UG and MSc Project Ideas

Chris Greenhalgh, 2024-03-04

General topics

In general I am interested in Human-computer interaction, Distributed Systems and Computer-supported cooperative work, in particular

See General Requirements at the bottom of the page.

Most of my projects combine (to varying extents) software development, interaction design and user studies and are
suitable for HCI and CS students but NOT DataScience or AI.

Suggested Projects

Extensions to Cardographer, a web-based multi-user ideation card system

The Cardographer project is exploring the use of activities based on (physical or virtual) playing cards to help generate ideas, and learn about and explore ethical and legal issues for new technologies and applications. The project has (mid-2023) developed a first version of the Cardographer Platform, a web-based digital platform for creating cards, managing shared session using cards and analysing card use, and a first version of a Unity-based 3D virtual table top simulator, similar to Tabletop Simulator. The system also integrates with Miro, an online shared whiteboard tool. There is still plenty of scope to extend and add to this platform; a number of suggestions are given below.

CX1: The aim of this project is to prototype and evaluate a 2D browser-based interface for online card sessions, integrating with Cardographer.
This is to be an alternative to the 3D virtual tabletop and miro. For example, this might be more similar to playingcards.io.
CX2: The aim of this project is to extend the simple Cardographer web-app view of the cards associated with a session to include state and coordination.
There is a simple single page webapp that allows a set of cards to be viewed, e.g. the RI cards. But it is currently stateless and has no coordination between different views/users. This web-app can be used alongside a face-to-face or online card-based session. The aim of this project is to extend it to include more complex functions such as hands, shuffling and favourites.
CX3: The aim of this project is to create a flexible analysis and report-generation facility for the Cardographer platform, to help users to analyse and reflect on past card use sessions.
The platform already supports recording the final state of a session and provides a limited number of interactive visualisations. But it would be useful to also be able to generate tailored printable reports and associated visualisations, and also to compare different related sessions (e.g. follow-on sessions).
CX4: The aim of this project is to extend Cardographer to support Time-based capture and analysis for card sessions (and evaluate this).
This means capturing step-by-step information about card sessions in place of or in addition to the current final snapshot, and prototyping visualisations or other analytical tools to help users analyse what happened in those sessions.

Interactive performance system

There is a rich history of using digital technology to enhance live performances. For example, in the Opera "Losing Her Voice" (by Elizabeth Kelly, University of Nottingham) a mobile web app allowed the audience to interact at key points in the performance through a kind of in-opera social media, while in the virtuoso Piano composition, "Climb!" (by Maria Kallionpää), a software system determines which movements the pianist has to play and in which order (depending on key musical phrases played) while a simpler mobile web app helps the audience to follow the performance.

We are interested in exploring other ways of enhancing live musical, opera and theatre performance experiences using personal mobile technologies (smart phones, etc.). This is a very open brief, and will require significant independent work. It may be possible to collaboration(s) with composer(s) and performer(s), e.g. within the Department of Music, however this is uncertain, and you should have your own creative idea that you are happy to develop as a basis for this project.

Also note that this project might link well to the level 3 Music and Mixed Reality module offered by the Department of Music (with the School of Computer Science).

PERF1: The aim is to design, prototype and evaluate a use of digital technology to enhance the performance experience.
You can come up with your own scenario, or we well be able to put you in contact with a (music) researcher in the University who you can work with (but the HCI and technical elements will be entirely down to you). Because this is fundamentally interactive and performative it is important that the prototype is functional, so this may require significant programming skills. Also note that it is likely that any evaluation will need to be preliminary and relatively small scale, although a larger-scale public performance might be possible, depending on the work and any collaboration(s) developed.

Sonic biofeedback system

From current research, we have found that fine-grained changes in heart-rate can predict when someone is paying attention. Other changes can predict relaxation. We think that some therapeutic tasks (e.g. attention training for people with ADHD) might be more effective in some states than in others. We conjecture that giving someone sonic (sound and/or musical) feedback about their physiological state might help them to get "in the zone" to learn well.

BIOFB1: The aim of this project is prototype a sonic bio-feedback system based on heart beat (RR or II) data.
It would involve working with colleagues in the Institute of Mental Health, to develop and test prototypes. It would include elements of sound design/composition as well as the technical work of interfacing to a suitable heartrate monitor and processing its live data.

Companion agent to support digital health interventions

There are many apps, websites, etc that can be helpful when someone is struggling with their wellbeing (e.g. anxiety or mood). However, to benefit from them the user has to actually use them, and we know that people often don't, or stop after just one go. This project is linked to a current reseach project which aims to suport children and young people in particular (age 10-25). We conjecture that a "companion" agent - perhaps in the form of an anthroporphic animal - could help to encourage and remind someone to keep using a digital health intervention (DHI) like this.

