Offene Themen für Projekt- und Diplomarbeiten

Students interested in topics related to usable security and privacy have the opportunity to do their master theses / bachelor theses / practical research project (Einzelpraktikum) at the CODE Research Institute for Cyber Defense (University of the Bundeswehr, Munich). More information on the research group on Usable Security and Privacy Group can be found on our website.

We offer a large variety of topics, including but not limited to:

• Tangible Security/Privacy Mechanisms (Contact: Sarah Delgado)
• Human Behavior and Physiology in Security Contexts (Contact: Felix Dietz)
• Social Engineering and Phishing (Contact: Verena Distler)
• Behavioral Biometrics (Contact: Lukas Mecke)
• Usable Security in Smart Homes (Contact: Sarah Prange)
• Novel Security Mechanisms based on Gaze (Contact: Yasmeen Abdrabou)
• Physiologicacl Security (Contact: Mariam Hassib)
• Security and Privacy in Augmented Reality (Contact: oliver.hein ät unibw.de)

If you are interested in working with us, please get in touch with the respective contact person.

Problem Statement

This thesis aims to quantitatively explore the phenomena of "mobile phone rabbit holes". You will be re-designing an experience sampling questionnaire and implementing it into a prototype that collects and labels data relevant to mobile phone rabbit holes. This thesis seeks to deeply explore and examine the context of mobile phone rabbit holes, as a tool for individuals, and research bodies, to understand smartphone use behaviours better.

Tasks

• Customisation of an existing (!) experience sampling prototype in Android (Kotlin)
• Run data collection study
• (MT only:) Quantitative data analysis with Python
• Write a report (EP) or thesis (MT) and present your findings in the Disputationsseminar
• (Optional:) co-write a research paper

Requirements

• Basic knowledge of user research
• Experience with Android development (Kotlin)
• (MT only:) Experience with Python data analysis

Description

Electrodermal activity (EDA) denotes the measurement of continuous changes in the electrical conductance properties of the skin in response to sweat secretion by the sweat glands. EDA is autonomously modulated by sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity, a component of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which is involved in the control of involuntary bodily functions as well as cognitive and emotional states. Specifically, phasic EDA activity correlated with stress, cognitive load, and attention orienting. Therefore, measuring phasic EDA responses can give us information about the user's state.In this thesis project, we want to develop an adaptive system that modifies the visual complexity of the VR environment based on changes in phasic EDA. Specifically, we want to use new signal processing methodologies termed adaptive thresholding and gaussian filtering.The research consists of three main stages: (1) validation of the psychophysiological inference underpinning the adaptive system (2) implementation of a working VR prototype, and (3) an evaluation of the adaptive environment.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an existing VR environment
• Implement an preprocessing pipeline for phasic EDA detection
• Collect and analyze electroencephalographic (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA) and electrocardiography (ECG) data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, MNE).

References

• Fairclough, S. H. (2009). Fundamentals of physiological computing. Interacting with computers, 21(1-2), 133-145.
• Chiossi, F., Welsch, R., Villa, S., Chuang, L., & Mayer, S. (2022). Virtual Reality Adaptation Using Electrodermal Activity to Support the User Experience. Big Data and Cognitive Computing, 6(2), 55.
• Babaei, E., Tag, B., Dingler, T., & Velloso, E. (2021, May). A critique of electrodermal activity practices at chi. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-14).
• Kleckner, I., Wormwood, J. B., Jones, R. M., Siegel, E., Culakova, E., Heathers, J., ... & Goodwin, M. (2021). Adaptive thresholding increases ability to detect changes in rate of skin conductance responses to psychologically arousing stimuli.

