and Sephora, where he led teams building recommender systems, causal inference models, demand forecasting and optimization engines, and enterprise ML infrastructure used at scale.
He holds a PhD in Neural Computing from Aston University, with doctoral research focused on neural network architectures and nonlinear state-space models for financial time series. His work bridges theory and practice, with an emphasis on interpretable machine learning, experimentation frameworks, and production-grade AI systems.
Dr. Lesch’s current interests focus on the fusion of classical AI with modern generative AI. This includes using large language models for feature engineering, and applying deep learning–based demand forecasting within optimization and decision-making frameworks.
Degree & Academic Institution:
- PhD, Neural Computing
Aston University, Birmingham, UK - MSc
Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
Courses Taught:
- CS 570 - Big Data Processing and Analytics