Mag. Michael Föls, MSc.

Software Engineer - Web Developer

Michael Föls

Based in Vienna, Austria

Contact me: michael.foels@gmail.com
Academic Profile: Google Scholar
Portfolio Photography Travel Blog

Short Bio

I’m Michael Föls (born August 12, 1986 in Waidhofen/Ybbs, Austria) - a software engineer, researcher, and photographer working at the intersection of technology, design, and visual storytelling.

I hold an MSc in Information Systems (WU Vienna, 2015) with a specialization in Information Systems Engineering. My award-winning work on Privacy by Design included a privacy awareness app developed with input from Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems, featured by outlets such as ORF, Der Standard, Computer Bild, and CHIP. In parallel, I completed a second master’s degree in Theatre-, Film- and Media Studies (University of Vienna), where I focused on mobile design principles and responsive data visualization in collaboration with Weblyzard.

Over the years I’ve contributed to research projects including DIVINE, uComp, Decarbonet, CommuniData, and ReTV. I was the lead frontend developer on our side in a cooperation with NOAA and the White House for the Climate Resilience Toolkit, presented by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (2014) and later nominated for a Webby Award (2015). I’ve also led web projects for partners such as Microsoft, Nintendo, and Ubisoft, and helped refresh and rebuild the website of Modul University Vienna as part of my work there.

In 2016, I co-founded In Frame with my wife, where I’m responsible for the IT infrastructure and also work as a wedding photographer. I later returned to Weblyzard and WU Vienna to pursue doctoral research with a focus on recommender systems. More recently, I co-founded Storypact and led frontend development.

Today, I work as a freelance full-stack developer (PHP, iOS, and Android) - and in 2025 I co-founded the Travel Blog Muvamo, where we launched our first product, the Vienna Travel Guide.

Hire me

If you are interested in hiring me as a Freelancer, please contact me at any time at michael.foels@gmail.com. I am an accomplished full stack PHP developer, with a special focus on web design and web development, especially with the CMS frameworks Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress and Typo 3. I am also experienced in developing Android and iOS Apps with Java and Swift. I put a special emphasize on mobile and responsive design and I am obsessed with details. I can also help you with your SEO and Social Media activities.
Contact me

Career

Muvamo
November 2025 - Present
Co-Founder
Co-Founder & Travel Content Creator at Muvamo, where we build and scale a curated travel media brand and launched our first product, the Vienna Travel Guide. I lead the web development with a focus on UX, performance, and SEO, while also owning the editorial and visual direction regarding photography and storytelling.
Photography
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Photoshop
PHP
JavaScript
AWS
Wordpress
Storypact
May 2023 - Present
Co-Founder
My main focus is full stack web development in PHP and JavaScript, with a special focus on responsive design and performance optimization. I am the Leading Frontend Engineer and also Co-Founder of the company.
PHP
JavaScript
AWS
jQuery
Bootstrap
CSS
HTML
Responsive Design
Wordpress
Linux
Freelancer
February 2017 - Present
Software Engineer & Web Developer
Active in the area of full stack web development, from web design to the programming (mainly using PHP and JavaScript). I am also developing mobile applications for iOS/tvOS in Swift and Android in Java. I am specialized in frontend development with a special emphasis on mobile design (using mainly the concepts of responsive web design). Additionally I help clients with web hosting, backup solutions and performance optimization using AWS technologies. Furthermore, I am supporting customers in their long term IT integration and also with their SEO and Internet Marketing strategies.
PHP
JavaScript
jQuery
Bootstrap
CSS
HTML
Facebook API
Twitter API
Google API
Swift
Java
Responsive Design
AWS
Joomla
iOS
tvOS
Android
SEO
Internet Marketing
Social Media
Linux
In Frame
November 2016 - Present
Photographer & Co-Owner
Together with my wife I founded In Frame. I am responsible for the whole IT infrastructure, Accounting & Controlling and I am also working as a photographer. I covered various events for business partners like Generali, EuroVienna, Green Finance and Abbott.