Description

Mixed reality (MR) systems refer to the entire broad spectrum that ranges from physical to virtual reality (VR). It includes instances that overlay virtual content on physical information, i.e., Augmented Reality (AR), and those that rely on physical content to increase the realism of virtual environments, i.e., Augmented Virtuality (AV). Such instances tend to be pre-defined for the blend of physical and virtual content. To what extent can MR systems rely on physiological inputs to infer user state and expectations and, in doing, adapt their visualization in response? Measurement sensors for eye and body motion, autonomic arousal (e.g., respiration, electrodermaland heart activity), and cortical activity (e.g., EEG, fNIRS) are widely used in psychological and neuroscience research to infer hidden user states, such as stress, overt/covert attention, working memory load, etc.However, it is unclear if such inferences can serve as useful real-time inputs in controlling the presentation parameters of MR environments.In this thesis project, we will investigate whether this blend can be adaptive to user states, which are inferred from physiological measurements derived from gaze behavior, peripheral physiology (e.g.., electrodermal activity (EDA); electrocardiography (ECG)), and cortical activity (i.e.., electroencephalography (EEG)). In other words, we will investigate the viability and usefulness of MR use scenarios that vary in their blend of virtual and physicalcontent according to user physiology. In particular, we will focus on understanding how physiological readings can passively determine the appropriate amount ofvisual information to present within an MR system.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an MR environment
• Adapt existing processing pipeline for EEG and EDA data
• Collect and analyze electroencephalographic (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and electrocardiography (ECG) data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, Neurokit)

References

• Lotte, F., Faller, J., Guger, C., Renard, Y., Pfurtscheller, G., Lecuyer, A., & Leeb, R. (2012). Combining BCI with virtual reality: towards new applications and improved BCI. In Towards practical brain-computer interfaces (pp. 197-220). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
• McGill, M., Boland, D., Murray-Smith, R., & Brewster, S. (2015, April). A dose of reality: Overcoming usability challenges in vr head-mounted displays. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2143-2152).
• Fairclough, S. H. (2009). Fundamentals of physiological computing. Interacting with computers, 21(1-2), 133-145.

Description

Biocybernetic adaptation is a form of physiological computing where real-time physiological data from the brain and the body can be used as an input to adapt the user interface. In this way, from the physiological data, we can infer the user’s state and design implicit interactions in VR to change the scene to support certain goals. This thesis aims the develop and evaluate an adaptive VR environment designed to maximize users' performance by exploiting changes in real-time electroencephalography (EEG) to adjust the level of visual complexity. The research consists of three main stages: (1) validation of the input EEG measures underpinning the loop; (2) implementation of a working VR prototype; and (3) an evaluation of the adaptive environment. Specifically, we aim to demonstrate the sensitivity of EEG power in the (frontal) theta and (parietal) alpha bands to adapt levels of visual complexity.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an existing VR environment
• Implement an online biocybernetic loop using EEG
• Collect and analyze EEG, EDA, and ECG data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity and/or C#
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, MNE).

References

• Biocybernetics Loops and Physiological Computing
• Development of an Adaptive Game using EEG frequencies

Description

Research from cognitive science and computerized displays of simple stimuli has shown how perceptual load is a critical factor for modulating distraction. Perceptual load is the amount of information involved in processing task stimuli. According to Lavie (1995), our attentional resources are limited and mainly directed towards task-relevant goals, but we might be more prone to distractors if we have cognitive spare resources. Previous research showed that human faces have bigger distracting power than non-face objects. This project aims to assess the distracting potential distracting effect of human avatars in a social VR scenario. We aim to transfer of traditional paradigms that assess attention and distraction to immersive VR. Lastly, we adapt the target-distractor recognizability to evaluate if a physiologically-adaptive system that optimizes for perceptual load can support task performance. The research consists of three main stages: (1) validation of the psychophysiological inference underpinning the physiological loop (2) implementation of a working VR prototype, and (3) an evaluation of the adaptive environment.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an existing VR environment
• Implement an online biocybernetic loop using EEG and/or EDA
• Collect and analyze electroencephalography (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and electrocardiography (ECG) data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity and/or C#
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, Neurokit, MNE).

