All listed projects on this page relate to the following courses of study and their respective examination regulations. Workloads and conrete assignments will be adjusted to the respective module.
- HCI PO2019: Project A/B/C – Thesis
- HCI PO2014: Master Project – Thesis
- WI PO2019: Master/Bachelor Project – Thesis
- WI PO2014: Master/Bachelor Project – Thesis
Literature Reviews
Makerspaces und ihre Rolle in der STE(A)M-Ausbildung
Digital skills are more important than ever. Makerspaces offer means into creative interactions with technology and knowledge about technology. Moreover , they democratize access.
This work should investigate and discuss the role of Fab Labs in STE(A)M education over the past decade and serve as a basis for a larger study later on.
Makerspaces and their role in innovation ecosystems
Makerspace or Fab Labs are said to be creative places where anything “ can be made. This work should discuss and investigate the role makerspaces have played in entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems.
This work should discuss and investigate the role makerspaces have played in entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems.
If you are interested please contact Marios Mouratidis directly.
Usable Usability: Open Access Educational Platform
There is a plethora of methods, frameworks, and formats for human-centered and participatory design. How can less experienced designers know which tools can be helpful?
Design and evaluate an educational platform for usability and user experience designers, as well as researchers and students.
If you are interested please contact Marios Mouratidis directly.
Accessible Museums through 3D Printing
A local historical museum wants to become more inclusive and is in search of ways to allow people with vision impairement to experience historical artefacts like tools , vases and other objects.
Those artefacts will be digitized and 3D printed, in order to enable a haptic experience of those objects for people with vision impairements.
Investigate and evaluate the experience of vision impaired persons exploring those artefacts.
If you are interested please contact Marios Mouratidis directly.
Data Visualisation: Infrastructures of Cooperation
Everyone is talking about Industry 4.0, and many are talking about the benefits of digitization. In the context of distributed laboratories and workplaces, the question arises as to how collaboration between people and machines can be supported. What data needs to be collected and evaluated? What are the specific requirements of the users? Can maintenance be automated? How can interdisciplinary communication (engineer vs. designer vs. ….) be promoted? How can collaboration be enabled? Core activities may include either a technical or research focus:
Programming in Python (Django), C, Front-End-Development, IoT, HTML5/CSS/JS, MqTT, Zigbee. General hacking of existing 3D printers in the Fab Lab.
An ethnographic and participatory research approach can be applied to find design implications and conceptualize a system.
More information can be found here.
Development and Evaluation of a Fab Lab Management Systems
A Fab Lab is an open workshop with machines that can be dangerous if used improperly. An open workshop means that a large number of people with different backgrounds and levels of knowledge can work on different machines and work areas. Occupational safety and health are important to protect users and machines. Users must be instructed in the various work areas in order to use them. But how can you ensure that users only work on machines for which they have been instructed?
The devices must be maintained at regular intervals – predictive maintance is a buzzword here. IoT and advanced technologies can enable machines to communicate and exchange data. To explore how an infrastructure that makes workshops (such as fab labs, makerspaces, hackerspaces, etc.) “smart” might look.
Core activities may include either a technical or a research focus:
Programming in Python (Django), C, Front-End-Development, IoT, HTML5/CSS/JS, MqTT, Zigbee.
An ethnographic and participatory research approach can be applied to find design implications and conceptualize a system.
More information can be found here.
Smart City: Open Network – Open Data with LoRaWAN
The Low Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) enables the transmission of small amounts of data over relatively long distances. It also enables, for example, battery or solar-powered systems to be operated in a regional, national or even global network. LoRaWAN it thus enables the Internet of Things in almost any place – due to the high range – even where there is no Internet coverage. The relatively open design of the standard results in a wealth of application examples and areas. The aim of this work is to conduct initial studies on the basis of self-developed projects, prototypes, which can serve as a basis for a larger pilot project within the framework of Smart City. The network and the data should be open for use by: Citizen groups, individuals, schools, industry, universities, cities, etc.
Additive Manufacturing: Sustainability, Waste & Reclycing
Part labelling through automated GCode modification during slicing.
Tags: gCode programming scripting slicer sustainability user-research
3D printing has become very popular over the past decade. Expiring patents have enable a strong push in innovation around this topic, leading to a plethora of open-source machines (cf. https://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap_Family_Tree). While enthusiasts have opened up the floor for wider audience, a few businesses took up the idea and created out-of-the-box usable machines, enabling a wider spread adoption of the technology in businesses but also homes.
Those machines use different polymers to produce parts. Users buy materials ranging from ABS, PET, PLA to photopolymer resins to use in their machines at home. With a growing community, misprints and other waste is produced as well. How can reclycling 3D printed plastics be supported? Usually platics are labeled with a specific identifer, so they can be properly recycled (cf. https://www.astm.org/COMMIT/d7611.pdf).
However, 3D printed objects are not labeled and therefore cannot be led into recycling cycles at the end of their lifetime.
There has been some research in the past on labeling 3D printed parts during the print preparation process (i.e. within a slicer), however the proposed solution is not very usable and requires a high amount of technological expertise.
This research should evaluate a modular option in popular slicers (PrusaSlicer, Cura) that enables automated process to label printed parts and the acceptability by users.
