The group members are contributing to two international Master Programmes at Tampere University:
- Human-Technology Interaction: teaching Methods in Human-Centered Design and Information Visualization
- Sustainable Digital Life: teaching Sustainable Design and Technology-Enhanced Sociality
Fellowships & collaboration
We offer guidance for applying to a Marie Sklodowska-Curie post-doctoral fellowship to be positioned in our research community. The TSI group is welcoming applicants from the areas of sociotechnical systems, CSCW, and generally the intersection of IT and social sciences to join the MSCA-PF coaching Masterclass at Tampere University. The professors in this area will mentor and co-develop applications for the MSCA-PF call, and successful applicants will be able to join the research communities and groups at Tampere University. Please reach out to initiate the discussion on how to prepare a successful application!
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) is one of the funding opportunities that belong to the Horizon Europe framework programme. Postdoctoral Fellowship PF is one of the MSCA’s main funding actions enabling 1-3,5 years long individual projects in Europe (European Fellowship) or other countries (Global Fellowship). MSCA PF is for postdoctoral researchers coming from another country than the hosting institution. The call is aimed at promising researchers with a purpose to promote their career development and aims to enhance the creative and innovative potential of researchers wishing to acquire new skills through advanced training, international, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral mobility.
Thesis topics
If you wish to pursue your master’s or doctoral thesis in related topics, please contact thomas.olsson@tuni.fi with a tentative research proposal. Feel free to use the following themes and questions as a source of inspiration.
Social acceptance of AI, machine learning and algorithmic systems: What do people think about the fact that algorithms are increasingly defining what information we see in social media and search engines? What kind of AI solutions would be acceptable or desirable in the future? This broad topic allows user research, design of new (more ethically sustainable) systems, or theoretical research. [AI, USER EXPERIENCE, ETHICS, DESIGN]
Technology and Ethics: How do we understand the most fundamental questions of WHY and FOR WHAT are certain technologies or applications developed? What is ethical or unethical design of interactive technology? What motives and values drive the development of technology? How could we support the ethical awareness of designers? [ETHICS, DESIGN]
Critical and Speculative Design: What design conventions should we challenge in information and communication technology, and why? How might we create radical innovations in some application areas with the help of Critical Design? How to better utilize speculative methods in envisioning possible (and desirable) futures? [DESIGN METHODOLOGY]
Enhancing the conversation culture online: Many discussions online suffer from uncivil language, trolling, and other antisocial behavior. How could we reconsider the role of the user interface in enabling, or even motivating, such behavior? How could novel UI mechanisms help improve discussion online? [SOCIAL INTERACTION, DESIGN, PERSUASION]
System for social matching of event attendees: Who should I go talk to at a professional event – who in the huge crowd might actually be relevant for me? The thesis could be about design (and development) of a system that would help relevant unfamiliar people meet each other at events or in large organizations. [SOCIAL MATCHING, DESIGN, USER RESEARCH]
Eliciting information about people for professional profiling: There is a need for more detailed information about individuals’ and organizations’ skills, goals, interests and other qualities to allow the development of systems that could help, e.g., recruitment activities and team formation. At the same time, data ethics needs to be carefully considered. [DATA SCIENCE, USER MODELING, KNOWLEDGE WORK]
Dream Team Builder: How might IT help to create optimal teams for various kinds of group work? How can we know if certain people would make a perfect match for collaboration? The empirical focus could be on knowledge work, such as innovation activities, product development, and research. [SOCIAL MATCHING, DESIGN]
The ultimate social networking app: There are simply too many chat apps, social media platforms, social networking services, and collaboration platforms. You never know how to best contact a person in a certain situation. You never know how to optimize the reach of your message. What similar problems have you observed in your own life? What are they fundamentally about? How would you solve them? [SOCIAL MATCHING, DESIGN, USER RESEARCH]
Recruitment Bots: Chatbots are becoming increasingly used in many organization-customer interactions, now also in recruitment and headhunting. What might the use of such technology mean for the job seekers or recruiters and how they experience the process of recruitment? What kind of user experiences people have about first-generation recruitment bots, and what kind of chatbot interfaces would actually help in this area? [AI, USER RESEARCH, DESIGN]
Trust in AI: As Artificial Intelligence-based applications have high agency and active roles in many areas of life, we need to reconsider how we conceptualize and experience “information technology”. A key question in this regard is Trust: how does it form in relation to AI-based apps, and how could we better design for trustworthy technology? [AI, USER EXPERIENCE, DESIGN]
Interacting with Autonomous Machines: How do you interact with an autonomous machine like a robot? How do you control one with embodied interaction and how should it inform you about its intentions? This topic allows user research, design of new interaction techniques, and evaluation studies. [AI, DESIGN, HUMAN-AI COOPERATION]
Social Wearables: Wearable devices could become more social and shared than the typical handheld personal devices. Various kinds of wearables could support group activities, inform the surrounding strangers about something important, allow interaction with several users, facilitate social interaction, and so on. This design space calls for innovative product concepts, interaction techniques, and user studies. [SOCIAL INTERACTION, DESIGN, USER EXPERIENCE]