References

• Perceptual Load of faces
• Perceptual load and task engagement
• Evaluating perceptual load in VR

Description

Physiological computing is a multidisciplinary research field in HCI wherein the interaction depends on measuring and responding to the user's physiological activity in real-time (Fairclough, 2009). Physiological computing allows for implicit interaction; by monitoring the physiological signals of the user, the computer can infer, e.g., if the task demands are either too challenging or easy, and either adapt the difficulty level or when users are getting distracted from the task, the system could give them a notification. Measuring the psychological state of the user creates intriguing possibilities for Social VR scenarios as we can either adapt the number of displayed avatars, their form or even their proxemic distance. This thesis aims the develop an adaptive Social VR environment designed to support users' performance when engaged in a cognitive task using a measure of physiological state (electrodermal activity: EDA) as input for adaptation. The research consists of three main stages: (1) validation of the psychophysiological inference underpinning the physiological loop (2) implementation of a working VR prototype, and (3) an evaluation of the adaptive environment.

You will

• Perform a literature review
• Modify an existing VR environment
• Implement an online biocybernetic loop using EDA
• Collect and analyze EEG, electrodermal activity (EDA) and electrocardiography (ECG) data
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need

• Strong communication skills in English
• Good knowledge of Unity
• Good knowledge of Python libraries for scientific computing (e.g. Scipy, Neurokit).

References

• Biocybernetics Loops and Physiological Computing
• Adapting task complexity of a Social VR environment based on skin conductance

Imagine Bob's office is connected via a (quantum-)encrypted connection to a server. How could Bob access this server from his home office if he does not have the necessary hardware at home? Well, he could get keys in his office and save them on his personal key-safe token. He could subsequently use the token at home and connect to the server.

The topic of offline distribution of cryptographic keys is interesting for researchers and practitioners alike, even outside the QKD context. Your thesis would evolve around the evaluation of already existing consumer devices that could be used to store and transport QKD-keys (or symmetric cryptographic keys in general).

Description

This projects purpose is to investigate in building a full body tracking system based on self-made trackers which are usable by the HTC VIVE and its Lighthouses. We want to compare the original HTC VIVE tracker with a varying amount of self-made trackers in order to use it for VR sport analysis.

Tasks

• Building a set of at least 10 tracker based on the enclosed literature
• Implementation of an application for testing purposes
• Compare the existing Tracker with the self-made tracker in terms of usability for VR sport analysis

Preferred qualification

• Experience in hardware and software prototyping
• Experience in C# programming for Unity 3D
• Interest in performing experiments
• Interest in performance enhancement in sports

Suggested Reading

• The HiveTrackers will serve as the foundation for the self-made trackers Tracker foundations
• This project can help to create suitable sensors Sensor foundations

Description

Development of a method in virtual reality to measure user behavior or user states (occupant monitoring) in the automotive domain.

Tasks

• Comprehensive survey of related work
• Define the concept
• Develop and implement your concept
• Conduct a user study to test and verify your concept
• Analysis, reflection and discussion of the outcomes

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Able to organize and perform user studies and experiments
• Interest and experience in Software Development
• Interest in Psychology
• Experience with programming based on practical projects
• Bonus: Experience with Unreal Engine
• Bonus: Experience with Virtual Reality Development

Contact

Description

Car accidents are a significant concern, as they claim a high number of yearly fatalities. These accidents have been accounted to originate from recognition errors, including driver's inattention, internal and external distraction, and inadequate surveillance, causing decision errors. These errors can be attributed to a lack of situation awareness.Thus the development of a tool to measure people's situation awareness in VR could be very beneficial. It could be used to assess the user's situation awareness and compare different scenarios and interfaces and their respective effects.

Tasks

• Comprehensive survey of related work
• Define the concept
• Develop and implement your concept
• Conduct a user study to test and verify your concept
• Analysis, reflection and discussion of the outcomes

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Able to organize and perform user studies and experiments
• Interest and experience in Software Development
• Interest in Psychology
• Experience with programming based on practical projects
• Bonus: Experience with Unreal Engine
• Bonus: Experience with Virtual Reality Development

Contact

Description

Smoking lead to long-term health issues, causes death and big costs in the economy and health system. Many people would like to stop smoking, but many attempts stay unsuccessful. That is why new ways of treating nicotine addiction are being sought. Virtual Reality (VR) has developed rapidly with many important technical advancements that is becoming more widely available and user-friendly. This opens new therapy possibilities.

