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Beyond the "Moral Machine" (vergeben) |
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Die am MIT betriebene "Moral Machine" (http://moralmachine.mit.edu/) ist eine Plattform zur publikumswirksamen Diskussion ethischer Dilemmata in der IKT, z.B. im Kontext von autonomen Fahrzeugen. Im Rahmen des Projekts PANDORA (https://cosy.cs.univie.ac.at/research/projects/project/271/) werden verwandte Fragestellungen vor dem erweiterten Horizont der langfristigen gesellschaftlichen Entwicklung und im Hinblick auf das zugrundeliegende Menschenbild erforscht, um so aus der Disziplin der Informatik heraus den Diskurs über eine nachhaltige IKT aktiv zu gestalten. In dieser Arbeit soll, basierend auf einer detaillierten Analyse der Moral Machine, hierzu eine web-basierte Plattform entstehen, die deren Konzept im Hinblick auf Fragestellungen aus der philosophischen Anthropologie erweitert. |
| If you're interested, please contact Peter Reichl (peter.reichl@univie.ac.at) and describe why you are interested in the project and your related technical and philosophical experience. |
"Breaking up with Online Dating" - What is wrong with Online Dating and how to fix it - available |
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Online dating is a pervasive mass phenomenon of computer-aided mediation of intimate relationships and human sexuality. Users are offered a low-threshold opportunity to make initial contacts and the technology has the potential for emancipatory empowerment. However, online dating has a variety of questionable dimensions, implications and side effects, such as discriminatory matching algorithms, chat bot scam or sexual harassment. Your task in this project is three-fold: (1) After an initial literature research, (2) conduct user research among users of online dating platforms and investigate their lived experiences with this sociotechnical system and how their experiences relate to their pursuit of intimate relationships. (3) Formulate implications for design of technology that supports users in forming intimate relationships, create and evaluate a prototype that supports the formation of intimate relationships. Please note that this topic requires good command of human-centered design approaches as taught in related courses (VU Human-Computer Interaction, VU Cooperative Systems). Further reading (available via u:access): |
| If you're interested, please contact Christian Löw (christian.loew@univie.ac.at) and Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at). |
b. Topics with a Network-related Focus
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Blockchain-based Smart Home device registry - vergeben |
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"Use blockchain to make services, features and bugs of IoT devices transparent to all users!" Implement blockchain-based storage for all types of sensors, which are used inside of Smart Home framework. This storage should contain information on supported functionalities on the devices, combined with firmware versions of sensors. Moreover, this registry should support option of providing client-side feedback on some sensor services and whether they work properly, so that other Smart Home framework users can become more aware of possible malfunctions and/or security breaches inside their Smart Homes. Ultimate goal is to achieve trust reputation network, which would make perfect match with blochain properties, such as : backward traceability, immutability and transparency. |
| If you're interested, please contact Nemanja Ignjatov (nemanja.ignjatov@univie.ac.at) |
Fuzz The OLSR2 Routing Daemon -openavailable |
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The Optimized Link State Routing protocol version 2 (OLSR2 on GitHub, RFC 7188) is a routing protocol for wireless mesh networks. Your task is to automate tests against OLSR2 that try its functionality and check its correct functioning for a variety of valid and invalid inputs, both from the network and from local configuration. Vectors include the syntax and semantics of OLSR2's RFC 5444-encoded messages, but also any config files that the deamon uses, or the operating system's routing tables (see e.g. Routing Tables of Death). Since OLSR2 aims to run on low-power embedded hardware platforms such as WiFi routers, DoS scenarios (memory / CPU / storage exhaustion) are in scope as well. Additionally, glitches should be analysed for their effect on a practical mesh network of ~10 devices. Since OLSR2 is Free, Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS), you should also disclose responsibly and fix any bugs you may find! |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
A Configurable Études Generator -openavailable |
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| Études are musical pieces designed as practice materials for perfecting particular musical skills (Wikipedia). The skills to be perfected can differ (in difficulty and category) from étude to étude, and are different between instruments, players, and also dimensions of musical content (melody, harmony, rhythm). Develop a sufficiently generic, configurable generator for études that outputs études of choosable difficulty. For this, define a system that encodes the difficulty of a task to be studied, and transformations that assess the difficulty of combinations of study tasks appropriately. |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
