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

Multimodal presentation and exploration of time-dependent real-time data by blind people

Contact Person: Emma Etzold

Keywords: Human-Computer-Interaction, multimodal data presentation, Haptification, Sonification

The visualisation of dynamic data is a standard method to analyse and derive information from them quickly. When monitoring time-dependent real-time data streams (e.g., machine monitoring in a production context), visualisations (e.g., dashboards) are often used to quickly overview the data volume and temporal progress. Most data representations are purely visual and use visual abilities to convey information from data quickly. However, a purely visual data representation excludes blind people from professional data monitoring.

In this research area, multimodality is used to enable greater inclusion of blind people in data monitoring. The aim is to develop a multimodal, non-visual method for exploring real-time data streams using off-the-shelf mobile devices and wearables, enabling blind people to analyse them independently.

In this context, the following research questions are interesting:

• Which (multimodal) approaches of data presentation are equally suitable for blind and sighted people? (Information/data visualisation)
• Which non-visual output media can be usefully combined with each other? (Perception and interpretation of output media)
• How can the user’s attention be focused on certain events (e.g., exceeding thresholds)? (human-activity-recognition)
• Which input modalities can be usefully combined with each other? (interaction)
• How can blind people interact with real-time (e.g. via gestures, voice)?

More information about the project can be found on the project website:  MONITOR - Multimodale Präsentation und Erkundung von zeitabhängigen Echtzeitdaten durch blinde Menschen

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?

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?

Completed Theses

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