From a question to my own work
I’m Raphael, a software developer and entrepreneur from Upper Austria. I started programming at thirteen because I wanted to build things that did not exist. Little has changed except the scale.
I run Stoicera Group with Sebastian Kern. As a partner and managing director, I contribute to every project, usually as Head of IT. This includes hands-on development and coordinating freelancers, partners and AI-assisted workflows. Building means taking responsibility for technical decisions and for working together.
My background combines software and entrepreneurship with digital service responsibility and teaching: service owner for the intranet and newsroom at WU Vienna, and IT lecturer at BBRZ Vienna. It also includes Schulmittag, Austrian Business Magazine and my AI and cognitive-system work. The latest documented status is below.
Writing and music are part of my work too. At christlichdenken.at I contribute to a library on faith, the Bible and Christian life, and co-author its free book. My personal approach to faith is described below.
Career stages & roles
Professional activities, documented status · July 2026
- Responsible for
- Intranet & WU Vienna’s newsroom as service owner, part-time for the project’s duration.
- Building
- Schulmittag: expanding our school meal platform across Austria, step by step.
- Running
- Stoicera Group with Sebastian: fair software pricing, pro bono for churches and NGOs.
- Researching
- Cognitive architectures and local AI (nerve, NOUS, granit).
- Publishing
- Austrian Business Magazine: independent Austrian business and technology analysis.
My focus is developing and operating software and building my own projects. Teaching and writing help make technical decisions understandable and test them against other perspectives.
To me, engineering is the purest form of creation.
As a software engineer, I love connecting understanding with making. An idea becomes a system people can use, combining scientific foundations, creativity and practical work. A design must be testable against reality.
- Understand
- Models, mathematics and scientific findings help me understand a problem and why an approach works under particular conditions.
- Create
- Engineering needs imagination: seeing possibilities, rearranging connections and creating something new. I see a kinship with art.
- Test
- In practice, assumptions meet real requirements. An experiment, prototype or observed error shows what the design needs to change.
- Become useful
- Technical work should make a concrete task easier to solve. Its value also depends on whether others can use it.
- Bring together
- Software touches technology, people, organisations and economics. A good solution considers these perspectives together.
- Weigh trade-offs
- Time, effort, security, clarity and maintainability can conflict. Engineering means making reasoned decisions under those conditions and examining their consequences.
Further education & certificates
My ongoing education includes these completed cybersecurity and AI-in-teaching courses. Certificates document course completion; linked course pages describe content and providers.
Zero Trust Cybersecurity Foundation
Zero Trust and Zero Trust Architecture fundamentals: principles, components and implementation considerations.
Completed · Certificate of Completion
Cyber Threat Management
Classifying and analysing cyber threats and examining technical and organisational safeguards.
Completed · Certificate of Completion
Foundations of IT Security and Risk Management (ITSRM)
Introduction to IT security and risk management methodology.
Completed · Certificate of Completion
Becoming an artificial intelligent competent teacher
Self-paced course on AI in teaching. Completed after all sections, a self-assessment and a multiple-choice quiz.
Completed · Certificate of Completion · · 15–20 hours
Competence areas listed on the certificate
Within the European Commission’s SELFIEforTEACHERS framework. Levels refer to the listed areas of digital teaching competence.
- Professional engagement – Reflective practice
- Learners’ digital competence – Responsible use
- Teaching and learning – Teaching
- Professional engagement – Professional learning (about digital technologies)
Theory that holds up in practice.
A good idea should meet reality. Practical work shows which assumptions hold, where a design falls short and what to ask next.
I want to state as fact only what I am convinced of. Beliefs, suspicions and aspirations should be named as such. Especially when describing myself, I want to distinguish what I do from the standard I am still trying to meet.
- Build to last.
- Software should outlive the trend that inspired it.
- Fair prices, always.
- Clear offers and a pro bono programme for selected non-profits.
- Open source by default.
- Research belongs to everyone. The work is on GitHub.
- People at the centre.
- Work serves people, not the other way round.
Create your own opportunities.
What speaks to me in this film quote is taking action to create an opportunity: learning, working, trying and taking the next step. It fits how I understand practice and engineering.
“What I believe, sir, is that good things come to those who work their asses off and that good people — such as yourself — who reached the top of the mountain didn’t just fall there. My motto is: If you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket.”
Quote source: Wikiquote
Writing, faith & music
I believe in Jesus and try to follow his example. Whether I meet that standard and am a Christian is not for me to decide. That is why I do not call myself Christian or Catholic. Faith is a path I want my actions to follow.
At christlichdenken.at I help write a library on faith, the Bible and Christian life. Its articles are also available as a free book.
Under my full name Raphael René Lugmayr, I compose contemporary classical music. Audio versions and scores are in the music section. Writing and music give room to questions beyond a software description.
Public profiles & sources
This website is my own account of my work. These sources provide context for projects, professional roles and publications.
For professional purposes, I send my detailed CV on request. Copyable biographies and photos are in the press kit.