Germany

The seminar introduces sociological theories and methods that investigate the relationship between technology and society. The majority of the course is inspired by the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). The texts are a mix of theoretical discussions, historical approaches, and ethnographic/situationalist research. The course explores concepts and topics such as sociotechnical systems, actor-networks, workplace studies, cyborgs, design, and sociotechnical imaginaries.

This course for foreign students is designed to improve students’ language skills and vocabulary. Areas of focus include grammar, conversation, writing exercises, and listening and reading exercises. In addition, excursions are planned to introduce students to German culture. Students work with cultural and historical topics on an academic level and broaden their intercultural knowledge. They are introduced to independent learning methods and familiarize themselves with typical learning situations at German universities. In this class at the B1 level according to the CEFR, students further develop their vocabulary and command of grammatical structures as well as corresponding competencies in university-specific situations. The class takes intercultural and methodological aspects of foreign language learning into consideration, and students are introduced to German culture and society in more depth. The B1 level is split into two courses, the B1.1 course covers the first half of the level and the B1.2 course covers the second half of the level.

Students discuss key aspects of the ethical debates around robotics and artificial intelligence, focusing on the healthcare and medical sectors. The seminar includes an introduction to interdisciplinary methods of responsible technology design. Students work in interdisciplinary teams on proposals for responsible design, and they learn appropriate methods on the topics of scenario analysis, value assessment, and critical design thinking.

This course serves as an introduction to the field of environmental communication: What does it entail, what should it achieve, who are the intended recipients, and what is the intended outcome? The course studies some theoretical texts, addressing “the two cultures,” “framing,” and “technocratic discourse.” The course then analyzes political speeches about environmental policy and a manifesto. Finally, the course looks at the genesis of scientific and literary nature writing and studies extracts from classics such as Henry David Thoreau’s WALDEN or Rachel Carson’s SILENT SPRING as well as more recent texts by British and American authors. The course analyzes how these different texts operate, what they aim to accomplish and whether they succeed.

The course discusses topics including organization and tasks of project management; project teams and project responsibility; project structuring, phases of the project, and milestones; project planning,  tools for project planning (Gantt, etc.), and basics of network planning; project risk analysis; and project execution, and controlling and completion. The exercise on project management is oriented to training and deepening the methods of project planning and controlling presented in the lecture. More in-depth knowledge about those methods is acquired in a practical-case study. For this task, students learn to use specific project management tools.

This course examines the field of human factors. First, the theoretical groundwork (human perception and performance, design principles, and trust in automation) is laid and participants gain first practical insights into complex socio-technical systems. Afterward, students team up to put the theoretical foundation into the real world, examining typical challenges in human-automation interaction. The course consists of a holistic research process from the development of the research question to the presentation of the results. Thereby, the investigated technologies can vary broadly (e.g. humanoid robots, mobile applications, navigation devices, or websites). The course discusses topics including human information processing and action selection as well as accompanying limitations; common methods to analyze and optimize typical human factors problems; evaluation methods for human- machine-interaction in the context of user-centered design; fundamentals of Cognitive Engineering; human information processing and action selection; display design & usability; human-automation interaction; human-robot interaction; joint specification of the research technology and question; consolidation and application; and social and ethical issues in human-machine Interaction.