Manuel Mennicken has been a Research Assistant at the Institute for Machine Elements and Systems Engineering at RWTH Aachen University since 2023. He studied Industrial Engineering with a focus on Mechanical Engineering and a specialization in Product Development at RWTH Aachen University, where he received his Master of Science degree in 2022. Since 2026, he has served as Team Lead for Modular Drivetrain Models in the Systems Engineering department. His research focuses on the integration of virtual and physical testing methods within Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). In his doctoral research, he investigates methods to support Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) testing by automating the generation of HiL simulation models from SysML-based system architecture models.