Tasks

• Comprehensive survey of related work
• Define the concept
• Develop and implement your concept
• Conduct a user study to test and verify your concept
• Analysis, reflection and discussion of the outcomes

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Able to organize and perform user studies and experiments
• Interest and experience in Software Development
• Interest in Psychology
• Experience with programming based on practical projects
• Bonus: Experience with Unreal Engine
• Bonus: Experience with Virtual Reality Development

Contact

Description

In this thesis project, we will investigate how an AI-system learns characteristics about the user through interaction patterns and user reactions. The final goal is a system in a specific domain, that adapts to the user based on their characteristics.

Tasks

• Comprehensive survey of related work in the research area of user profiling, interaction design and related psychology topics
• Find (based on an interesting usecase) one user characteristic, which is possible to detect based on interaction patterns or user reactions
• Develop and implement your concept
• Conduct a user study to test and verify your concept
• Analysis, reflection and discussion of the outcomes

Requirements

• Independent scientific work and creative problem solving
• Able to organize and perform user studies and experiments
• Interest and experience in Software Development
• Interest in Psychology
• Experience with programming based on practical projects

Contact

Due to the advances in Artificial Intelligence technologies and Robotics, the field of Human-Robot Interaction is currently able to envision robots as constant collaboration partners for a magnitude of daily tasks. With robots being exposed to different environments and human needs, they need to be able to learn multiple different personalized tasks. Currently, this is mostly done with Robot Learning from Demonstration. However, due to the sheer amount of possible tasks, objects, and interactions, it is an impossible task to teach robots every subtask manually. Thus, we propose that enabling curiosity for robots; giving them an intrinsic desire to learn.

In this thesis, we will investigate the human aspect of this learning process. Teaching other humans new skills is a hard job, but humans clearly see a long-term benefit. Thus, humans are kind and supportive and therefore, also show a new skill multiple times. Will this be the same for training our domestic robot? For example, showing them how to cook? or simply how to open a drawer? Moreover, when giving the robot humanoid characters are humans more likely to put more effort into training their robot?

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Identify possible design dimensions
• Develop a study apparatus using the dimensions
• Conduct an evaluation study
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) Co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Good knowledge of study design
• Good knowledge of data analysis
• Good knowledge of statistical evaluation
• (Optional) ROS skills

References

• Automatic Class Discovery and One-ShotInteractions for Acoustic Activity Recognition

In the future, humans collaborating closely with cobots in everyday tasks will require handing each other objects. So far, researchers have optimized human-robot collaboration concerning measures such as trust, safety, and enjoyment. However, as the objects themselves influence these measures, we need to investigate how humans perceive the danger level of objects.

In this thesis, we will investigate how dangerous humans perceive objects in various scenarios. For this, we will extend the list provided by Leusmann et al. [1].

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Generate an extended item list
• Record ground truth data for each item, e.g., taking pictures
• Evaluate the danger of each item in a large-scale online study, e.g., using Prolific
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) Co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Good knowledge of data analysis
• Skilled in photography
• (Optional) Skilled in 3D modeling

References

• [1] A Database for Kitchen Objects: Investigating Danger Perception in the Context of Human-Robot Interaction

In this thesis, we will conduct a replication study of existing work by Voit et al. [1] and Weiß et al. [2], which examined the influence of the research method when evaluating smart artifacts or situated visualizations. They compared five research methods, namely Online Survey, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Laboratory (Lab), and In-Situ in a study with 60 participants. While Voit et al. [1] incorporated heavy interaction and found differences across the research methods, Weiß et al. [2] had little to no interaction and show no difference.

In this replication study, we want to examine if the findings of Voit et al. [1] or Weiß et al. [2] are transferable to other tasks. Therefore, we will exchange the smart artifacts and situated visualizations with four human-robot collaboration tasks.

