Research

Computational methods to analyze and support human collaboration

I employ artificial intelligence (AI) to study and support collaboration in organizational settings, open source communities and time-bounded events such as hackathons. Related to organizational settings, I utilize machine-learning to analyze collaboratively created artifacts such as process models to provide automated feedback about the current collaboration state in a workshop setting. In the context of open source, I employ AI driven analytics to study the tenure of contributors on GitHub utilizing socio-capital theory as a lens. With respect to hackathons, I focus on fostering their impact beyond singular events organized in a specific context. To that end I use a mixed method approach conducting qualitative case studies to identify individual and team related aspects that are associated with the sustainability of hackathon outcomes in the context of corporate, entrepreneurial and scientific events before utilizing quantitative methods, such as big data analytics, to identify quantitative factors that indicate project continuation. Based on these studies I have developed a multi-level methodological open-source framework to help hackathon planners navigate design decisions to make their event a success (hackathon-planning-kit.org). I am currently working to expand this framework towards online and hybrid settings by adding socio-technical support for hackathon organizers and participants.

Socio-technical collaboration support

In this area I study and develop systems that facilitate human-vehicle interaction in the context of autonomous vehicles. Focusing on the aspect of trust from a planned behavior perspective I conduct studies with systems in a ride-hailing context that cover the vehicle approaching the user, allowing the user to control various parameters during the ride and the user disembarking. I also co-develop RuM (rulemining.org), an open source toolkit for analysts that utilizes AI to visualize (business) processes based on event logs and that provides advanced analytics to identify issues and bottlenecks.

The following timeline illustrates my academic career. For more information please refer to my resume or contact me directly.

Career timeline

2020

Associate Professor – University of Tartu, Estonia
Adjunct Associate Professor – Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA

2018

Lecturer (Assistant Professor) – University of Tartu, Estonia
Adjunct Assistant Professor – Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA

2017

Research associate – Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
Postdoctoral fellow – University of Pittsburgh, USA
Adjunct faculty – University of Pittsburgh, USA

2016

Visiting research fellow – University of Pittsburgh, USA
Temporary research programmer – Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
Online tutor – EURO-FH University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

2015

Postdoctoral research fellow – Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

2013

Visiting research fellow – Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

2011

Process management consultant and coach

2009

Researcher and PhD student – Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

2008

Co-founder and front-end developer – RWTH Aachen University / fromatob.com, Germany

2004

Student assistant and developer – Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

2001

Student assistant and developer – Technical University Dortmund, Germany

Publications

For a complete list of my publications please refer to my Google Scholar profile.

Journals

Nolte, A., Chounta, I.-A. & Herbsleb, J. D. (2020). What Happens to All These Hackathon Projects? - Identifying Factors to Promote Hackathon Project Continuation. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 4, CSCW2, Article 145 (October 2020), 26 pages. (PDF, video)
Nolte, A., Hayden, L. B. & Herbsleb, J. D. (2020). How to Support Newcomers in Scientific Hackathons - An Action Research Study on Expert Mentoring. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 4, CSCW1, Article 25 (May 2020), 23 pages. (PDF, video)
Jahnke, I., Meinke-Kroll, M., Todd, M., & Nolte, A. (2020). Exploring Artifact‑Generated Learning with Digital Technologies: Advancing Active Learning with Co‑design in Higher Education Across Disciplines. Technology, Knowledge and Learning. (PDF)
Pe-Than, E. P. P., Nolte, A., Filippova, A., Bird, C., Scallen, S. & Herbsleb, J. D. (2020). Corporate Hackathons, How and Why? A multiple case study of motivation, project proposal and selection, goal setting, coordination, and project continuation. Human-Computer Interaction. (PDF)
Pe-Than, E. P. P., Nolte, A., Filippova, A., Bird, C., Scallen, S. & Herbsleb, J. D. (2019). Designing Corporate Hackathons With a Purpose. IEEE Software 36, 1, 15-22. (PDF)
Nolte, A., Pe-Than, E. P. P., Filippova, A., Bird, C., Scallen, S. & Herbsleb, J. D. (2018). You Hacked and Now What? - Exploring Outcomes of a Corporate Hackathon. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 2, CSCW, 129:1-129:23. (PDF, Slides)
Chounta, I.-A., Nolte, A., Hecking, T., Farzan, R., & Herrmann, T. (2017). When to Say “Enough is Enough!”: A Study on the Evolution of Collaboratively Created Process Models. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 1, CSCW, 33:1-33:21. (PDF)
Nolte, A., Bernhard, E., Recker, J., Pittke, F., & Mendling, J. (2016). Repeated Use of Process Models: The Impact of Artifact, Technological and Individual Factors. Decision Support Systems, 88, 98–111. (PDF)

