Arbeitsbereich: Computer Science

Prof. Dr. Stefan Dietze

21. December 2020

Prof. Dr. Stefan Dietze is Professor of Data & Knowledge Engineering at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and Scientific Director of the department Knowledge Technologies for the Social Sciences at GESIS (Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences) in Cologne.

His research is concerned with mining and interpretation of large amounts of heterogeneous data, in particular from the Web, using methods at the intersection of natural language processing, machine learning, and information retrieval. Being head of the Knowledge Technologies for the Social Sciences department at GESIS, a particular focus is on the use of (social) web data for interdisciplinary research questions in the social sciences. At DIID, he is interested in the investigation of online discourse using NLP-based methods, e.g., for the recognition and classification of statements or sources or the understanding of information diffusion in social networks.

Björn Ebbinghaus

15. October 2020

Björn Ebbinghaus has studied Computer Science at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf since 2013. He completed his Bachelor of Science degree in 2017. At the same time, he was already working on D-BAS, the dialog-based argumentation system, a project of the first phase of the Research Training Group, as a student assistant. During his master studies at the HHU, he focused on the use of argumentation systems in natural language environments, such as chat systems, by chatbots.

In his master thesis he investigated the possibilities of extending existing argumentation systems with a subsequent decision making process. For this purpose, an experiment was conducted with the student body of computer science to test whether this kind of decision making is perceived as fair and acceptable by the students. Since January 2019 he is employed as a research assistant at the Chair of Computer Networks of Prof. Martin Mauve, where he is researching the practical application and development of systems for decision making.

Prof. Dr. Jörg Rothe

21. March 2018

Prof. Dr. Jörg Rothe is head of the working group for complexity theory and cryptology at Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf since 2000. Since 2014 he is chair of the Department of Computer Science.

His research interests are in computational social choice, algorithmic game theory, and fair division, typically focusing on the algorithmic and complexity-theoretic properties of the related problems. At DIID, he is interested in formal models of theoretical computer science for the description and evaluation of user interactions in online participation processes.

Dr. Alexander Schneider

21. March 2018

Dr. Alexander Schneider has been CEO and founder of schnaq GmbH since 2021, which, among other things, produces software for structured discussions. There, he is co-responsible for business development and the further development of the discussion software, among other things.

In 2020, he successfully completed his dissertation in computer science with the topic “Untangling Internet Debate – Decentralization and Reuse of Arguments for Online Discussion Software.” His research focused on cybersecurity and distributed systems in the context of structured discussion system software.

Dr. Christian Meter

21. March 2018

Dr. Christian Meter founded the company “schnaq GmbH” with Dr. Alexander Schneider and Michael Birkhoff, where they now continue their research, develop software and offer consulting services. The focus remains on improving communication and interaction with a large group of people via the Internet to enable better discourse, higher participation and more structure in discussions.

Christian did research on online discussions and participation at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany, in the field of computer science. Software was developed and practically evaluated with the goal of enabling clearer discourse and decision-making processes.

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Dorothea Baumeister

19. March 2018

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Dorothea Baumeister is a junior professor for computational social choice at Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf. Since 2017 she leads the DFG-project “Distances in Voting”.

In her research she concentrates on the axiomatic and computa tionalan  alysis of problems from the field of preference aggregation, votingsystems, and fair division. At the DIID her focus lies on the mathematical formalization of processes in online participation and theinfluence of distances in online voting.

Prof. Dr. Martin Mauve

12. March 2018

Prof. Dr. Martin Mauve is heading the chair for computer networks and communication systems at the Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf. Since 2015 he is also dean of the faculty for mathematics and natural sciences at the same university.

His research interests include secure and robust distributed systems, computer supported collaborative work and online participation. A special focus of his work is on scalable support for discussions and decision making. In the context of the DIID he is particularly interested in novel concepts for dialog-based online-participation and its technical realization.

Dr.-Ing. Kálmán Graffi

10. March 2018

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kalman Graffi is Professor for Networks, Communication Systems and Cybersecurity at TH Bingen. Previously, he was Principal Scientist at Honda Research Institute Europe, heading the Reliable Systems & Software Department, and in the period 8/2012 to 6/2019 DIID member and Junior Professor “Social Network Engineering” at the Institute of Computer Science at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.

His research here includes the investigation of new social interaction possibilities over the Internet as well as mechanisms and protocols for highly scalable and secure distributed systems. At DIID, he was interested in the technical foundations for secure and robust communication systems in decentralized peer-to-peer networks under precarious conditions. Currently, he is looking at how the industrial data processing of tomorrow can be privacy-preserving and privacy-compliant.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Conrad (vice speaker)

9. March 2018

Stefan Conrad is full professor in computer science at Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf since 2002.  He has a chair for databases and information systems.  Since 2015 he is member of the Academic Senate of the Heinrich Heine University.

His research considers the analysis of large data sets, in particular, he is interested in image retrieval, the analysis of large time series, clustering, and text mining.  He has on-going cooperations with industrial partners.  Several of these cooperations were funded by the BMWi (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy) in a research and development programme for small and medium enterprises. These projects dealt with opinion mining (sentiment analysis), extraction of product features relevant for users, and automated text summarization. At DIID his research interest is currently focused on automated topic extraction and content analyses of texts as well as identifying argument structures, sentiments, and emotions.

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Tobias Escher

5. March 2018

Tobias Escher leads a junior research group funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, focused on the effects of citizen participation on quality and legitimacy of political decisions regarding the transformation towards sustainable mobility, in particular on the local level. Previously he has managed both the Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy (DIID) and the PhD programme on local level online participation (NRW Forschungskolleg) of Heinrich-Heine-University Duesseldorf. His research interests are the design and evaluation of participatory processes online and offline. His particular focus is the potential contribution of citizen participation for increasing the quality and legitimacy/acceptance of political decisions. He has also developed a course on the theory and practice of online participation, a result of which has been a platform allowing students to shape their course curricula.

Tobias Escher is a social scientist with a PhD in Information Science, Communication Studies and the Social Sciences from the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. To asses the opportunities as well as the limitations of digital technologies he can also rely on his basic knowledge of Computer Science. Having previously worked and studied in Oxford, London, Leicester and Berlin, he joined Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf in 2011.