Theses & Project seminars

Open Topics

If you would like to write your bachelor or master thesis or your WING project thesis with us, please send us an email.

Below, you will find an overview of the open topics within our research group. If there is no suitable topic available, you are welcome to send a short application with a brief résumé, grades, and a summary of your interests.

 

Master: Gamification in der Inbound Logistik – Werkstudentenstelle mit Option auf eine Masterarbeit bei der Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG​
In cooperation with the Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG​, we are looking for a student (m / f / d) who is interested in writing a master’s thesis on the subject of “Gamification in Inbound Logistics”.
Starting with a paid working student position, you can get to know Lidl’s logistics at the international headquarters in Neckarsulm. As part of this job, you will visit one of the most modern international logistics centers and gain unique insights into the processes and IT systems of one of the most successful retail companies in Germany. These insights form the basis for your master thesis together with Lidl. Detailed job description: https://gamification.rw.fau.de/files/2023/07/WS-Gamification-Stellenausschreibung.pdf

Contact:  Benedikt Morschheuser

Master: What can games teach us about the design of the industrial metaverse? A systematic analysis of design principles in computer games to support dynamic decision making in 3D worlds
First inspirations: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2022/06/29/siemens-nvidia-industrial-metaverse/https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/MITTR_Siemens_The-Emergent-Industrial-Metaverse.pdf

Contact:  Benedikt Morschheuser

Bachelor/Master:  Can games help increase understanding and trust in medical science? An empirical study with the science communication game Inflammania 3D

Programming skills: skills in developing Roblox games are helpful

Contact:  Benedikt Morschheuser

Bachelor/Master:  Archetypes of gameful radicalisation and extremism in the metaverse: A systematic analysis of user-generated games 

Contact:  Benedikt Morschheuser

Master: Gamification in Sports – Examining the needs of different athletes
Gamification can improve performance in sport and also make sport more fun by meeting the needs of athletes. But what are the needs of different athletes? Do individual and team athletes have the same needs? And what about people who don’t play sport at all?To answer these questions, a study will be designed, carried out and evaluated.

Contact: Sandra Birnstiel

Bachelor/Master: Empathizing with an Embodied Social Robot: An Empirical Investigation of the Effects of Perspective Switching on AI Technology Acceptance 

Recently there is an increasing importance of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in organizations and everyday life, but existing barriers prevent the widespread adoption of AI. Human-robot interaction (HRI) is widely used in industrial applications, e.g., picking and placing in production lines. So far, the market for personal domestic and service robots, or social robots, is comparably small. During the Covid-19 pandemic, quarantine measures, contact restrictions, and home office have led to increased social isolation. Social isolation is a risk factor for loneliness and impairing mental health. Thus, domestic and social robots will likely become increasingly prevalent and penetrate our everyday lives. Engaging with social robots can potentially prevent or at least minimize these negative consequences.  

In this thesis/project, you will investigate the impact of a perspective switching intervention with an embodied social robot on the technology acceptance and perceptions of people. The candidate may use an existing research model and study design that has already been developed in a previous study. Certainly, ideas for adaptions to either the research model or experimental design are welcome. Key constructs of interest will be incorporated from the Technology Acceptance Model by Davis, but also other related dependent variables, such as anxiety, perceived enjoyment, and perceived sociability. Having investigated technology acceptance at the example of the virtual social robot GateBox before, we now strive to build on our promising results and study the effects of taking the perspective with a physical embodied social robot.   

By measuring the constructs before and after the exercise, the student is expected to determine what impact perspective switching has on the technology acceptance of state-of-the-art social robots. The results can inspire the design and implementation of future HRI systems. 

The ideal candidate is interested in Artificial Intelligence and HRI and eager to learn more about social robots. The student will be responsible for the data collection and data analysis. Thus, basic skills in descriptive and inferential statistics are expected. Besides, candidates with enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of psychology and technology are preferred. We would like to highlight that this thesis is an excellent opportunity to gain visibility in the HRI research community. Also, there is the option to coauthor scientific papers with the chair, as have done students in the past. This project does not require any programming skills or expertise in software engineering. 

