Thesis Talks

September 21, 2022 at the ITU University, Scrollbar 
 
16.00-16.50: 1st session w. 4 speakers 
16.50-17.10: Coffee break  
17.10-18.00: 2nd session w/ 4 speakers 
18.00 -        : Light dinner and social networking

The talks are recorded, and in between the sessions you can meet our graduates, and learn more about their work. 
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Reach out to Alumni Coordinator, Trine Møller, for further information: alumni@itu.dk

Can digital technologies be sustainable?
Denmark is one of the worlds most digitalized nations. We maintain and buy loads of software to support our public sector. In the last decades the IT-industry has grown considerably. It has become a significant resource consumer and a source of emissions. Despite this, our government's ambitions of “green procurement” does not extend well into the realm of digital services and products. Why is this? Magnus has investigated what characterizes sustainable digital technologies, and how the Danish public sector can consider sustainability when acquiring software-based systems. Understanding and integrating sustainable digital technologies into public procurement, can help address the increasing emissions of these technologies -- let's start a discussion of how.

Don't let your testing get out of hand!

 In software development, testing is a key component for the continuous evolution of the software. However, too often, testing gets out of hand.The number of tests grows from diverse dependencies, different scenarios, environments, and targets. In large projects, clusters of machines continuously run tests every day.

With the use of Machine Learning approaches, Joshua explored how to address this challenge. This talk will present findings on how to reduce by 60% the number of tests that are continuously executed, on a concrete large software system.

You’re Dead. I won. I am the Killer.
The effect violent roles in games have on people seems to be a common worry. What does it do to you when you are required to play as the monster? What is it like when your friends team up against you, the villain of the game? Valbona and Marie have researched the role of Monster in board games and videogames: Specifically Betrayal at House on the Hill and Dead by Daylight. Based on observations of gameplay and interviews with “the Monsters”, they gained a deeper understanding of how players are affected when playing as the enemy, including the personal and social dynamic experienced. 

By the end of the talk, will the worry be verified, or will you have found a new way to view violence in games?

Moving beyond the screen and into Space
Have you ever felt like visiting a museum is like walking around in a world full of displays? In today’s museums a big part of the experience and communication of knowledge is centered around the four corners of a screen or a label. This naturally results in visitors focusing solely on the screens and not the museum space around them.

Maria, Line og Thea have explored what happens when we move the exploration of knowledge/data away from the screen and into the museum space itself. Specifically, what happens when we create embodied learning spaces, where movement and interaction is a core component?

Digital vulnerability in a digital state
In contemporary Danish society, digitalization is an ingrained part of citizens’ everyday life, particularly when interacting with the public sector. Through several public digital strategies, the identity of the Danish citizens has changed and today citizens are perceived as - and expected to be - digital by default. 

New competencies are now needed to gain access to civil rights. But who is made responsible for ensuring such digital capabilities? And how does it affect the life of the citizens that are not able to live up to these expectations - and demands?  

Is design thinking merely a buzzword? 

The popular method, design thinking, used widely in various organisations, from municipalities to Pepsi, Apple, and Nike, promises to solve complex issues, providing a synergy of better product development, customer experiences, and work relations all at once.

Yet, Megan’s research points to serious issues tied to the model’s usability. To improve the use of design thinking, the model was adapted and resulted in the development of the CDMO (Conceptual Design Model for Organisations). This was tested in collaboration with the football club, FCK’s digital initiatives and revealed interesting learnings.

The unexplainable biased in AI
Human's effort towards improving gender equality in the past few decades has shown promise, but are we doing enough in the digital space? Until recent, various studies and documentaries have shown that there is still a degree of gender bias in AI algorithms, especially in the domain of language such as language generation and text classification. 

AI algorithms are inherently biased. The essential thing is to be aware of it and continuously develop and adapt it. The key to this, is understanding the bias. Hieu have done this, by researching if bias occurs across languages and specifically explored the bias found in Scandinavian languages and the challenge of understanding our language models.

Complexities surrounding digital communication on YouTube
Communication on social media platforms like YouTube play an increasingly significant role in today’s society, making understanding digital discourse and its impact on society more important than ever. But how can society navigate these complex digital social environments when a lack of encompassing frameworks for studying digital discourse has rendered YouTube and digital communication in general understudied?

This talk centers around key complexities surrounding studying digital discourse and how moving into untrodden methodological territory contributed fresh perspectives on approaching digital discourse studies on YouTube – and other social media - in the future.