Multimedia Coding Efficiency Under Scaling -openavailable |
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| This topic concerns the efficiency of encoders for visual media (JPEG, H.26[45]) when scaling the source media. Your aim is to model how the storage requirements change as the resolution and framerate of the source media changes. The investigation uses source media with extremely high spatial and temporal resolution. Using resampling/pulldown, versions with lower resolutions are created and encoded in order to study the parameter space. Different visual contents provide a further dimension to investigate. Furthermore, you study upsampling methods (such as linear and cubic interpolation) and their impact on encoding efficiency. |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
IP networks with dynamically changing uplinks -openavailable |
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| Routing and upstream/downstream traffic flows in IP networks have certain protocol and time constraints for working correctly. This project investigates challenges and opportunities opened up by making the network's uplink change dynamically, e.g. attach to a different address block while traffic flows are still active. What happens to current-day applications in situations like these? What protocol adaptations are required to lessen the impact of uplink dynamics? What timescales are reasonable for reconvergence? (Etc.) |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
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Informatics For A Good Cause: Mindestsicherung (Web) App - vergeben / already taken |
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Mindestsicherung is a monetary social welfare service that is granted to individuals under specific economic circumstances. Your task is to design a (Web) app that supports users in the somewhat cumbersome application process. You translate the requirements prescribed by the legal framework into a user-oriented (Web) app that calculates the approximate amount to which the user is entitled. The user interface should consider literacy perspectives (both general and ICT-focused). The business logic should be easily adaptable as the legal framework is different between Austrian Bundesländer and changes frequently. FULL DISCLOSURE: The practical focus on Mindestsicherung / Sozialhilfe in this topic is motivated by a preliminary, voluntary cooperation between the supervisor, Arbeiterkammer Wien, and Diakonie Eine Welt gemeinnützige GmbH. For your project you may, but absolutely do not have to, consider this focus or these partners' expertise in social work. Furter reading: https://www.wien.gv.at/gesundheit/leistungen/mindestsicherung/ , https://sozialberatungwien.at/web-app/ |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) and Kaspar Lebloch (kaspar.lebloch(at)univie.ac.at) |
A Calls-for-Papers Metadata System -openavailable |
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Academic work includes presenting one's research results to the community at conferences and in printed publications. Unfortunately, the dissemination of conference dates, times, places etc. through calls-for-papers happens in an ad-hoc manner, e.g. by e-mail or on websites. Your task is to design a metadata system for conference organizers that encodes deadlines, keywords, tracks, formats, roles and so on in a structured, machine- and human-readable form and includes interfaces for both professional conference management systems and end-user calendar software. You design both the format for data exchange, and the distributed, federated system architecture that provides a simple implementation path for interested parties (servers and clients). Furter reading: https://github.com/rtholmes/conf-data (a system to encode data for use during conferences), http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification, https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5545 (iCal) |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
Computer Music between Applied Software Engineering and Pragmatic Tool-Building- open |
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The creation of computer-based music (including composition, digital lutherie, and performance) is firmly rooted in informatics and its methods. Pure Data, one established tool for music creation, for instance is billed as "visual programming language", and borrows many typical software development paradigms. Consequently, Pure Data also poses software engineering challenges. However, its artist users rarely have corresponding backgrounds, and develop their own coding practices. Your task is to join a group of composition students who develop computer instruments and musical pieces, and reflect on informatic software engineering practices they use (implicitly or explicitly). There are two main points of focus: The implementation of computer instruments (including the pragmatic coding practice of composers), and how composers approach and structure their creative process. This topic is an interdisciplinary cooperation with MDW (Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien / University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna). Further reading: https://puredata.info/ , https://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/575372#page=1 |
| If you're interested, please contact Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at) |
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