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Chair for Human-AI Interaction
Department of Computer Science
Student sits at workstation and looks at laptop. © Aliona Kardash​/​TU Dortmund

Research and Networking Offsite: HAII meets Uni Duisburg-Essen HCI Group in Willingen

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  • Announcement
  • Research Highlight
© Ankur Bhatt
Some of the members who joined from both groups in front of the Essener Skihütte
HAII and the HCI Group from Uni Duisburg-Essen meet at the Essener Skihütte in the mountains of Willingen for Winter School to discuss research and collaboration opportunities

What happens when you trade the urban bustle of the Ruhr area for the nature of the Sauerland? For TU Dortmund University and Universität Duisburg-Essen, it resulted in a perfect blend of learning, research ideation, and community building. From March 25 to 26, 2026, we headed to a beautiful mountain country house in Willingen for an intensive offsite. 

Our journey began with a networking lunch at the Wilddieb restaurant. This was followed by our first session where all PhDs from both groups shortly presented their research and found overlapping topics to form possible collaborations. After that, Marvin Strauß from the Duisburg-Essen HCI Group shared best practices for thesis supervision to support the next generation of researchers. In the evening, we fired up the grill for a barbecue, which provided a relaxed setting to strengthen our professional ties.

We kicked off the second day with outdoor activities in the snowy hills of Willingen. Inspired by the diverse landscape, we began discussing our various research topics in a more open, natural environment.

© Prof. Dr. Sven Mayer
The hiking group at a trail landmark on second day of the Winter School

In the afternoon, PhD students from the HAII group conducted a co-design workshop focused on "life-logging" with Meta AR glasses. Soumik Bhattacharjee and Aria Kalforian opened the session with theoretical insights into co-designing, the concept of life-logging, and the technical capabilities of the Meta AI glasses. After explaining how design thinking generates user-centered ideas, Fiona Lau and Toan Nguyen moderated a workshop where participants implemented practical methods for each phase of the process. Researchers from both universities worked together to empathize with users, identify pain points, and brainstorm solutions, ultimately refining their top ideas into low-fidelity prototypes. The session was a resounding success, sparking two major paper ideas that we are eager to develop further with the Duisburg-Essen team.

© Toan Ngyuen
HAII Co-design Workshop Organizers
© Toan Ngyuen
PhDs from two groups ideating during Co-design Workshop

To sharpen our analytical skills later that day, our postdoc Jonathan Liebers led a deep-dive session into Bayesian statistics using R Studio. By moving beyond frequentist boundaries, we explored how to better model uncertainty and integrate prior knowledge into our data, a skill set that is increasingly vital for our upcoming publications.

We left the mountains feeling grateful for the experience and inspired for the future. Beyond advancing our technical projects, we significantly expanded our network within the Ruhr area. We returned to our desks in Dortmund with fresh perspectives and a clear roadmap for the months ahead.