Contact: Maximilian Wittmann


Finished theses and theses in progress

 

 

Type Topic Student Supervisor Submission
Master How to onboard the user? A study on designing fun on the first click

Game designers are experts when it comes to designing engaging activities that motivate from the very first second. This knowledge can also support and optimize the adoption of educational solutions. Within the serious game “INFLAMMANIA“, we would like to try out various onboarding approaches and develop design knowledge for creating more effective learning games. Inflammania is an educational game that combats inflammation in chronic diseases.

Targets:
– Design and empirical evaluation of different “onboarding approaches” for the game Inflammania
– Statistical hypothesis testing
– Investigation of the impact of various design interventions on user behavior, knowledge transfer and learning experience
–  Derivation of theoretical and practical recommendations for designing the onboarding in gamification and serious game approaches

L. Liu Benedikt Morschheuser 2.12.2022
Bachelor Designing Experiments in Roblox D. Lam Benedikt Morschheuser 28.09.2022
Bachelor Gaming meets Mobility: Gamification in proprietary innovation of the automotive industry

This bachelor thesis presents an overview on the use of gamification in proprietary innovation of the automotive industry based on a structured literature review in the database Espacenet of the European patent
office. As part of this review 83 relevant patents were screened and classified by using an own framework. The screening revealed novel insights and provide researchers anchor points for future research.

M. te Lake Benedikt Morschheuser 06.08.2021
Bachelor Creators of the Metaverse – Who are they and what drives them to build virtual worlds?

Using qualitative interviews with N=14 participants, this thesis examines who creates content in the metaverse and what reasons and motives drive content creators.

M. Bitz Benedikt Morschheuser 25.04.2022
Master project Does adaptive gamification increase motivation and participation in gamified crowdsourcing? An experiment in a text-based adventure game for collecting handwriting data

In collaboration with the STABILO International GmbH, we developed a text-based adventure for the STABILO DigiPen and empirically evaluated whether personalized gamification experience produce better outcomes in gamified crowdsourcing compared to one-size-fits-all approaches.

M. Weber Benedikt Morschheuser 31.3.2022
Bachelor The intrinsic drivers of content creators in the Metaverse – a quantitative study

This thesis examines the intrinsic motivations of content creators related to word of mouth (WOM) and the intention to continue creating content on and for the Metaverse platform Roblox. The results are compared to the findings of previous studies of content creators of Web 2.0 platforms. Data for this study was collected using an online survey of 50 content creators of Roblox and was analyzed using structural equation modeling in SmartPLS. Based on the uses and gratifications theory (U&G), the study provides first insights of a quantitative approach exploring the intrinsic motivations of people creating for the Metaverse Roblox, trying to build the most renowned virtual 3D worlds and games, meet people or to hang out.

F. Feldmeier Benedikt Morschheuser 30.3.2022
Bachelor Gamified Cycling: A literature review and future agenda F. Gast Benedikt Morschheuser 29.9.2022
Master Perspective Switching in Human-AI Teaming – An Empirical Investigation of the Effects of Perspective Switching on AI Technology Acceptance

Recently there is an increasing importance of AI and Robotics in organizations and everyday life, but existing barriers prevent the widespread adoption of AI. Human-Robot-Interaction is widely used in industrial applications, e.g., picking and placing in production lines. So far, the market for personal domestic and service robots, or social robots, is comparably small. Still, mainly domestic and social robots will likely become increasingly prevalent and penetrate our everyday lives. During the Covid-19 pandemic, quarantine measures, contact restrictions, and home office have led to increased social isolation. Social isolation is a risk factor for loneliness and impairing mental health. The use of social robots can potentially prevent or at least minimize these negative consequences. In this master thesis, we investigate the impact of an audio-visual perspective switching exercise on the technology acceptance of a social robot measured by the Technology Acceptance Model by Davis. We also incorporate other related constructs, such as anxiety, perceived enjoyment, and perceived sociability. As a social robot for the experiment, we chose the so-called Gatebox, which is developed and manufactured by the Japanese tech company Vinclu. Gatebox is a virtual home robot that accompanies its owner in everyday life. Azuma Hikari represents an AI assistant; she not only communicates with her voice but is a holographically depicted anime girl who inhabits the Gatebox. In times of a global pandemic and increasing social isolation, the Gatebox is not only a home assistant that is supposed to make everyday life easier but also a social robot companion with which the user lives together. By measuring the constructs before and after the exercise, we would like to determine what impact Perspective Switching has on technology acceptance. The results can inspire the design and implementation of future HRI/HAI systems.

