Topics Archive

Supervisor: Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at)

Master thesis Computer Science – Emanuel Stadler: SOCIAL, a social welfare calculator adaptable to varying legal frameworks (https://utheses.univie.ac.at/detail/58260/)

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/

Bachelor thesis Business Informatics – Florian Pichelmann (https://github.com/FPmediaFlorian/bac_thesis_broadband_well)

This project explores the practical value and importance of publicly accessible, very-high speed broadband access points (reaching or exceeding 10 Gbps symmetric) in comparison to today's private, home broadband coverage and lower-speed public access points which are asymmetric and slower by 2 to 4 orders of magnitude.

To start, explore the user's view on the private and business values of such a service. Second, design and realize a prototype access point (e.g. in cooperation with FunkFeuer, Vienna's community network) including the supporting software. For example, implement a Web-based map tool that visualizes whether a user should perform a Web download using their (slower) home connection or rather spend the time traveling to the Broadband Well and back, and perform the download there much more quickly.

Other use case scenarios may include using Internet services other than the Web, to be determined by the concept phase of your thesis. Depending on the specific use cases that should be supported, different technical and conceptual (e.g. legal) challenges arise and must be addressed by the thesis project.

This project is available as a Bachelor's thesis. The COSY research group provides a very-high speed broadband access point (10 Gbps symmetric) on our premises; please note that this access point is only accessible for research (e.g. testing) purposes.

Master thesis Computer Science – Mislav Culig: Shanon, a Wireshark-based network packet capture anonymization tool (https://utheses.univie.ac.at/detail/58261/ , https://github.com/mculig/Shanon)

Recordings of network traffic play an important role in studying the network behavior of nodes, applications, and users. Unfortunately, these traces also contain quasi-personally identifiable information (PII) which makes sharing or publishing traces problematic. Develop a tool or extend existing ones (libpcap, Wireshark) to anonymize traces to various degrees. For this, identify types of PII found in traces, and evaluate methods to pseudonymize or otherwise scrub the records.

Note: This project is a great start into the world of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS)!

Supervisor: Albert Rafetseder (albert.rafetseder@univie.ac.at)

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: (1) The implementation of computer instruments (including the pragmatic coding practice of composers), and (2) how composers structure musical time in their compositions and how they 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

The ESP8266 offers an interesting WiFi-enabled small-scale embedded platform. Your task is to extend the MicroPython firmware available for it to enable its wireless interface's promiscuous mode. This lets an ESP8266 act as a passive WiFi sensing and measurement device. Based on your implementation, you design a distributed experiment with multiple devices that makes use of your new feature, e.g. track WiFi beacons from smartphones across geographical areas in a privacy-preserving manner.

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!

"Smartify Access Control in the IoT environment by analysing user behaviour patterns"

Make use of the collected data from sensors in a Smart-Home and define events that could be of interest to assigning Access Rights to the users in the system.

This topic requires analysis of the user behavior patterns(waking up time, leaving to work, bed time) in the IoT environment, description of the patterns through system events and application of these events to the composition of access rights.

This solution will be integrated with an already existing Smart-Home management framework, present on COSY:Lab.

Note: This topic is only available as P1/P2 or Master's Thesis.

Implement tool that can evaluate the compliance of automatic identity management solution in IoT environment.

Goal of this thesis is to build simulation tool that takes into consideration computational effort factors(CPU, memory usage, network delay) for various Identity Management solutions(e.g. PKI, Web of Trust, OpenPGP)

This solution will be further used for long term testing of particular Identity Management systems, with special analysis of adaptability on resource-constrained devices (IoT sensors)

"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.

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):
Alexopoulos et al (2020) Swiping more, committing less. 
Tong et al (2016) The Influence of Technology on Romantic Relationships. 
Masden et al (2015) Understanding the Role of Community in Online Dating.

Radio channel capacity is a key resource to operate wireless networks. Mobile operators spend a lot of money (typically in the range above 1 bn EUR) to obtain spectrum licenses, which give them exclusive rights to use particular frequency bands. In reality, these frequencies are utilitzed to the full extend only in densely populated areas. In other regions (e.g. rural areas) operators do not need their entire licensed spectrum. Instead of static licenses, the proposed topic focuses on load based licensing schemes: Your task is to create a simple simulation of a dynamic "licensing process" which takes into account the current network load. It is expected to implement a simple assignment algorithm, e.g. a license broker in Matlab. The model should be agent based and object orientated.

Transmissions over radio may suffer interference both from out-of-band and in-band transmissions. Your task is to choose modulation schemes and develop models for interference for them, both within the same modulation scheme and across schemes. Target metrics focus on the demodulated signal and thus the disturbance that interferences cause in the demodulator: effects on the spectral content, noise floor, transmitter/receiver synchronization, etc. You evaluate your models both in theory and in practice, i.e. mathematically and through an implementation in GNU Radio.

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.