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Identify possible human-robot collaboration taks
• Develop a study apparatus with the new task allowing to be used in the five research methods
• Conduct an evaluation study
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) Co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Prior knowledge in Unity for AR and VR development
• Good knowledge of study design
• Good knowledge of data analysis
• Good knowledge of statistical evaluation
• (Optional) ROS skills

References

• [1] Voit, Alexandra; Mayer, Sven; Schwind, Valentin; Henze, Niels (2019) Online, VR, AR, Lab, and In-Situ: Comparison of Research Methods to Evaluate Smart Artifacts. Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM.
• [2] Weiß, Maximilian; Angerbauer, Katrin; Voit, Alexandra; Schwarzl, Magdalena; Sedlmair, Michael; Mayer, Sven. (2020) Revisited: Comparison of Empirical Methods to Evaluate Visualizations Supporting Crafting and Assembly Purposes. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

Inhalte

Das bayerische Landesforschungsinstitut fortiss und IBM werden im Rahmen des IBM fortiss Center forAI das Thema Stress-Management für sicherheitskritische Anwendungen erforschen. Dafuür wird einKonzept entwickelt, um Stress bei Einsatzkräften der Feuerwehr zu überwachen und managen. Die Ideen werden prototypisch umgesetzt und präsentiert. Die Workshops und Gespräche während desPraktika können entweder in englischer oder deutscher Sprache gehalten werden.

Bewerbung

Beschreiben Sie kurz Ihre Motivation, relevante Fachkenntnisse, beispielsweise aus früheren Kursen,Jobs und anderen Projekten, die Ihre Fähigkeiten in einem oder mehreren der folgenden Bereichedemonstrieren: Programmierung, Benutzererfahrung, Nutzerstudien, Prototyping.
Senden Sie es anyuanting.liu ät fortiss.org

After an initial induction into existing marker technologies and conducive 3D printed objects, the goal is to design and build new a machine learning (ML) pipeline to detect conductive markers. Therefore the prototyping of physical markers is required, these will be used to record capacitive tangible footprints using the screen of a large capacitive screen as ML ground truth data. Based on that a model will be trained to distinguish and classify capacitive markers on touchscreens using a new ML classifier.

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Building capactive marker
• Recoridng data for the training
• Train a ML model using TensorFlow
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Good knowledge of data processing
• Good knowledge of machine learning

References

• Super-Resolution Capacitive Touchscreens
• 3D Hand Pose Estimation on Conventional Capacitive Touchscreens Submission

The goal of this work is to get an overview of the vast variety of selection methods in smart environments, mixed reality, and VR. Through a literature review, the first step is to select a handful of selected methods. Therefore, in the next step, these interactions need to be implemented, to allow them to be compared in a lab study. Here, the aim is to compare these technologies with respect to measurements such as accuracy, speed, immersion, presence, and their effect on the embodiment.

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Investigate different selection methods for VR focusing on e.g., controller vs. controller less, absolute vs. relative, feedback vs. no feedback
• Implement the study application
• Conduct the user study
• Study data analyse and propose design guidelines
• Record video up to 5min long explaining the thesis
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english
• Knowledge of human tracking techqniues (e.g., OptiTrack)
• Good knowledge of running studies
• Good knowledge of implementation most likely using Unity

References

• The Effect of Offset Correction and Cursor on Mid-Air Pointing in Real and Virtual Environments
• Modeling Distant Pointing for Compensating Systematic Displacements
• Up to the Finger Tip: The Effect of Avatars on Mid-Air Pointing Accuracy in Virtual Reality
• EyePointing: A Gaze-Based Selection Technique
• Improving Humans’ Ability to Interpret Deictic Gestures in Virtual Reality

This project aims to use the ad hoc network functionality of iPhones to build a mesh network (especially if the provider network is down) within a manageable area). A mesh network is a network where each device can act as a router for other devices. This allows for a network that is very robust against failures of individual devices. The project will start with a literature study to find out how to build such a network. After that, the focus will be on the implementation of the network.

