The human-centered systems lab (h-lab) headed by Prof. Dr. Alexander Maedche (research group “Information Systems I", formerly ISSD) focuses in research, education, and innovation on designing human-centered systems for better work & life.
Our mission is to create impactful knowledge for designing human-centered systems for human productivity and well-being through relevant and rigor scientific research. We leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and biosignal sensor technologies in combination with a human-in-the-loop paradigm to continuously involve humans in the design process. We follow a socio-technical research approach for increasing human productivity and well-being through human-centered systems.
We contribute to the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) (Mensch-Computer Interaktion) and information systems (IS) (Wirtschaftsinformatik). We believe that delivering cutting-edge knowledge and inspiring education, as well as an ongoing dialog with the public need to go hand in hand to maximize the impact of our work in organizations and society.
Our current research topics are:
Our lives are interwoven with digital apps and wearables such as noise-cancelling headphones and smartwatches that adapt to our needs and the environment.
The KD2School explores these developments from an interdisciplinary perspective and invites researchers from Google's UX department on September 28th from 2 to 6 PM to give us an insight into contemporary topics such as Human-Computer Interaction, wearables, and personalization at Google.
Further information and registration for the public event is available here: http://www.kd2school.info/
The “Mensch und Computer” (MuC) conference, launched in 2001, is the largest conference series on human-computer interaction in Europe. MuC offers participants from science and industry a platform for contributions and discussions on the interaction between humans and computers. Initial information is available here:
Should companies using AI chatbots be transparent about the involvement of human employees working behind the scenes? Do customer interactions change when human involvement is disclosed? If so, how and why? Our recent paper published in Information Systems Research written by Ulrich Gnewuch, Stefan Morana, Oliver Hinz, Ralf Kellner, and Alexander Maedche offers some answers to these questions.
https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/isre.2022.0152
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Personalization and adaptive systems are ubiquitous in private and professional life today. In addition to behavioral data, modern sensors are increasingly being used to record and analyze human activities and corresponding biosignals. At the human-centered systems lab we investigate the design of personalization and adaptive systems under consideration of behavioral data and biosignals. We are looking for a PostDoc for this research area! Are you interested in contributing to the design of personalization and adaptive systems for better work and life?
Further information is available here: https://www.pse.kit.edu/karriere/joboffer.php?id=142907
The MIS Quarterly has announced the paper co-authored by Mario Nadj, Raphael Rissler, Marc T. P. Adam, Michael T. Knierim, Maximilian X. Li, Alexander Maedche, and René Riedl as forthcoming publication. The paper describes results from a NeuroIS laboratory experiment focusing on a typical office work task while manipulating interruption frequency (low, high) and content relevance (irrelevant, relevant). We study the impact of interruptions on self-reported flow, its dimensions, and high-frequency heart rate variability as and ultimately perceived and objective task performance.
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The paper “Biosignals meet Adaptive Systems” co-authored by Tanja Schultz (Cognitive Systems Lab, Uni Bremen) and Alexander Maedche (h-lab, KIT) has been published in SN Applied Science. The paper presents a perspective on Biosignal-Adaptive Systems (BAS) which automatically adapt to user needs by continuously interpreting their biosignals and by providing transparent feedback, thereby keeping the user in the loop. The joint perspective has been developed as part of the DFG-funded “KD2School”, where Tanja Schultz and Alexander Maedche give a joint interdisciplinary course on biosignal-adaptive systems.
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Merlin Knäble successfully defended on July 28th 2023 his PhD thesis titled “Overcoming Barriers with Self-Determination: Interactive Labeling Systems in Accessibility“.
He convinced the examination committee Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julian Thimme, Prof. Dr. Alexander Mädche, Prof. Dr. Alexey Vinel, and Prof. Dr. Rainer Stiefelhagen with his research. We congratulate Merlin for his successful defense!
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The end of the summer semester also marks the successful end of this year’s Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) capstone project, which was conducted as part of the DIS master lecture held by Dr.Ulrich Gnewuch. The overall goal and topic of this year’s project was to create innovative design solutions for multiple use cases of ChatGPT in EnBW processes (e.g., ChatGPT as a product guide, conversation management for call center agents and conversation personalization, support for data workers, learning, or legal texts). The results of all eight groups were well-received by the EnBW use case owners and the lecture team during the final presentations, which took place in EnBW’s headquarters in Karlsruhe.
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On July 19th 2023, students of the digital citizen science (DCS) seminar presented their proposed solutions for the sustainability challenges articulated by citizens on the wir-forschen.digital platform. The challenges were collected around the four major themes of climate-friendly travel, energy-saving media use, climate-friendly office, and communication & participation in the energy transition. The participating students followed a human-centered design process in order to deliver prototypical solutions. The final presentation took place in the Open Space Triangel. The resulting prototypes will be made available through the wir-forschen.digital platform and the corresponding DCS project. A follow-up presentation will take place at the KIT Science Week.
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As part of the bachelor lecture "Foundations of Interactive Systems" of the human-centered systems lab, students presented the results of their Capstone Project on July 18th, 2023. Throughout the semester, students worked in teams on the Capstone Project, which allows students to apply the theoretical knowledge learned in the lecture to a real-world use case. This year, students followed the human-centered design process to develop an idea and design for a new writing assistant that leverages the capabilities of large language models such as OpenAI ChatGPT. The capstone project is enabled by the funded project ABBA (AI for Business | Business for AI) focusing on innovativef ormats of AI education. The resulting screencams are available via Youtube.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is only as good as the data it is fed with. In particular, medium-sized companies and public organizations often lack a high-quality data basis to develop AI-based solutions. In the sub-project “data platforms” the h-lab (Prof. Mädche) is closely collaborating with Teco (Prof. Beigl) to enable human-centered data provisioning and consumption for AI-based solutions following a human-in-the-loop approach.
Further information about the project is available on https://www.ki-allianzbw.de/ and via the official press release from Ministry of Economy, Labour and Tourism Baden-Württemberg.
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Dr. Ulrich Gnewuch, postdoctoral researcher at the human-centered systems lab, was recently interviewed by ACM News about his research on chatbots and human-AI interaction. The article, also featuring insights from Eugenia Kuyda, founder and CEO of Replika, and Petter Bae Brandtzaeg, professor at the University of Oslo, focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) companions, such as Replika, and discusses the nature and consequences of human-AI relationships.
To read the full article, visit ACM News at: https://cacm.acm.org/news/274547-buddying-up-to-ai/fulltext
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