The Research Team

Aurelio Todisco studied architecture at the University of Liechtenstein and human-centred design at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, where he has been a research associate in the Competence Centre Design & Management since 2020. His research focuses on the interface of human-centred design, architecture and new technologies. In addition, Aurelio Todisco is also a freelance illustrator and teaches Visual Thinking in the Bachelor Design Management International at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. 

Aysun Aytaç, PhD, design researcher at the Competence Centre Design and Management at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU – Hochschule Luzern). She combines theories and approaches from material culture, visual culture, visual ethnography, everyday life, culture, everyday life creativity and design thinking to explore interactions between people and artefacts.

Beat Tödtli, PhD, data scientist, researcher and lecturer at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST- Ostschweizer Fachhochschule). He develops and teaches machine learning courses and has a background in industrial algorithm development for fraud detection.

Edith Maier, PhD, professor at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST – Ostschweizer Fachhochschule) and has a background in applied linguistics, social anthropology and information science. More recently, her research focuses on cultural aspects of human-computer interaction and behavioural change support.

Jens O. Meissner, PhD, professor of organizational design and head of the interdisciplinary future laboratory CreaLab at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU – Hochschule Luzern). His research focuses on questions around organizational resilience in the digital age.

Jon Rogers, professor of design at Northumbria University with twenty five years of experience working at the interface between design and emerging technologies. Following a recent three year fellowship based in Mozilla Berlin, he is co-directing OpenDoTT, an EU funded doctoral training programme with Mozilla in trusted IoT. He is exploring new narratives for the design of voice assistants in VA-PEPR project.

Melanie Rickenmann is a research assistant at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST – Ostschweizer Fachhochschule). She works in various projects in data science and in application development.

Michael Doerk, PhD, professor at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU – Hochschule Luzern), a psychologist, expert in health promotion, social computing, risk and quality management and innovation management. He developed the award-winning HSLU business application relax-concentrate-create that captures VA-activities related to resource management that are central to the analytical part of this study. 

Michelle Murri is a research associate in the School of Business at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU – Hochschule Luzern). She received her Master’s degree in law and is particularly interested in data protection law. She supports the project management in VA-PEPR research project.

Minh-Nguyet Le is a Researcher at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU-Hochschule Luzern). She is interested in more inclusive, egalitarian, and just ways of applying designing and therefore brings an intersectional lens in her approach to research and design. She is currently pursuing doctorate at University of Potsdam in Germany in the field of public administration. Formerly she was a researcher at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana Universität in Lüneburg.

Dr. Mike Shorter is a Research Fellow at Northumbria University. In his time, he’s worked as a Researcher, Creative Technologist, Product Designer, Craftsperson and Innovation Strategist. Across all these roles Mike consistently explores new technology with reflective and playful processes in order to make meaningful objects and experiences.

Dr. Paola Pierri is Senior Researcher at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU-Hochschule Luzern). She has a doctorate in Design Anthropology and a background in political theory. Her research explores the impact of digital technologies on societies and its implications for policy-making and for democracy more broadly. She has been researching on issues of digital inequalities as Research Fellow at the Weizenbaum Institute.

Patricia Wolf, PhD, professor of innovation management and future research at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU – Hochschule Luzern). She also teaches at ETH Zurich since 2012 and she is a professor of integrative innovation management at the University of Southern Denmark since 2018. Her research focuses on the link between innovation, emergent technologies and social change.

Sabine Junginger, PhD, professor in the Lucerne School of Art and Design and head of the Competence Centre Design and Management at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU – Hochschule Luzern). She contributes her expertise on human-centred design and studies its contribution to social change and economic innovation in the context of digital transformation. For VA-PEPR, she looks at voice assistants with an eye to policy design and the design of future public services.

Tom Ulmer is a lecturer at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST – Ostschweizer Fachhochschule) and has a background in media design, computer sciences and human computer interaction. His main research interests include digital health, active assisted living as well as smart living.

Ulrich Reimer, PhD, professor at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST – Ostschweizer Fachhochschule) and computer scientist with a background in AI, semantic technologies and knowledge management. His current research focuses on behavioural change support systems for digital health, with an emphasis on sensor data mining and self-learning to adapt to individual users.

Magalie Jost Naranjo is a research coordinator in the School of Art and Design at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts  (HSLU – Hochschule Luzern). In VA-PEPR research project, she is responsible for coordinating the reporting to SNF and is responsible for the financial controlling and the financial reporting.

Ute Klotz, PhD, co-leader of the focus group ‘Technologies for Tomorrow’s Digital Working World’ in the interdisciplinary thematic cluster ‘Digital Transformation of the Working World’ at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU – Hochschule Luzern). She deals with future studies and the interfaces between humans, work and technology. She is particularly interested in methods that make the future more tangible and predictable.

Uwe Riss, Ph.D., lecturer and senior researcher at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST – Ostschweizer Fachhochschule), has conducted research in areas such as business information systems, natural sciences, and philosophy. Currently, his main interest is in the various aspects of digitalization.