I am a professor for Human Factors & Gender Studies at Hochschule Ruhr West- University of Applied Sciences in Bottrop (Rhine Ruhr Area, Germany) since 2015 and the co-founder of the Institute of Positive Computing. I have been working with Prof. Ognibene since 2018 when we successfully applied for a grant from the Volkswagen Stiftung for the project COURAGE, focusing on toxic mechanisms on the Internet.

My background is in Psychology and Computer Science (M.Sc.), Cultural Studies and Economics (M.A.) with all degrees completed at the University of Duisburg-Essen before I joined the group of Prof. Dr. Nicole Krämer, who supervised my PhD in the field of Social and Media Psychology.

The interdisciplinary team I lead follows the idea that digitalization can be human-centered and that human well-being, innovation and technical progress are compatible. We are exploring mixed reality arrangements in different application fields, e.g. future work settings, social robots, sensitization for health issues, diversity or circular economy. Also, we do research on new learning arrangements inspired by the SDGs such as international non-coding hackathons. Our largest projects include the RuhrBots Competence Center that researches social robots in public arrangements, the Prosperkolleg Transferhub that tries to spread the vision of a circular economy, and the Erasmus+ project IDEAL focusing on AI in education.

International cooperation is just as important in my team as local and regional networking with businesses and society in the Ruhr area.