Research Database: Projects

The ongoing digitalisation and introduction of new information systems in everyday working life means that ever larger amounts of personal data of employees are processed by their employers. This development is particularly problematic with regard to employee data protection when employees have neither sufficient knowledge nor control over the processing and thus the right to informational self-determination as a fundamental element of human dignity is threatened. To compensate for the lack of knowledge and skills in exercising the right to privacy at the workplace, Dokorand Jan Tolsdorf is designing and testing an assistance system in the form of a "privacy dashboard" for everyday work. For its prototypical implementation, design guidelines are to be derived from the mental models and privacy perceptions of employees, with the help of which data processing and data flows in the work environment can be prepared in an understandable way, sensitised to possible infringements of privacy and options for intervention can be shown, so that employees become capable of acting.

Due to the steady advance of digitalisation, it can be commonly observed that all products are increasingly developing into services in runtime contracts (subscriptions). In this context, the term "Everything-as-a-Service" (XaaS) is usually used. As a result, consumers are entering into more and more (term) contracts over which they need to keep an overview (e.g. compare, monitor terms, etc.) and interact with providers (e.g. cancel). To support this, there are already many apps, service providers and emerging start-ups. PhD student Erik Dethier is looking at how information technology can help consumers manage their contracts, finances and thus their providers. Together with his colleagues from the research group Consumer Informatics, he is conducting research on consumers and their acceptance and integration of such IT into their everyday practices, as well as on developers of such IT/apps.

Positive psychology focuses on people's strengths, resources and potentials and examines how psychological well-being and positive development can be supported. PhD student Joline Baumbach is particularly concerned with Positive Psychology in the work context, focusing on the recovery from work-related stress and the experience of flow. These two psychological constructs are related to health and performance-related variables, making them desirable states for employees as well as companies. Intervention and longitudinal studies will be used to identify and analyse underlying mechanisms of action and influencing factors. Based on this, differentiated measures to promote recovery and flow will be derived in order to positively influence the long-term health and motivation of employees.

Dynamic pricing models are no longer uncommon in some industries, especially for travel and flight bookings. In this context, prices for identical products are adjusted dynamically over time due to changing market conditions and  in real time. In her research, PhD student Lena Recki (née Cassens) is looking at the effects of this pricing policy on consumer behaviour. With her findings, she wants to show to what extent customers perceive and accept dynamic prices and furthermore what potential the model offers in industries such as food retail.   

Online remote training for assembly, operation and maintenance is advantageous in the industry to save time and money, especially when corporations have locations on several continents (e.g. automotive industry, oil companies, etc.) Currently, remote training experience is limited due to limited camera perspectives and the lack of suitable navigation techniques for the camera view depending on the task. In this PhD project, PhD student Saugata Biswas develops an autonomous camera viewpoint management system using a robotic arm in a multi-camera training scenario. This PhD thesis will focus on improving the online training experience of remote trainees. 

Ahmad Drak develops a flying robot system that is capable of efficiently exploring the ever-changing environment in which it moves. The result is a wealth of useful information that the system is designed to learn from and optimize. Firstly, it decreases the time the robot takes to explore its environment, and secondly, it reduces the energy consumption of the robot system. 

In our society, technology is still rather associated with masculinity. There have hardly been any studies on the relationship between visual technology communication and gender in Germany so far. In the first phase of her research, doctoral student Juliane Orth is therefore planning an inventory analysis (image content analysis) of current media images that depict people (in action) with technology. In addition to daily newspapers such as the FAZ, trade journals such as the Technology Review will also be examined. In a second step, the impact of existing and alternative media images will be evaluated by interviews.  

Architectural journalism is considered to be a comparably unexplored subject in academic journalism. While there are plenty of empirical studies on journalistic genres such as politics, science and technology journalism, there are few findings on architecture journalism. Yet architecture plays no less important a role in the overall social context than politics and economics. This becomes clear in urban planning and development, new housing concepts and public building projects. Doctoral student Patrycja Muc is therefore conducting a content analysis of how German daily newspaper editorial offices report on architecture. In addition, guided expert interviews with architects and journalists will shed light on the assessment of the relevance of architectural topics by both actors.  

Advanced technology makes it possible to display digital information distributed in space and even to create artificial, purely virtual realities. These kinds of augmented and virtual reality user interfaces pose new challenges to designers and users from design to use, as they differ fundamentally from conventional applications in many ways. In the context of her dissertation, doctoral student Veronika Krauß is researching the requirements that designers and users place on design tools and processes and how the design of such systems can be made more accessible. Her special focus is on the investigation of prototypes.

When thinking about a more sustainable world, it is enormously important to obtain chemical resources primarily from renewable raw materials. One possible candidate that can also be used in the long term in a wide variety of preliminary stages in the chemical industry is lignin. To this end, doctoral student Jonas Bergrath is looking at various biogenic wastes (including waste wood and pomace from winegrowing) in order to isolate lignin in as "green" a way as possible. Since lignin is extremely difficult to reproduce, he uses a wide range of analytical and computational chemistry methods to reveal possible structure-property correlations. The overall goal is to relate the physico-chemical properties (including adsorption and behaviour in solvents) to structural elements of lignin and to use it as an adsorbent for organic small molecules (e.g. pharmaceuticals) in wastewater treatment.