Former Team Members

The information science site at the University of Regensburg was established by Professor Jürgen Krause in 1981. During this time, the Chair of Information Science was assigned to the Chair of General Linguistics. Important projects from Prof Jürgen Krause's tenure were (see the commemorative publication on the occasion of his 60th birthday):

• PADOK: Investigations into the improvement of retrieval results in German patent information
• ComfoTex: Studies on the user-friendly design of office software
• WING-IIR: Design and comparison of multimodal user interfaces for materials information systems

The focus on empirical approaches to the meaningful design of user interfaces has thus characterised Regensburg information science from the very beginning. After leaving Regensburg, Jürgen Krause headed the IZ in Bonn until his retirement.

Prof. Dr Jürgen Krause passed away on 7 March 2016.

Professor Harald H. Zimmermann founded Germany's first chair for computational linguistics at the University of Regensburg in 1974.
Until his move to Saarland University, he worked in Regensburg on the establishment of the subject of LIR (Linguistic Information Science Regensburg) and conducted research in the fields of automatic language processing and syntax analysis.

Dissertation topic

"Integrating Motivational Interviewing Principles and Large Language Models in Automated Behaviour Change Support"

Selina Meyer's PhD project focused on the application of NLP techniques and LLMs to develop and evaluate conversational agents that incorporate therapeutic concepts to support people in improving their well-being. Her research builds bridges across different fields of research, from NLP to HCI and information behavior to psychology.

Her research

As part of her research, Selina Meyer focusses on the possibilities of using information systems to enable a healthier lifestyle. She focuses primarily on the development of technical applications that can effectively support a change in health behaviour by increasing people's motivation to make a change. Her main interest is in conversational agents, including the ethical implications of such systems. Selina Meyer is fascinated by large-scale (generative) language models and their capabilities and potential applications.

In the past, she has been involved in research projects dealing with various aspects of security, recommendation and information retrieval. These have included improving the reliability of quality ratings by online health resource experts to enable more robust and reliable information retrieval algorithms, and developing a personalised food recommendation system for people with obesity.

Career

Selina Meyer was a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Natural Language Understanding Lab at the Technical University of Nuremberg after her employment at the Chair of Information Science.

Dissertation topic

"Conversational Search in Procedural Tasks: A Case Study in the Cooking Domain"

Alexander Frummet's research focussed on understanding users' information needs when cooking with a conversational assistant and investigating how these needs can be effectively supported by both algorithmic and interaction design approaches.

Career

After his employment at the Chair of Information Science, Alexander Frummet worked as a Data Scientist at dab: Daten - Analysen & Beratung GmbH in Deggendorf.

Dissertation topic

Qing Zhang's research focussed on online food culture.

The aim of her research was to improve food recommendation systems in a cross-cultural context. Qing Zhang focussed on understanding and predicting the food preferences of different cultures. She was particularly interested in finding regularities in cross-cultural food preferences. Using the recipes and interaction data generated by users of recipe portals from China (Xiachufang.com), the USA (Allrecipes.com) and Germany (Kochbar.de), Qing Zhang analysed such regularities from a visual perspective. She also researched aesthetic aspects.

Career

Qing Zhang was a post-doctoral research fellow at Sun Yat-sen University's Information Management School after joining the Chair of Information Science. Sun Yat-sen University is a member of the iSchool community. Qing Zhang worked there under the supervision of Dr Guo Chao Alex Peng, who previously worked at the University of Sheffield. Dr Peng's research focuses on information behaviour, smart cities and data assets.

Qing Zhang's own research coincides with Dr Peng's projects, particularly in the area of information behaviour. Her research topic there was "Understanding the impact of different information modalities on user behaviours". The aim was to investigate how individuals perceive and react to information in different formats, such as text, images, audio and video. The study investigated how these modalities influence users' perception, reaction, utilisation and satisfaction as well as the occurrence of information anxiety and avoidance. The primary goal was to improve people's efficiency in accessing the information they really need and to promote positive interaction with information in a multimodal context. In addition, Qing Zhang supported Dr Peng's research on data assets to help companies in their digital transformation efforts.

Research interests

Robert Jackermeier was involved in the DIVIS research project (digital indoor localisation using inertial sensors and landmarks), in which the chair's pedestrian navigation (external link, opens in a new window) system was further developed in cooperation with NEXOE Applications GmbH.

He also conducted research in the field of indoor positioning and further developed our URwalking campus navigation (external link, opens in a new window) system. The focus was on the algorithms used there to determine the position using sensors integrated in the smartphone.

Career

Robert Jackermeier worked at Continental after his employment at the Chair of Information Science.

