I n d e x
Research
Related Programmes
Denmark
Keld Bødker
Department of Computer Science,
Roskilde University,
Marbjergvej 35,
PO Box 260,
DK-4000 Roskilde,
Denmark
tel: + 45 4675 7711
fax: + 45 4675 4201
e mail: keldb@dat.ruc.dk
Computer Science Department
The computer science department currently has 12 faculty positions, and a small number of research assistants. In general both teaching and research are oriented towards applications of computers. Research is organised in small groups around a number of themes. The themes are presented shortly with their title and keywords.
Research
The research at the department is characterized by the following two major categories - each comprising a number of projects/themes:
Information systems:
* User interfaces and forms of interaction: the research is interdisciplinary and seeks to balance between being technology centred and human centred. The research is focused on gestures and pen-based input and is related to the "ubiquitous computing" vision. Two application areas are selected for study: computer support of professionals informal cooperation and computer support of mediation.
* Design of information systems: The theme covers development and use of computers in organisations. Research in this theme is less oriented towards the traditional focus on unambiguous descriptions and consistency between descriptions and the computer system, and more oriented towards the relations between descriptions of computer systems and the organisation and its needs. Research in this theme is action research with cooperation with both private and public organisations. Currently focus is put on the very early design activities in system development, labelled as requirements elicitation, requirements analysis or survey. The research has an empirical, descriptive orientation (how do designers in real life projects carry out these activities) as well as a theoretical, normative orientation (development of approaches, techniques and tools for requirement elicitation).
Intelligent systems:
* Knowledge based systems: The theme deals with formalisms for explicitly representing and reasoning with domain knowledge in computer systems as well as the applications of such formalisms in enquiry systems. Within formalisms for knowledge representation focus is put on terminological and possibilistic logics (fuzzy logic). The research is oriented towards applications within information retrieval, labelled as intuitive information retrieval.
* Languages and logics: The theme covers theory of programming languages, logic programming as a paradigm, and user interfaces based on a language oriented approach. Presently the logic programming paradigm is investigated and two developments are considered: logic programming with constraints and meta-programming.
Research opportunities
Visiting fellows as well as doctoral and postgraduate students are welcome to join the department. In general graduate students have good opportunities for becoming related with research projects because of the small size of the department and because of the central role of projects in the studies at Roskilde University. Graduate student projects at master thesis level often combine computer science with other subjects to provide for interdisciplinarity. Students doing their master thesis in the information systems area meet regularly to discuss literature or project presentations. Other courses/seminars may also support thesis work in the field of human centred systems:
1. Design of computer based systems. Studies with a theoretical orientation of design issues pertaining to the development and use of computer based systems in organisations
2. Studies of computer systems in use. Studies with an empirical orientation of information systems in use shedding light on central issues like quality of information systems, the role of information systems
3. User interfaces and interaction techniques. Theoretical and practical studies of user interfaces and interaction techniques with an emphasis on aspects of these concepts in relation to the vision known as 'ubiquitous computing'
4. Tools for development of information systems. Studies with a practical orientation of tools for data base modelling, prototyping tools, CASE-tools.
Visiting fellows and doctoral students are welcome to join the department to work with one of the research groups for a shorter or longer period of time. Up till now we have been able to support our guests with office space, access to computer equipment, etc. The computer facilities at the department include Unix-servers, Unix-workstations, and Apple Macintosh workstations. Unfortunately, the department has very limited resources for research scholarships and visiting fellows.
Entry qualifications
A doctoral student must have a Master's Degree or equivalent to become a Ph. D. student at the university. Upon entry, the student prepares a study program for which a set of formal rules apply. These rules can be obtained from the Institutional co-ordinator upon request. At present, there is no formal requirements of extensive, institutionalised course work. The Ph.D student will receive supervision from one of the departments faculty members. In return of supervision the Ph.D. student is normally expected to deliver a small amount of teaching, normally of the order of supervision of one or two student project groups.
Assessment procedures
A Ph.D. study program has a maximum duration of three years. Each year there is an evaluation based upon a written report of undertaken activities and results. Based on this report the supervisor recommends continuation or not of the project. When the Ph.D. dissertation is turned in, a committee is set up by the department. In minimum two faculty members must participate. If the report is considered to be of a satisfactory quality, the doctoral student is given a topic for a public presentation. The committee then recommends to the department/university whether or not the Ph.D. degree should be awarded. The formal award is given by the Rector at the annual commemoration of the founding of the university.
Major publications
Keld Bødker, co-authored with Jesper Strandgaard Pedersen:
Workplace Cultures: Looking at Artefacts, Symbols, and Practices, in Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems, edited by Joan Greenbaum and Morten Kyng, Erlbaum, 1991.
Keld Bødker, co-authored with Jørgen Bansler:
A Reappraisal of Structured Analysis: Design in an Organisational Context. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, Vol 11, No. 2 1993, pp 165-193.
Keld Bødker, co-authored with Finn Kensing:
Design in an Organizational Context - an Experiment, in Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, Vol 6, no. 1, (April 1994), pp.47-68.
Finn Kensing, co-authored with N.E.Andersen, M. Lassen, J. Lundin, L. Mathiassen, A. Munk-Madsen, P. Sørgaard:
Professional Systems Development: Experience, Ideas and Action, Prentice-Hall, 1990.
Finn Kensing, co-authored with Kim Halskov Madsen:
Generating Visions: Future Workshops and Metaphorical Design, in Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems, edited by Joan Greenbaum and Morten Kyng, Erlbaum, 1991.
Finn Kensing, co-authored with Terry Winograd:
The Language/Action Approach to Design of Computer-Support for Cooperative Work: A Preliminary Study in Work Mapping, in R. Stamper et al. (eds.): Collaborative Work, Social Communication and Information Systems. North-Holland, 1991.
Finn Kensing, co-authored with Andreas Munk-Madsen:
Participatory Design: Structure in the Toolbox. In M.J. Muller et al.: PDC'92: Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference, MIT, Cambridge, MA USA. Also in CACM, June 1993.
Finn Kensing, co-authored with Keld Bødker and Jesper Simonsen:
MUST - a method for participatory design, in PDC'96 Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Palo Alto, CA 94302, USA, 1996, pp. 129-140.
Elin Rønby Pedersen, co-authored with Kim McCall, Tom Moran, Frank Halasz:
Tivoli: An Electronic Whiteboard for Informal Workgroup Meetings. In Proceedings of the InterCHI conference, Amsterdam April 1993, ACM, 1993.
Elin Rønby Pedersen, co-authored with Tom Moran, Kim McCall, Bill van Melle, Frank Halasz:
Some Design Principles for Sharing in Tivoli, a Whiteboard Meeting-Support Tool. In S. Greenberg, Haynes, and Rada (eds.) Real-Time Group Drawing and Writing Tools. McGraw-Hill Book Company of Europe.
Elin Rønby Pedersen, co-authored with Tomas Sokoler:
AROMA: Abstreact Representation of Presence supporting Mutual Awareness. To be presented at CHI'97.
Jesper Simonsen, co-authored with Finn Kensing
Take Users Seriously, But Take a Deeper Look: Organizational and Technical Effects from Designing with an Ethnographically Inspired Approach, in Trigg et all (Eds): PDC'94: Participatory Design Conference, North Carolina, USA, 1994.
Jesper Simonsen:
Involving Customer Relations in Contextual Design - a Case Study, in J.D. Coelho et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on Information Systems, Lisbon - Portugal, 1996, pp. 1153-1161.
Jesper Simonsen, co-authored with Finn Kensing:
Using Ethnography in Contextual Design. To appear in Communication of the ACM, 1997.