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Implement a mesh network
• Conduct and evaluate experiments
• Design a user interface
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and presenting them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english and german
• Good knowledge of iOS development (Swift) =
• Good knowledge of networking

References

• [Pitch] Wireless Mesh Networking App
• [Video] Build device-to-device interactions with Network Framework
• [Sample Code] Building a custom peer-to-peer protocol

With the increasing proliferation of augmented reality glasses (e.g. Hololens), we are getting closer to the vision of truly mobile interaction in a digitally augmented physical world. As a consequence, a major part of the interaction with such devices will happen on the go. This establishes a need for interaction and visualization techniques that support the user in highly mobile situations. In this thesis, we will prototype and evaluate such interaction and visualization techniques to better support users while interacting on the go.

Tasks:

• Development of interaction concepts
• Prototypical implementation
• Design and conduct a user study

Requirements:

• Good programming skills (C#, Unity is a plus)

Mixed reality describes a continuum between physical reality and complete digitality (i.e., virtual reality). Both, reality and digitality, offer inherent advantages and disadvantages depending on the use case. For example, a higher degree of digitality causes a loss of connection to the real world and, on the other hand, a higher degree of reality decreases the immersiveness of the experience.In this thesis, we will investigate how the positive and negative factors of reality and digitality affect different usage scenarios. Furthermore, we want to investigate how users can move on this continuum, i.e., how they can control the amount of digitality and reality.

Tasks:

• Development of interaction concepts
• Prototypical implementation
• Design and conduct a user study

Requirements:

• Good programming skills (C#, Unity is a plus)

We, the Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q) at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia, offer you a unique position for your Master/Bachelor thesis in the areas of human-computer interaction and infotainment systems for motorbikes.

Join us on the journey of shaping the digital future and break the cycle with newest innovation technology approaches. We are a dedicated research team based in Brisbane in the Sunshine State of Australia and look for creative and out of the box thinking minds to join our team onshore.

We work on the most difficult challenges in the automotive industry where the only limits are our own imagination. Digitalization will be key to ensure a safe riding experience in the future. Come join our creative team to shape the future of motorbikes. All in?

What awaits you?

We will work with you to shape and scope your thesis project to align with any of the following activities:

• You will prepare real-world rider studies in various traffic scenarios and different interaction concepts.
• Evaluate various output media for a safe riding experience.
• Build a pretotype with an innovative mixed approach of augmented reality and voice speech. In addition, this unique placement provides
• the ability to present and discuss your solutions with industry experts at BMW Motorrad Munich on a higher level.
• the chance to discuss the newest trends in smart voice agents with other creative minds within industry and relevant stakeholders such as the state police in Queensland with an idea to learn from them and support shaping infotainment solutions for the future.

What should you bring along?

• Currently enrolled full time in an undergraduate or graduate program at an accredited college or university studying Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), or related fields like Computer Science Engineering, Software Engineering, Informatics, Data Science. Master’s degree preferred.
• Proven experience in software development, software engineering, prototyping or similar role.
• Experience in software development life cycles (SDLC).
• Experience with software design and development in a test-driven environment.
• Knowledge of coding languages (e.g.,C++, Java, JavaScript, Python) and platforms like Unity.
• An elevated mindset that is willing to think outside of the box and sees opportunity in every difficulty.
• Being able to work in a team is key for this position.

Challenge accepted? Apply now!

Earliest starting date: 01.05.2023
Duration: 6 - 12 months
Working hours: Full-time

Mimicking gestures, postures and facial expressions during a conversation causes our human interaction partner to think more positively of us. Does the same apply to human-robot interactions? This thesis aims to explore the effect the movement style of a robot arm has on the interaction with a human.

Tasks

• Literature review on synchrony in interactions and trust in human-robot interaction
• Implementation of movement routines with a kinova robot arm
• Conduct a user study
• Statistical evaluation of results
• Write a thesis and present your findings in the Disputationsseminar

Your profile

• Very good programming skills
• Preferably prior experience with Python and ROS
• Interest in human-robot interaction
• Independent working style

Problem Statement

Smart Spaces: Der Wohnraum der Zukunft enhält nicht lediglich smarte Devices, er selbst ist smart. Smart Spaces stellen einen intelligenten Wohnraum dar, der mit seinen Bewohnern kommunizieren und mit seiner Umgebung interagieren kann. Dieses Konzept wirft eine Reihe neuer Fragen auf, die in Forschungsarbeiten beantwortet werden sollen.

