Thesis proposals for 2011-2012

CAdE-games - Toward Cognitive Adaptive Edu-games

The first purpose of this project is to investigate the cognitive processing involved in edu-games and its impact on learning. The second purpose is to investigate how we can influence these cognitive processes by using adaptive techniques. More in particular we will investigate the impact of the emotional status of a tutor-avatar on the learning effect, as well as the motivational aspects of learning by manipulating task difficulty and attainability of goals.

Cross-Media Information Spaces and Architectures

We investigate conceptual models and architectures for the representation and integration of information across media boundaries. It is time to question existing document formats which are very much based on the simulation of paper on static desktop computers and to come up with innovative information concepts for the representation of open and fluid cross-media "documents".

iGesture - A Gesture Recognition Framework

iGesture is an open source gesture recognition framework supporting application developers who would like to add new gesture recognition functionality to their application as well as designers of new gesture recognition algorithms.

Interactive Paper and Augmented Reality

While there have been dramatic increases in the use of digital technologies for information storage, processing and delivery over the last few decades, the affordances of paper have ensured its retention as a key information medium. We are interested in conceptual models and software platforms for the integration of paper with digital as well as other cross-media resources.

Midas - A Declarative Multi-Touch Interaction Framework

The main goal of the Midas framework is to provide developers adequate software engineering abstractions to close the gap between the evolution in the multi-touch technology and software detection mechanisms. We advocate the use of a rule language which allows programmers to express gestures in a declarative way. Complex gestures which are extremely hard to be implemented in traditional approaches can be expressed in one or multiple rules which are easy to understand.

MobiCraNT - Second Generation Mobile Cross-media Applications - Scalability, Heterogeneity and Legacy

The MobiCraNT project aims at the development of software engineering principles and patterns for the development of mobile cross-media applications that operate in a heterogenous distributed setting and interact using cross-media technology.

Mobile Web Applications

In this research we concentrate on the development of mobile applications, i.e. applications that run on mobile devices like smart phones

Multimodal and Multi-Touch Interaction

We are developing multimodal and multi-touch interaction frameworks with a focus on the declarative definition of gestures and interaction patterns and the reusability as well as extensibility of existing gestures. Our solution supports the rapid prototyping and investigation of novel multimodal and multi-touch gestures.

SCOUT - A Framework for the development of mobile applications

SCOUT is a mobile application development framework, which supports the development of mobile applications that are aware of the user's context (e.g., profile, device characteristics, ..), his current (physical) environment, and the people, objects and places in it. By exploiting this knowledge on the user and his environment, such applications are able to provide personalized information and services to the user.  SCOUT supports different sensing technologies to become aware of the user's surrounding environment (and the physical entities in it), and is primarily based on Web technologies for communication and data acquisition, and Semantic Web technologies for integrating and enriching the knowledge present in the decentralized data sources.

Semantic Web Languages and Technology

Semantic Web technology and languages (like RDF(S) and OWL) is an important area in Web Engineering and for semantic interoperability. WISE is mainly using the results of research done in this domain, but we also contribute to it in the context of different research project.  

Serious Games

The purpose of this research topic is to perform research on development methods for serious games, which are games used for training, advertising, simulation, or education.  

Software Variability

Modeling and Management of Software Variability in Software Product Lines

WSDM - Web Semantic Design Method

WISE developed as one of the first few a Web site design method, called WSDM (1998). This method followed a completely new approach in designing Web applications, called the ‘audience driven’ approach, which is nowadays followed by many Web design methods. The original WSDM method, and its associated modeling formalisms has evolved over the years to a complete ‘semantic’ web design method, both applying and deploying semantic web technology, and supporting the generation of semantic annotations. Different master student and PhD students have considered and still consider a variety of additional design issues, such as adaptivity, localization, accessibility, and social tagging, while others have focused on code generation and tool support.