Student Projects

Are you interested in writing your Bachelors/Masters/Diploma thesis here at HCI? Please, have a look at the following list of possible topics or fields (plus a responsible contact) or browse through the theses in progress or finished work. Feel free to have a look at our research projects, too.

LaTeX Template for Bachelor's or Master's Theses

We offer a LaTeX template to support you writing your bachelor's, master's or diploma thesis. The template can equally be used for German and English theses and comprises common elements, such as a title page and the confirmation statement, as well as the usually used styles and formats. You can download, clone and fork the template from its GitHub repository TUD-HCI-Thesis.

Furthermore, you will find information on creating accessible documents on the website of the Working Group Services Disability and Studies (AG SBS). Especially for those who want to create accessible PDF documents using Word, PowerPoint and InDesign, there are instructions available directly within the download section of the AG SBS.

Ideas for New Theses

Conversational Agents in Mental Health Care

Contact Person: Julian Striegl

With rising numbers of people with mental health problems worldwide and an already struggling healthcare and metal health system, new solutions have to be found to improve the mental wellbeing of people from all age groups. In the past, computerized therapy approaches – such as application-based and internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) – have already been investigated and have shown to be effective for several different forms of mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder.

In the last decade the research interest in chatbot-based CBT has grown, with voice assistant-based CBT (VA-based CBT) being a possible next step towards offering scalable, low threshold, easy to use and accessible solutions for mental health support. How can we create conversational agents (such as chatbots and voice assistants) that are able to support the mental wellbeing of users through methods based in psychotherapy, positive psychology and mental health coaching?

Subject areas in this field of research include: artificial intelligence and machine learning, natural language processing, voice user interface design and interaction design combined with elements of clinical psychology and psychotherapy. Furthermore, several research questions can be derived from the central topic:

• How can we design suitable voice user interfaces that take the diverse needs of people with different communication needs and capabilities into account in order to provide accessible, low threshold therapy support?
• How does the usability and acceptance of VA-based CBT compare to chatbot-based CBT?
• Which methods from fields such as CBT and positive psychology are suitable to be presented/administered via conversational agents?
• How can we support salutogenesis through chatbots and voice assistants?
• How does an emotion sensitive dialog management affect the acceptance of and adherence to VA-based CBT?
• How does the effectiveness of VA-based CBT compare to alternative application-based and internet-based CBT approaches?

Accessible Maps for Buildings

Keywords: Accessibility, Indoor Maps

The research field Accessible Maps for Buildings addresses different problems in the field of ​​indoor maps. Therefore, problem statements such as the acquisition of building data and their use are considered. On the one hand, the resulting research field ranges from the use of computer vision to transforming escape plans into digital building plans, to SLAM processes which are used to improve maps. On the other hand, it discusses the area of ​​user-centered design to generate maps for specific user groups or develop routing applications.

Cartography of Buildings

Contact Persons: Jan Schmalfuß-Schwarz Julian Striegl

The research area of ​​the cartography of buildings deals with the generation, modelling, improvement and updating of indoor map data. In this regard, card formats are evaluated and developed which, in addition to the purely geometric representation of the building, also store information about accessibility and discuss approaches for capturing time-critical (dynamic) barriers in indoor maps. Moreover, the focus lays on solutions that make it possible to extract indoor maps from various output formats, such as architectural building plans or escape plans, using image processing and deep learning methods. Furthermore, the different solutions have to be examined in regards to their accuracy and optimized if necessary. Therefore, approaches from robotics as well as from the crowdsourcing area are used.

Usage of Map Data

Contact Persons: Julian Striegl Christin Engel

In addition to the creation of visual building maps, the usage of such maps is moreover a diverse topic. Both the generation of physical maps and their mobile use are examined using various modalities. On the one hand, it focuses on the generation of user-centered maps that address the specific needs of people with disabilities. This includes the generation of barrier-free maps (for example in the form of tactile or physical maps for haptic exploration). On the other hand, the goal of the research field is to explore mobile interaction techniques with digital maps to ensure user-friendliness for a variety of use cases and different contexts as well as user groups. This includes – among other topics – the design and creation of voice user interfaces and the accessible representation of (and interaction with) digital map data using screen readers. In this context, the use of location-based services in connection with indoor maps is also examined.