AGENT1: The aim of this project is to design, prototype and evaluate a companion agent to enourage a young person to keep using a digital mental health intervention
The agent might be manifest through a mobile app (or mobile web app). It might also (or instead) engage the user through existing communication channels such as WhatsApp, email or SMS. Ideally it would be personalised, e.g. when and how it communicates and how "pushy" it is. There is a student already doing a design-oriented project based on this; this project would have an emphasis on practical development, i.e. functioning proof of concept(s). We have one current prototype, so this should probably focus on a specific demographic or use case.
AGENT2: The aim of this project is to evaluate potential uses of Large Language Models in this kind of companion app.
LLMs such as ChatGPT might be useful in various ways, such as interpreting user input or tailoring user output. However, especially in health applications, it is very important that the system is safe. This project would involve proposing and testing a range of options for using LLMs in this context. (There would definitely be access to ChatGPT3.5Turbo; it is current unclear whether you would have access to other/newer models.)
AGENT3: The aim of this project is design and run a user study to evaluate a range of possible notification/reminder strategies that could be used by this kind of companion app.
For example, depending in part on your programming ability, this could include timed notifications, messages (e.g. SMS, WhatsApp), location-triggers, live app use. It could also probe whether aspects of personalisation made a difference, e.g. based on personality traits of motivational styles.
AGENT4: The aim of this project is to design, prototype and evaluate a companion agent to help someone navigate the health system, especially in terms of support for mental health.
The health system has all kinds of recommended process and responses, ranging from providing self-help resources, through primary care (GPs) to special care of various forms. If someone has concerns about their mental health or wellbeing it can be very hard to know what to next. The concept of this agent is a kind of personal assistant that would help someone to identify and access sources of support and understand where they are in the "system", so that they can make effective choices.

Citizen Science platform for Mental Health research

Citizen science refers to science that is done by and with "citizens", i.e. not professional researchers/scientists. For example, in ecology there are several projects where members of public carefully record the prevalence of particular animals or plants. There are also many science projects that involve volunteers identifying things from images (e.g. types of galaxies from pictures from telescopes). Citizen science is much less common in health research, and especially mental health research. This is partly because there are additional challenges for example in working with potentially vulnerable volunteers, and the kinds of research is also different.

CITIZEN1: The aim of this project is to develop of volunteer "dashboard" that would support someone working across several REDCap-based projects.
At the University, most medical-related projects use REDCap as their main database. Each project is separate, and there is no interface for participants/volunteers to see their involvement with each project. This web-based dashboard would need to link to several REDCap projects, one acting as the "home" for all participants, and others linked to specific research projects. It would allow participants to sign up for new projects and also let them review their involvement with each project and any outstanding actions.
CITIZEN2: The aim of this project is to design and prototype a web-based hub for citizen science projects in mental health
This is linked to some current research projects, which may be able to project input in terms of requirements and use cases. It would start with a CMS that would allow projects to be set up and promoted. It would extend this with appropriate community-support and task-support elements. It should also emphasise the particular challenges and requirements of mental health research.
CITIZEN3: The aim of this project is to design and prototype web- and app-based for a colocated group of people to work together on (esp. mental health-related) citizen science task(s)
This is linked to the project above. Most citizen science platforms and activities assume that each person works independently and remotely on their own tasks. In some situation, including where people have significant mental health challenges, it may be more appropriate for them to work together with others or as part of a group. The project should address this aspect specifically, for example developing requirements, designing interfaces/functions and evaluating them.

Card-sort Task for Self-harm

Card-sort Task for Self-harm (CaTS) is an activity developed at the University of Nottingham that uses a set of just over 100 cards to help a young person reflect on a personal experience of self-harm. We would actually use an alternative set of cards that are similar in number and use but deal with taking an exam, as an ethically less challenging test case.

CATS1: Design, prototype and evaluate a tablet-based interface for doing a digital version of the CaTS card-sort task.
The CaTS task involves sorting through over 100 cards and placing them on a timeline. A custom 2D/2.5D interface should allow a young person to do this efficiently but thoughtfully. It would need to code with the limited screen size. It should also allow the person to review their choices. It could be implemented using Unity or as a web-app or native app. It would require careful interaction design. (This could be linked to Cardographer project CX1)

SSH Bastion system for Computer Science

The School currently support off-campus access to servers via the SSH bastions/jump hosts canal and valley. These need to be replaced.

SSH1: The aim of this project is to design, implement and test a new remote SSH access solution for the School.
The new SSH bastion system must support MFA through integration with the University's Active Directory and MFA system. It should be very secure, and is likely to exploit short-lived SSH certificates (see for example smallstep). It may optionally also support special-case long-lived certificates. If possible system deployment should be automated with Ansible.

General Requirements / Guidance

Human-Computer Interaction

If you doing an HCI project (i.e. on the MSc HCI, or an HCI project within the BSc/MSci CS) then your project must be "human-centred". This can involve an emphasis on requirements gathering, design and/or evaluation. You will almost certainly need to do some prototyping, but depending on the project it may be possible to use non-functioning prototypes (although I prefer functioning prototypes).

If you want to tackle one of the HCI projects then please write up a brief (one page) summary of the work you would do, including:

Computer Science

If you doing a CS project (i.e. in the MSc, BSc or MSCi CS) then your project must involve a significant practical (programming) element. It may also involve some HCI elements and prototyping, but at least some will need to be functional.

If you are tackling a web-based project then you should be prepared to use a technology stack with something like Flutter (and Dart) or Angular+Bootstrap (and Typescipt) or Svelte as the front-end and a well-defined HTTP API to any back-end. For Svelte, see SvelteKit. Note, you may not need to implemented your own back-end services, for example a static back-end may suffice or you may be able to use a cloud service such as Firebase.

If you want to tackle one of the CS projects then please write up a brief (one page) summary of:

AI, Data Science

Sorry, I'm probably not able to supervise projects in Data Science at all, and only to a very limited extent in AI (where the emphasis is on human-AI interaction with existing technology/algorithms/data). Also I do NOT have suitable existing datasets to work with.

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