Research
I focus on supporting process analysts, workers and managers to analyze work processes, identify issues and develop means for improvement. I developed technologies that allow organizational workshop participants to interact with graphical process models, foster creativity, provided automated feedback about the current state of collaboration and a web-based system which allows stakeholders to discuss processes between workshops. In addition to designing means to support process analysis in and around workshops, I co-developed RuM (rulemining.org), an open-source toolkit for declarative process mining. RuM supports analysts to utilize AI driven process analytics and to visualize existing (business) processes based on event logs in order to identify issues and to develop means for improvement.
My aim is to foster the impact of hackathons beyond the confines of singular events in specific contexts. Hackathons are organized in various domains including (IT) entrepreneurship, corporations, communities, higher education, civic engagement and others with the aim to develop (technical) innovation, tackle civic, environmental and public health issues, spread knowledge, allow citizen participation and create new or expand existing communities. In order to foster and sustain these outcomes and to create the desired impact, I have conducted studies to identify individual and team related aspects that are associated with outcome sustainability. Furthermore, I employed analytics, to identify factors that can indicate project continuation. Based on this work, I proposed a multi-level methodological framework to help hackathon planners navigate the numerous design and planning decisions to make their event a success (hackathon-planning-kit.org).
I focus on the sustainability of collaboration in this context. I have conducted studies of small volunteer groups to identify suitable means for supporting the sustainability of collaboration, designed heuristics that allow volunteers to quickly assess their current state of collaboration and analyzed the social networks of contributors on GitHub revealing that individuals that participate in projects with high potential for building social capital are less likely to disengage, that higher team diversity is associated with a decreased risk of disengagement and that women are more likely to disengage than men.
Associate Professor – University of Tartu, Estonia
Adjunct Associate Professor – Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
Lecturer (Assistant Professor) – University of Tartu, Estonia
Adjunct Assistant Professor – Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
Research associate – Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
Postdoctoral fellow – University of Pittsburgh, USA
Adjunct faculty – University of Pittsburgh, USA
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
Postdoctoral research fellow – Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
Visiting research fellow – Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Process management consultant and coach
Researcher and PhD student – Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
Co-founder and front-end developer – RWTH Aachen University / fromatob.com, Germany
Student assistant and developer – Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
Student assistant and developer – Technical University Dortmund, Germany
Publications
For a complete list of my publications please refer to my Google Scholar profile.
Teaching
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)
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-author and WP lead of the Research project Prescriptive Monitoring of Business Processes funded by the Estonian Research Council (January 2021 to December 2024)
Co-author and WP lead 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)
Contact
I am always happy to meet old and new friends so please feel free to contact me through the following form or by using the social-media links below.