L. Köhler Maximilian Wittmann

Benedikt Morschheuser

4.10.2022
Master Gamification in Inbound Logistics – master thesis in cooperation with Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG​  J. Steif Benedikt Morschheuser 13.2.2023
Master project Gamification in performance diagnostics and training of team sports G. Sußner Benedikt Morschheuser 13.5.2023
Bachelor Creators of the Metaverse: Why people build virtual worlds in their spare time – a quantitative study regarding internal and external motivations for Roblox T. Müller Benedikt Morschheuser 28.3.2023
Master Perspective Switching in Human-AI Teaming

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is considered as one of the most important enablers of industry 4.0. Thanks to increasing computing power and the availability of large amounts of valuable data, AI can be used on a large scale in the manufacturing industry. AI can be perceived in different forms. It can have a physical representation. One example are AI-powered robots on the shop floor that are responsible for assembly tasks. But it can also be invisible and embedded in software, such as predictive maintenance software. However, there is still a long way to go before AI is implemented from pilot projects into practice, because there are several obstacles to the introduction of AI-based systems. One main obstacle is people’s lack of trust in AI. This may be due to cognitive barriers. Powerful AI uses complex algorithms. Ordinary users, however, often perceive AI as a “black box” because it is difficult to comprehend an AI’s decision making. In addition, emotional barriers exist. These barriers include, for instance, the fear of being replaced by a robot. To overcome this impediment, a concept from recent research in game design seems very promising, namely perspective switching. Game developers implement elements of perspective switching between human players and Non-Player-Characters (NPC) to improve cooperation and trust. In this way, the NPC can be viewed as a team member rather than a mere tool. Implementing perspective switching as a design pattern is also powerful to elicit feelings towards NPCs as it can help human players to identify and sympathize more easily with the NPC. We will apply this concept to human-AI-interaction in the manufacturing industry to assess if it is possible to achieve the same effect as in the game industry. To carry out this study, a game prototype will first be developed in Roblox, in which the player and a cooperative robot work together to complete tasks on the shopfloor of a manufacturing facility. The unique feature of the game is the player’s ability to switch perspective with the robot. Our research model is based on the Technology Acceptance Model by Davis. To test our hypotheses and investigate the impact of perspective switching on employees’ attitudes toward AI, experiments will be conducted with a few voluntary participants. Pre- and post-game survey data will be collected and analyzed using statistical software. The insights of this work can inspire the design of future human-AI-cooperation scenarios in a manufacturing environment.

R. Xie Maximilian Wittmann

Benedikt Morschheuser

Master Designing and understanding the effects of gamified VR training on human-robot teaming M. Weber Benedikt Morschheuser 4.10.2022
Master Women in game design: How does game design target actual cross-pressure topics in religion and how would we design and counter such issues? H. Qarani Benedikt Morschheuser 2.03.2023
Master How to gamify football training? An explorative analysis of user demands and synthesis of design patterns L. Steinkamp Benedikt Morschheuser 23.6.2023
Master Privacy in the metaverse S. Fang Chen Benedikt Morschheuser
Master Gameful crisis preparedness
In recent years, it has been established that video games can be used for more than entertainment: As spaces of meaning-making and make-belief, they allow people to explore who they want to be, engage in deep introspection and learn new skills.
We are looking for a motivated master student to conduct a scoping review that explores how games can support people to prepare themselves for disasters—physically, mentally, and emotionally.This work will be undertaken in collaboration with the Gamification Group, at Tampere University, Finland and (co-)supervised by Dr Velvet Spors and can be combined with studying in Finland for a semester.
Research profiles:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8JmnsNAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
https://webpages.tuni.fi/gamification/members/velvet-spors/
First inspirations:
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1581073.1581076 
C. Wüllner Benedikt Morschheuser

Dr Velvet Spors

Master Gamification of team sports: Impact of using gamification elements on group dynamics in football R. Rehm Sandra Birnstiel

Benedikt Morschheuser

Master Gamification of team sports: Design and investigation of gamful solutions for performance training in football teams S. Reiß Sandra Birnstiel

Benedikt Morschheuser