Conferences

van der Aa, H., Balder, K. J., Maggi, F. M., & Nolte, A. (2020). Say It in Your Own Words: Defining Declarative Process Models Using Speech Recognition. In: Business Process Management Forum. BPM 2020 (pp. 51-67). Springer. (PDF)
Alman, A., Di Ciccio, C., Haas, D., Maggi, F. M., & Nolte, A. (2020) Rule Mining with RuM. In: 2nd International Conference on Process Mining (pp. 114-121). Springer. (PDF)
Medina Angarita, M. A., & Nolte, A. (2020). What do we know about hackathon outcomes and how to support them? – A systematic literature review. In: Collaboration Technologies and Social Computing. Springer. (PDF, video)
Affia, A. O., Nolte, A., & Matulevičius, M. (2020). Developing and Evaluating a Hackathon Approach to Foster Security Learning. In: Collaboration Technologies and Social Computing. Springer. (PDF, video)
Qiu, H. S., Nolte, A., Brown, A., Serebrenik, A., Vasilescu, B. (2019). Going Farther Together: The Impact of Social Capital on Sustained Participation in Open Source. In: ICSE '19: Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Software Engineering. (PDF, ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award)
Sirgmets, M., Milani, F., Nolte, A., & Pungas, T. (2018). Designing Process Diagrams – A Framework for Making Design Choices When Visualizing Process Mining Outputs. In: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems. Springer. (PDF)
Herrmann, T., Nolte, A., & Prilla, M. (2016). Socio-technical Process Design — The Case of Coordinated Service Delivery for Elderly People. In: Blurring the Boundaries Through Digital Innovation (pp. 217-229). Springer. (PDF, Special award Sandro D’Atri)

Workshops

Nolte, A., Pe-Than, E. P. P., Affia, A. O., Chaihirunkarn, C., Filippova, A., Kalyanasundaram, A., Medina Angarita, M. A., Trainer, E., & Herbsleb, J. D. (2020). How to organize a hackathon - A planning kit. arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.08025. (PDF)
Nolte, A. (2019). Touched by the Hackathon: A Study on the Connection between Hackathon Participants and Start-Up Founders. In: International Workshop on Software-intensive Business 2019: Start-ups, Ecosystems and Platforms (IWSiB 2019) (pp. 31-36). ACM. (PDF, Slides)

Teaching

Undergraduate

LTAT.05.007 Human Computer Interaction – Lecturer
University of Tartu (Spring 2019 and 2020, sample syllabus)

INFSCI 1017 Implementation of Information Systems – Lecturer
University of Pittsburgh (Spring 2017, sample syllabus)

Project Management – Lecturer
Ruhr-University Bochum (Summer 2016)

Project Management – Co-Lecturer
Ruhr-University Bochum (Summer 2015)

Software Engineering – Co-Lecturer
Ruhr-University Bochum (Summer 2015)

Project Management – Co-Lecturer
Ruhr-University Bochum (Summer 2015)

Graduate

LTAT.05.007 Human Computer Interaction – Lecturer
University of Tartu (Autumn 2018 to 2020, sample syllabus)

LTAT.05.019 Digital Product Management Industry Project – Lecturer
University of Tartu (Autumn 2018 to 2020)

LTAT.05.011 Digital Product Design Introductory Project – Lecturer
University of Tartu (Autumn 2018 to 2020)

Information Management – Online Tutor
EURO-FH University of Applied Sciences Hamburg (Winter 2016)

Business Engineering – Online Tutor
EURO-FH University of Applied Sciences Hamburg (Winter 2016)

Process Management and Innovation – Co-Lecturer
Ruhr-University Bochum (Summer 2014 to 2016)

Project Management – Co-Lecturer
Ruhr-University Bochum (Summer 2015)

Subject-driven role-guided externalization of organizational models – Co-Lecturer
JKU Linz (ERASMUS Summer School 2014, Sample slides on process modeling fundamentals)

Subject-driven role-guided externalization of organizational models – Co-Lecturer
JKU Linz (ERASMUS Summer School 2013)

Fellowships & Grants

Co-PI of the Research project Applied Research on Development of Autonomous Driving Lab for Level 4 Autonomy funded by the Estonian Research Council under the NUTIKAS program (May 2019 to July 2021)

Recipient of a Research fellowship by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) on Supporting sustained collaboration over time in hybrid collocated and online settings at the School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA (April 2017 to May 2019)

Recipient of a Scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a short term research visit to the Information Systems School at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia (February to May 2013)

Recipient of an eXist Business Start-up Grant by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) for the development of an online travel platform (fromatob.com) in cooperation with RWTH Aachen University, Germany (2008)