Tasks

Ziel des Projekts ist die Implementation von Audio Cues (mithilfe von Surround/Single-Speakern), mithilfe derer angezeigt wird, auf was das System gerade seine Aufmerksamkeit gerichet hat und welche Intention das System gerade verfolgt. Beispiel: Aufmerksamkeit auf Kaffeemaschine; Intention ist die Zubereitung von Kaffee. Die implementierte Lösung soll mit anderen Ansätzen verglichen werden hinsichtlich UX, Akzeptanz und Motivation zur Nutzung.

Bevorzugte Skills und Interessen

• Human-Robot-Interaction (generell)
• audiophil
• Konzept-Evaluation (Design und Durchführung von Nutzerstudien)

Problem Statement

Smart Spaces: Der Wohnraum der Zukunft enhält nicht lediglich smarte Devices, er selbst ist smart. Smart Spaces stellen einen intelligenten Wohnraum dar, der mit seinen Bewohnern kommunizieren und mit seiner Umgebung interagieren kann. Dieses Konzept wirft eine Reihe neuer Fragen auf, die in Forschungsarbeiten beantwortet werden sollen.

Tasks

Ziel des Projekts ist das Designen eines Kitchen Assistants, der einem beim Kochen bzw. der Essens-Zubereitung assistiert. Denkbar sind verschiedene Szenarien:

• Assistant (dritte Hand)
• Kitchen Companion (Gesellschaft beim Kochen)
• Inspiration (Ideengeber)
• Instruction (Kochen lernen)

Bevorzugte Skills und Interessen

• Human-Robot-Interaction (generell)
• Interesse an der Domäne Smart-Spaces und Kochen
• Konzept-Evaluation (Design und Durchführung von Nutzerstudien)

Problem Statement

Smart Spaces: Der Wohnraum der Zukunft enhält nicht lediglich smarte Devices, er selbst ist smart. Smart Spaces stellen einen intelligenten Wohnraum dar, der mit seinen Bewohnern kommunizieren und mit seiner Umgebung interagieren kann. Dieses Konzept wirft eine Reihe neuer Fragen auf, die in Forschungsarbeiten beantwortet werden sollen.

Tasks

Ziel des Projekts ist das Designen verschiedener Robo-/KI-Persönlichkeiten und Implementation in einem Smart-Space. Ob eine designte Persönlichkeit angemessen ist und wie diese bewertet wird, hängt vom Kontext und der Rolle des Robots (der KI) ab. Denkbar sind beispielsweise Persönlichkeiten, die eher einer Rolle eines Dieners oder der eines Companions entsprechen. Je nach Sicht auf eine solche KI werden verschiedenen Persönlichkeiten positiver/negativer bewertet, was das Nutzungserlebnis prägt. Zusammenhänge mit persönlichen Präferenzen und eigenen Persönlichkeits-Traits sind ebenfalls denkbar.

Bevorzugte Skills und Interessen

• Human-Robot-Interaction (generell)
• Konzept-Evaluation (Design und Durchführung von Nutzerstudien)

Problem Statement

Smart Spaces: Der Wohnraum der Zukunft enhält nicht lediglich smarte Devices, er selbst ist smart. Smart Spaces stellen einen intelligenten Wohnraum dar, der mit seinen Bewohnern kommunizieren und mit seiner Umgebung interagieren kann. Dieses Konzept wirft eine Reihe neuer Fragen auf, die in Forschungsarbeiten beantwortet werden sollen.

Zielkonflikt: Es wird für Nutzer zunehmend schwieriger, komplexe (intelligente) Systeme zu verstehen; mehr Erklärung über die Funktionsweise wäre wünschenswert (Transparency). Gleichzeitig sollen sie im Hintergrund agieren und sich nicht mit Erklärungen über Ihre Funktionsweise in den Vordergrund drängen (Invisibility). Vollkommene Transparency und Invisibility schließen sich aus. Ziel ist daher eher, eine gesunde Balance - einen Sweet Spot - zu finden, der den besten Kompromiss darstellt.