In recent years I have specialized in wedding photography where I have won multiple national and international awards, including 2 first place finishes at the Austrian Wedding Award 2023 (Best Ambiance & Best Couple Portrait Landscape), a second place (Best Captured Moment) in 2021 and a third place finish (Best Detail Shot) in 2021. A first place at the Vienna State Photography Awards in 2023, second place at the Austrian National Photographer Award and was a two time representative of Team Austria at the World Photographic Cup (the Olympics of Photography).
Photography
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Photoshop
PHP
JavaScript
AWS
Weblyzard
October 2017 - April 2023
Software Engineer & Web Developer
My main focus was full stack web development in PHP and JavaScript, with a special focus on responsive design and performance optimization. I was the responsible frontend developer in cooperations with WKW and NOAA.
PHP
JavaScript
AWS
jQuery
Bootstrap
CSS
HTML
Responsive Design
Wordpress
Drupal
Linux
Vienna University of Economics and Business
October 2017 - October 2018
Researcher at the Institute for Information Business
Active in research projects with a focus on "Recommender Systems" during my doctoral studies.
Research
Modul University Vienna
April 2015 - October 2017
Software Engineer, Web Developer & Researcher at the Department of New Media Technology
The main focus was PHP and JavaScript driven web and mobile development in various projects using Drupal, Wordpress, Typo3 or custom solutions. Other tasks include the administration of Linux servers, minor social media and Google AdWords related marketing effort and also performance enhancement using AWS services like CloudFront. Minor programming efforts were done in Java and Python. Furthermore, I was doing research in various projects about the topics "Recommender Systems", "Games With a Purpose" and "Mobile Design".
PHP
JavaScript
jQuery
Bootstrap
CSS
HTML
Facebook API
Twitter API
Google API
Python
Java
Responsive Design
AWS
Drupal
Wordpress
Typo 3
Linux
Vienna University of Economics and Business
August 2011 - December 2016
Software Engineer, Web Developer & Researcher at the Institute for Information Business
I started as a Researcher and Web Developer for various projects in the area of "Games With a Purpose". After that my focus area shifted towards more general Web Development using PHP, Python, JavaScript and various CMS and frameworks. I completed projects in cooperation with NOAA, WWF and the WKO.
PHP
JavaScript
jQuery
Bootstrap
CSS
HTML
Facebook API
Twitter API
Google API
Python
Java
Responsive Design
AWS
Drupal
Wordpress
Linux
Filmering.at
August 2005 - March 2016
Founder & Core Developer
I founded the website in 2005 and remained CEO, Editor in Chief and Core Developer until March 2016 when it was discontinued due to other responsibilities. The development was done in PHP, JavaScript and a little bit of Python in the backend, using the CMS Joomla and frameworks like jQuery and Bootstrap. Furthermore, I was solely responsible for the technical infrastructure and for 18 freelance authors who contributed to the site. Also I took care of the SEO, Internet Marketing (mainly using Facebook & Google) and also wrote many of the film reviews myself.

