Ecological HCI – Project Work & Master Thesis

Within the Human-Computer Interaction Master we are supporting and supervising Project A, B or C, current research seminar or a master thesis. The topics for this work should address issues of environmental management and conservation or explore the role digital technologies play in such contexts and practices.

Contexts and topics can include nature protection and conservation, forestry, animal husbandry, agriculture or other practices of dealing with, caring for and relating to the rest of the natural world. We are encouraging students to come with their own topic ideas and research questions, which we are excited to support or develop together further (no need for a fully developed plan, we are happy to start from ideas and develop them together). Such proposals could be addressing for example: the development of geographical information systems, decision-support systems for climate adaptation of managed landscapes or digital tools in biodiversity conservation as well as assessment and remuneration of ecosystem services. Suitable contexts are, for example, forestry, agriculture, conservation of landscapes and species.

Otherwise students could work on the following projects:

– Developing a GIS layer of historical mining sites in the Siegerland region as a means to assess dryness of a specific forest site and adapt forestry decisions accordingly.

– Designing and deploying cultural probes as a means to study relations to regional forests impacted or destroyed by climate change.

– Researching the role of AI in Biodiversity research and conservation

– Using design as a means to explore, think and tell stories about the future of local ecosystems, for example in the shape of a Herbarium: which plants will be present in an unknown future impacted by the climate catastrophe? which animals, fungi or microorganisms could be present and how can their relations with each other be made visible?

– Using IOT devices to better understand the needs of the forest or to monitor ecosystem services.

Our supervision on this work topics is directed towards students from the University of Siegen. We are open to students from other institutions but this cooperation needs to be individually discussed.

We are looking forward to hear from you! If we sparked your interest do not hesitate to contact us:
Felix Carros
Maximilian Krüger