Tasks

Ziel des Projekt ist die Ausarbeitung der Dimension Tranparency-Invisibility und die Entwicklung von Designlösungen für verschiedene Ausprägungen. Berücksichtigt werden sollen Nutzer-Präferenzen und Entwicklung über die Zeit. Die verschiedenen Designlösungen sollen empirisch in Nutzerszenarien im Smart-Space untersucht werden.

Bevorzugte Skills und Interessen

• Human-Robot-Interaction (generell)
• Konzept-Evaluation (Design und Durchführung von Nutzerstudien)

Problem Statement

Roboter und KI sind häufig so designt, dass sie menschliches Verhalten imitieren. Dies führt in der Folge dazu, dass sich die Interaktion falsch anfühlt (weil sie eben nur eine Imitation ist). Dieses Problem soll gelöst werden, indem ein Robot-Needs-Modell entwickelt werden soll, aus dem sich Verhaltensweisen von Roboter "natürlich" ableiten lassen. Zu erwarten ist eine als natürlich wahrgenommene Verhaltensweise.

Tasks

Ziel des Projekts ist das Entwickeln eines Robot-Needs-Modells. Hierzu sollen relevante Robot-Needs identifiziert werden und in einem Modell zusammengeführt werden. Auf Basis dieses Modells soll ein Verhaltensmodell entwickelt werden (welche Ausprägung von Needs führt zu welchem Verhalten).Das Verhaltensmodell soll exemplarisch in einer empirischen Studie getestet werden und Einflüsse auf UX und Motivation zur Interaktion gemessen werden.

Bevorzugte Skills und Interessen

• Human-Robot-Interaction (generell)
• Robot-Personalities
• User Experience
• Modellentwicklung
• Konzept-Evaluation (Design und Durchführung von Nutzerstudien)

How easy it is to read and understand a piece of code can very much depend on the code style and whether its author took care of this. Particularly novice programmers could greatly benefit from well styled code. At the same time, they can lack the experience and expertise to adhere to code style conventions in their own code.

In this thesis, you will analyze an existing data set of novice code contributions with respect to code style. Based on these insights, you will perform additional empricial experiments, i.e. using surveys, lab experiments, eye tracking studies, etc. to further determine how code style is perceived by programmers of different levels of expertise and how we can support them to create better code.

This thesis is supervised in collaboration with the chair on Technology-Enhanced Learning.

Problem Statement

This thesis aims to explore the potential of data physicalization for health-related wellbeing motivation in a private context, specifically in the areas of stress and sleep. By designing and testing a prototype that translates stress and sleep data into a physical representation, this thesis seeks to examine the effectiveness of data physicalization as a motivational tool for individuals to make positive changes to their wellbeing.

Tasks

• Perform a literature review
• Conduct Online survey
• Build a prototype
• (Evaluate prototype)
• Write a thesis and present your findings in the Disputationsseminar
• (Optional:) co-write a research paper

Requirements

• Basic knowledge of user research
• Experience with hardware prototyping

Ubiquitous computing devices allow countless micro-interactions over the day - all serving different goals. They leverage sensors, capabilities, and access to personal data to help with these goals. Today's well-established methods to give consent, such as privacy policies, are suitable for long-lasting interactions. However, with these methods, the time to consent might easily exceed the time spent on the interaction, and thus, they are unsuitable for micro-interactions with ubiquitous devices. With this project, we want to investigate the future of micro-interactions that give control to the user to protect their privacy.

You will:

• Perform a literature review
• Gain an understanding of privacy-relevant micro-interactions through expert interviews and a subsequent online survey
• Subsequent analysis of the expert interviews and online survey
• Using the insights of this first step to investigate mitigation measures through interviews and co-design sessions with privacy researchers and UX designers
• Subsequent analysis of the interviews and designs
• Summarize your findings in a thesis and present them to an audience
• (Optional) co-writing a research paper

You need:

• Strong communication skills in english and german
• Good knowledge of qualitative interview studies
• (Optional) knowledge of thematic analysis (for qualitative data)