Diversity-Sensitive Human-Computer Interaction and AI

Contact Person: Claudia Loitsch

Keywords: human-computer interaction, user modeling, adaptive systems, human-cantered design, diversity-sensitive design, user experience, user research, AI.

The penetration of digitalization into all areas of life and even all age groups has led to the situation that we now perform almost all tasks in some form of computer-assisted. This means that people, with their individual experiences, expectations, abilities and needs, play an even more important role in the development of computer-based solutions and user interfaces. The overall user experience and digital participation have an increasing economic and social relevance.

This topic investigates how diversity, or the variety of people, can be taken into account in the human-cantered design of computer-based systems and AI.

The idea is that computer-based systems and applications should adapt to our individual needs, abilities, and mental models to help us perform everyday tasks as efficiently as possible and, increasingly, in enjoyable or fun ways. This requires that digital applications and user interfaces become more intelligent and can adapt to our individual characteristics, abilities or life situations. It is also increasingly important that key technologies such as artificial intelligence take diversity into account, in particular that training data is fair and balanced, and does not promote discrimination and exclusion. 

Topics will be developed with you depending on your interests. A wide range of questions can be considered in this topic area, such as:

• How do different expressions of personality traits (e.g., Big Five/OCEAN Model) affect digital design solutions?
• Which perceptual or behavioural psychological aspects, design guidelines, design decisions can be applied for diverse target groups (e.g. elderly people, people with migration background, people with cognitive impairments, etc.)?
• How can diversity be achieved and detected in training data for machine learning and AI?
• Which user models address diversity of groups or individuals that lead to a better user experience in adaptable or adaptive applications and user interfaces?

Social Assistance Robots ― Usability and Software Variability

Contact Person: David Gollasch

Keywords: Human-Robot Interaction, Robotic Cooperation, Emotion Recognition and Modelling, Software Variability, Software Ecosystems, Voice Interaction, Gesture Control, Smart Home, Adaptivity, Accessibility, Assistive Systems

Assistive technology improves or enables the participation in society as well as coping with everyday life for many people. Especially the trend of an aging society and the desire for greater inclusion leads to more significance for the field of developing powerful assistive technology. A subset of such technology is made up by social assistance robots (SARs) which are developed for various different tasks and purposes. One key issue in this regard is how to efficiently develop software for those assistive robots such that our target group of people with special needs are able to interact well with them. Thus, we need to design feasible and reliable development methodologies that lead to an appropriate human-robot interaction.

Furthermore, there arises a variety of interesting research questions. Here are some examples:

• How should diversity-sensitive voice interaction look like (related fields: voice user interfaces, conversational user interfaces, artificial intelligence)?
• How to implement assistance robot activities that dynamically match specific requirements (related fields: adaptivity, UI software variability, artificial intelligence)?
• What input modalities should be supported by an assistance robot (related fields: gesture controle, emotion recognition and modelling)?
• How to embed the assistance robot into its environment (related fields: smart home integration, context-sensitivity, ambient assisted living, ADL recognition)?

Improving Presence Lecturing for Blind and Visually Impaired People 

Contact Person: Jens Voegler 

During lectures, exercises and seminars, interactive whiteboards and slide shows are used quite regularely. By using latest Web technologies, the accessibility of those media for blind and partially sighted people can be improved.

Physical Information Visualisation

Contact Person: Meinhardt Branig

Physical Information Visualisation for Big Data Exploration for Blind and Visually Impaired People.

Completed Theses

As soon as theses are listed within the TUD Research Information System, they will be listed below.