Major development milestones were:
  • Recommender System: I developed a custom recommender framework using the existing metadata of the movies and user ratings to recommend users movies which they might like (using a customized k-nearest neighbor approach). Furthermore, I also calculated the closeness of certain movies by comparing their metadata (Cast & Crew, Genre, Mood, etc.) and ratings-profile to display related movies to a given movie. Also the user list system and the TV, DVD and cinema showtimes of the site (as discussed below) were used to enable filtering for the user (e.g. show me the best movies in cinema for me right now).
  • TV & Cinema Showtimes: In cooperation with all major german speaking TV stations (including Pro7Sat1, ORF, SRF, ARD, ZDF and many more) I developed a custom data retrieval system which pulls the TV program from the partners and renders it for our users. I also extended the same functionality for nearly all Austrian cinemas (e.g. UCI, Hollywood Megaplexx, Diesel Kino) and integrated the showtimes with our notification and recommender system. I also developed a cinema finder to enable users to find the closest cinemas in their area and display their program.
  • Custom Video Component: I developed a fully customized component, which allowed me to upload video files, and converts them to playable formats for all users. Furthermore, the frontend system for this component and the video playback system including pre-roll ads was integrated with an existing video player.
  • User Lists & Notifications: A component was created to enable users to put movies and TV-shows on their watch list and to create custom lists. The data was used to enhance the recommendations for the users, and to send them notifications, when movies they want to watch appeared on TV, DVD or in cinemas.
  • Joomla Customization: The website was based on Joomla, but nearly all components, modules and plugins where custom developed to enhance the performance or to enable new features that existing components were not able to handle.
PHP
JavaScript
jQuery
Bootstrap
CSS
HTML
Facebook API
Twitter API
Google API
Python
Responsive Design
AWS
Joomla
Film Critic
Social Media
Internet Marketing
SEO
Linux
consol.Media
March 2013 - December 2013
Web Development Leader
I took over the existing web infrastructure of the media network and as the leading web developer was responsible for maintaining and extending the websites. The tasks mainly involved extension development for Typo 3 for the big websites of the network like consol.at, gamers.at or comic-hive.info, but also the extension of the custom social network myconsol.net. Furthermore, I realized web projects for partners like Microsoft, Nintendo and Ubisoft. I was in charge of the development process until the business was closed.
PHP
JavaScript
jQuery
Bootstrap
CSS
HTML
Responsive Design
Typo 3
Linux
Weblyzard
July 2013 - September 2013
Software Engineer & Web Developer
To complete some web projects that were started during various research projects I was hired by the company Weblyzard to work as a web developer and software engineer. The tasks mainly included frontend programming using PHP and JavaScript, but also backend programming using Python and Java. The cooperation with Weblyzard was continued afterwards during my work at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and Modul University Vienna.
PHP
JavaScript
jQuery
Bootstrap
CSS
HTML
Python
Java
Responsive Design
Wordpress
Linux
Welser Profile AG
August 2005 - November 2005
Internship - Quality Assurance
Welser Profile AG
August 2004 - September 2004
Internship - Office, Digitalization
Welser Profile AG
August 2003 - September 2003
Internship - Tool Manufacturing
Welser Profile AG
August 2002 - September 2002
Internship - Production

Education

Vienna University of Economics and Business
October 2016 - Paused
Doctoral Program in Social and Economic Sciences
I was attending the Doctoral Program in Social and Economic Sciences at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, specialized in Information Systems with a research focus on Recommender Systems. During my studies I attended the Internet Science Conference 2016 in Florence and the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL) 2017 in Valencia as a presenter.
Vienna University of Economics and Business
October 2012 - December 2015
Master of Science in Information Systems
Specialization in Information Systems Engineering. Master Thesis about "Privacy by Design" in cooperation with AK Wien. Winner of the Best Student(s) Award in 2013/2014.
Universtity of Vienna
October 2006 - March 2015
Master's Degree in Theatre-, Film- and Media-Studies
Focus on film studies and media design (with a special focus on mobile design). Graduation with high honors. Master Thesis about "Success Criteria of Web Intelligence Services on Mobile Devices".
Vienna University of Economics and Business
October 2006 - May 2012
Bachelors Degree in Business, Economics, and Social Sciences
Major in Business Informatics. The bachelor thesis was about the challenges of translating services of the Learn@WU e-learning service to mobile devices. It was written in cooperation with the Learn@WU team.
HTL Waidhofen/Ybbs
September 2000 - May 2005
Matriculation (Matura) in Automation Engineering
Sports High School Waidhofen/Ybbs
September 1996 - June 2000
High School Diploma
Primary School Waidhofen/Ybbs
September 1992 - June 1996
Primary School Diploma

Skills

Programming / CMS / Frameworks

PHP10+ years
JavaScript10+ years
HTML / CSS / XML10+ years
jQuery10+ years
Joomla10+ years
Facebook / Google / Twitter APIs7 years
Python7 years
Java7 years
Bootstrap5 years
Wordpress5 years
Drupal5 years
Typo 35 years
Amazon Web Services4 years
Swift1 year

Languages

GermanMother tongue
EnglishFluently

Tasks

Web Development10+ years
SEO10+ years
Internet Marketing10+ years
Web Hosting (Linux)10+ years
Performance Enhancement10+ years
API Design and Implementation5 years
Android Development3 years
iOS/tvOS App Development1 year
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