Academic staff

Get to know members of the academic staff of Human Computer Interaction.

Eelco Herder

I work as an associate professor in the Interaction Group at Utrecht University. My research focuses on the fine balance between the benefits of personalization and perceived and actual risks associated with privacy matters. My main research interests include user modeling, personalization, Web usage mining, data analysis and visualization, usability and user evaluation.

Before joining Utrecht University, Eelco Herder worked as an assistant professor at the Digital Security Group at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, the Netherlands (2017 – 2022), and a senior researcher at the L3S Research Center in Hannover, Germany (2006 – 2017).

Hanna Hauptmann

I am an assistant professor at the Human-Centered Computing Group of Utrecht University. My research focuses on machine learning, recommender systems, visual analytics, persuasive design, and gameful design for health.

Before joining Utrecht University, she has worked as a Researcher at the Data Analysis and Visualization group of the University of Konstanz (2019–2021), and as a PhD Researcher at the Technical University of Munich (2015 – 2019).

Isabella Saccardi

I am a PhD student at the Human-Centered Computing Group of Utrecht University. I am Investigating automated emotional support for individual and collaborative groups through qualitative methods (interviews, focus groups), quantitative methods (empirical research), design, AI (user modeling and personalization), prototyping methods.

Before joining Utrecht University, she was a Research Assistant at Leiden University (2019 – 2021), and she has both a Bachelor’s (2017) and Master’s (2019) degree in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Padova, Italy.

Examples of thesis topics

  • Ephemerality: cognitive effects of the “burn after read” paradigm in non-persistent media (e.g. Snapchat).
  • Augmented Reality in safety training: Issues with usability and user experience.
  • Human-Robot Interaction: Designing explanations of robot behaviour.
  • Collaborative crowd sourcing: Designing tools for large-scale creativity.
  • Adherent Persuasive Technology: Personalized well-being and cyber-security interventions.
  • Empathic System Design: The development of sensitive agents.