Research interest

As part of the BMBF project OPTAPEB (external link, opens in a new window), Raymund Fül?p worked on the automation of therapeutic interventions in a VR application. The aim of the application was to support the treatment of phobia patients with exposure exercises in a virtual environment.

Career

Raymund Fül?p was employed at the Chair of Information Science at the University Library of Regensburg.

Dissertation topic

"A Study of Biomedical Time Series Using Empirical Mode Decomposition: Extracting event-related modes from EEG signals recorded
during visual processing of contour stimuli"

Research interest

Karema Al-Subari's research interests include eye-tracking, computational intelligence, machine learning, signal processing and bioinformatics.

Publications (external link, opens in a new window)

Dissertation topic

"Data-driven optimisation of preference-adaptive pedestrian routes through building complexes"

Research interest

As part of his research, Manuel Ullmann has developed a system for preference-adaptive route calculation for the URwalking project. Machine learning methods are used to generate footpaths that follow a natural course, as is the case with paths chosen by people.

Career

Manuel Ullmann worked as a data scientist at the State Office for Taxation after his employment at the Chair of Information Science.

Publications (external link, opens in a new window)

Dissertation topic

"Supporting indoor orientation: Analysis of landmark-based map interfaces based on the gaze behaviour of users"

Research interests

During her time at the chair, Dr Christina Bauer was interested in the evaluation of indoor navigation systems. In this context, she focused on analysing the gaze behaviour of users in order to improve the usability of navigation systems and to understand the cognitive processes during orientation. She also focussed on identifying complex navigation points, predicting them and providing assistance in these situations.

Career

After joining the Chair of Information Science, Christina Bauer initially worked in the field of requirements engineering in the public sector. In October 2020, she was appointed Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Teaching at Deggendorf Institute of Technology.

Publications (external link, opens in a new window)

Dissertation topic

"Empirically Measuring Salience of Objects for Use in Pedestrian Navigation"

Research interests

During his time at the Chair,Dr Markus Kattenbeck (external link, opens in a new window) was interested in the intersection of Human Information Behaviour and Geographic Information Science. He was particularly interested in the information needs that can be answered with the help of VGI (Volunteered Geographic Information), the importance of context in the context of mobile information search, the relationship between real and digital landmarks, the possibilities of influencing geographical information behavior, and navigation in physical and non-physical space.

Career

Dr Markus Kattenbeck (external link, opens in a new window) worked as a PostDoc Researcher at the Vienna University of Technology after his employment at the Chair of Information Science.

Publications (external link, opens in a new window)

Dissertation topic

"A study of information-theoretic metaheuristics applied to functional neuroimaging datasets"

Research interests

Dr Saad Al-Baddai was interested in the following topics during his time at the University of Regensburg: Eye tracking, computational intelligence, machine learning, image processing, modelling and bioinformatics.

Career

Dr Saad Al-Baddai worked as a Data Scientist at Infineon Technologies in Regensburg after his employment at the Chair of Information Science.

PUBLICATIONS (external link, opens in a new window)

Nathan conducted research at the chair in the field of optimising algorithms to generate healthier recipes.

former research associate in the OPTAPEB (external link, opens in a new window) project

Elinor Brondwine conducted research at the chair in the area of app-based support for changes in nutritional behaviour.

Dissertation topic

"Re-finding Tweets. Analysing the personal information management practice of re-finding in the context of the social media platform Twitter"

Career

After his employment at the Chair of Information Science, Florian Meier (external link, opens in a new window) conducted research in the field of computational social science, in particular on the tweeting behaviour of German politicians during the Bundestag election campaign.

Publications (external link, opens in a new window)

Dissertation topic

"Feedback systems in university teaching"

Career

Markus Fuchs worked as a full-stack software developer for an innovative insurance company after his employment at the Chair of Information Science.

Publications (external link, opens in a new window)

Dissertation topic

"Statistical modelling, prototypical implementation and evaluation of a system for fall risk prediction for seniors"

Career

After his employment at the Chair of Information Science, Stefan Bienk worked as a consultant at the Bavarian State Office for Statistics and led a software development team in the field of population statistics.

Publications (external link, opens in a new window)

former research associate in the NADINE (external link, opens in a new window) project

Career

Florin Schwappach worked at the Chair of Information Science before joining the Chair of Media Informatics.

Dissertation topic:

"Situation-dependent reception of information when using Wikipedia"

Publications (external link, opens in a new window)

former Academic Director at the Chair of Information Science

Career

After his employment at the Chair of Information Science, Dr. Ludwig Hitzenberger continued to supervise the Regensburg Collection of Information Technology in the Old Tax Office, which he had built up.