Thesis Announcements

Robots get increasingly involved in human life. The rapid advancements in new technologies, such as service robots, confront people with new challenges and crucial ethical questions as well as problems for our society. Thus, ethical considerations in terms of a responsible, safe and trust-worthy human-robot interaction need to be considered soon. How can we ensure robotic ethical behavior? How can we design ethical robots? Can or should robots act in accordance with human morality?

As service robots are predicted to have a profound impact on our lives, ethical considerations in terms of their design, programming and behavior becomes critical. We want to scan the existing literature to get an overview over conceptualizations and operationalizations of ethical/moral behavior.

Studies on human-human interactions have shown that moral evaluations can influence intentionality judgments. Against this background, we want to investigate the Knobe effect. The Knobe effect describes a human perception where the goodness or badness of an action influences peoples’ intentionality attributions asymmetrically; bad outcomes are judged as intentional, whereas good outcomes are judged as unintentional. Does such an asymmetry in the way we ascribe intentional actions exist in human-robot interactions?

Communication is a key factor for success in teams. Between humans, communication is both verbal (i.e., via words) as well as nonverbal (e.g., via facial expressions, body language). However, with the increasing use of digital assistants and robots in everyday work, the question arises whether people's communication behavior is changing. Do people communicate with robotic team members the same way they do with their human colleagues, or do they adopt their behavior?

If you go to a specialist store in order to buy a complicated technical devise, you may be happy, if the store has an expert service employee who can help you with your purchase decision and give advice on the technical details. You will probably trust the service employee. But how do we know if the service employee has our best interest in mind? This leads us to the the topic of this thesis: The morality in the service encounter.

Handshaking as a synchronous haptic interaction that takes place between humans. A person’s characteristics and mood can additionally be displayed through this sense of touch. To enable a natural interaction with a robot, it is important for a robot to be able to sense the partner during handshaking and respond adequately in a synchronous manner. The aim of this thesis would be to explore and develop haptic emotional behaviours for Human-Robot Handshaking.

One way to alleviate the need for teaching different robots individually is by using teleoperation. Typically, human demonstrations can be captured by skeleton tracking with VR or motion capture, which requires special hardware. Can the use of simple videos combined with deep learning and AI achieve similar results which can be generalized?

As the world of work changes, many people are working remotely. This has severely limited communication options. Nevertheless, communication content could still be exchanged via voice or text messages. Is nonverbal communication (such as body language and facial expressions) even relevant in teams to ensure high team performance? With this work you will screen existing knowledge about verbal and non-verbal communication in teams.

Digital marketing has long since arrived in many industries, such as the fashion world. In other areas it is rather at the beginning. The thesis aims at transferring the instruments of digital marketing to products and services in the B2C market. The specific market considered is the one around the dog.

Digitalization and AI offer extensive opportunities for companies' marketing activities. However, these new algorithms are also associated with a number of challenges. The suggested topics in the attached PDF are intended to shed light on these aspects.

The arrival of social robots in work teams is only a matter of time. But such robots – like any new team member – must be integrated into their teams to ensure their successful and sustainable use. Exemplary research questions are: What do we already know about the integration of new team members in all-human work teams? What are important factors for the integration of robotic team members in mixed human-robot teams (HRTs)? And what are fruitful areas for future research on robot integration in work teams?

We want to scan the existing literature to get an overview over potential roles and effects of social robots entering Human Resources departments. Exemplary research questions are: How will robots shape Human Resources departments of the future? Which roles are suitable for robots concerning their introduction into the department? Which effects on employees and other actors can be expected?

We live in a fast-moving world, where organizations need to act proactively in order to shape their future and to stay in the game. Thus, the future fitness plays an important role for every innovative organization. But how can companies manage their business in a future-oriented way?

This final thesis is offered with our cooperation partner, Jakob Maul GmbH.

The office workplace is increasingly changing. For example, companies are increasingly turning to paperless offices for reasons such as increased efficiency, labor savings, and environmental protection. As a result, various traditional office supplies are becoming increasingly obsolete and the requirements for office supply products are changing significantly. For companies offering such products, it is therefore essential to understand which products and features their (potential) customers of tomorrow will need. What will the office workplace of tomorrow look like, which office supplies are relevant? Which features are relevant for customers?

This final thesis is offered with our cooperation partner, Jakob Maul GmbH.

Before field experiments can deliver valid data, it is crucial to specify the research design and important aspects that need to be considered for maximum success – especially in a business context where several stake-holders are involved. In this thesis, concrete recommendations will be developed to conduct a real-life field experiment involving humanoid and android robots in business teams.

With advancing digitization also comes a greater responsibility that not only involves technical performance and safety but also social aspects and more concrete ethics. In order to shed more light on this important topic, this thesis should aim at providing insights that can help to answer a number of research questions, including

- What do we already know about ethical aspects of placing technology, such as robots, in teams?

- How do ethics for all-human teams and ethics for human-robot teams fit together?

- What are important ethical considerations for future research on and deployment of human-robot teams?

Selecting suitable instruments and methods to measure causal effects is a challenge for many researchers across scientific fields. It is an important prerequisite for any further decisions regarding any study design. We want to take a closer look at various methods that are currently used to assess causality in (field) experiments in business contexts, compare them and derive specific recommendations.

Many jobs are experiencing a major shift in the skills and core capabilities required for the future. This change does not stop at “classic” office jobs such as team assistance and PMO. We want to take a closer look at how the jobs of a team assistant and a PMO in large corporations are changing, what today’s core competencies are, and which competencies will be needed in the future.

Digitalization and COVID-19 led to a major shift on how we actually work and will work in the future. The suggested topics in the attached PDF are intended to shed light on these aspects. The topics cover all exciting areas of HR work of the future: from AI-based recruiting and leadership to digital work opportunities.