Research at CODE

CODE is a research location for innovation from a wide range of industries and is builds on its strengths through an interdisciplinary approach, pioneering spirit and its international networking in science and business. It is an integral part of regional, national and international research, the scientific system and society.

CODE acts as a bridge to bring together the transfer of innovative ideas and applications to society and industry, actively shaping the digital transformation. Our focus within research at CODE is primarily on research and development projects, geared towards applied research.

CODE upholds its responsibility to perform ethical research with a social impact. CODE is continuously expanding its scientific expertise in the interest of innovative, peaceful, social, technical, ecological and economic development of society. CODE is aware of social implications of research and ensures the ethical assessment and reflection of research and individual research projects.

The Research Commission is a standing committee outlined in the CODE's Basic Regulations. Its goals are to document, align, and promote research activities at CODE, align research skills teaching in different departments, and act as an Ethics commission for research and project proposals at CODE.

• Frank Trollmann, Current chair and contact for the commission
• Daniel Buzzo
• Nico Stockman
• Lara Piccolo
• Silas Maughan, Student Representative
• Pras Gunasekera, Ombudsperson on Ethics

Luíza Lima Pinto, Martin Knobel, and Lara Piccolo. 2025. A Critical Design to Raise Awareness of Gentrification. In Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’25 Companion), July 5–9, 2025, Funchal, Portugal. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3715668.3735606

Piccolo, L. S., Díaz, P., Petrie, H., Salve, S., Bazargan, K., & Seffah, A. (2025, September). HCI Education and Education for HCI: Current Opportunities and Challenges. In IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 364-369). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-05008-3_68

Weyerhäuser, L., & Piccolo, L. S. (2025, September). Towards Inclusive Guidelines for Web Design for Adults with ADHD. In IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 312-316). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-05008-3_59

Daniel Buzzo, Kristina Andersen, António Gorgel, Jonathan Chacón Pérez, Martin Knobel, Lara Piccolo, Pras Gunasekera. 2025 Learning by Teaching Blended International Design Workshops. in Proceedings of the Design Research Society LearnX conference, Porto, Portugal September 2025

Dawson, M. G., Deer, R., & Boguslawski, S. (2025). Cognitive Dissonance in Programming Education: A Qualitative Exploration of the Impact of Generative Ai on Application-Directed Learning. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 100724. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2025.100724

Boguslawski, S., Deer, R., & Dawson, M. G. (2025). Programming education and learner motivation in the age of generative AI: student and educator perspectives. Information and Learning Sciences, 126(1/2), 91-109. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-10-2023-0163

Martin Knobel (editor), Beyond the Facade: Art and the Realities of Gentrification in Neukölln (Articles by CODE students, 03.01.2025, ISBN: 9798347516360

Daniel Buzzo. 2024. Feu Autonome Type 189: Untitled, One Dimensional Generative, Reconstructed, Found Object. In Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 97, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1145/3623509.3635322

Veronica Silva, Daniel Buzzo, Rodrigo Hernández-Ramírez, Hande Ayanoglu. 2024 UNDERSTANDING HOW UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS PERCEIVE BIASES IN AI-GENERATED IMAGES, A RESEARCH-THROUGH-DESIGN PROBE. DS 131: Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2024) DOI number: 10.35199/EPDE.2024.44, ISBN: 978-1-912254-200, ISSN: 3005-4753

Craig Jeffcott; Daniel Buzzo, António Gorgel; Ana Margarida Ferreira 2024. Strange Strangers in Strange Lands : A Collaborative Storytelling Game for Community Biodiversity Activism. Cumulus Monterrey 2024 Conference. Design Across Borders: United in Creativity https://cumulusmonterrey2024.udem.mx/#

Daniel Buzzo, António Gorge, Kristina Andersen and Adelina Pohlers. 2024. Design for Humanity, A Collaborative International Workshop. January 30th - February 4th 2023, CODE University of Applied Sciences, Berlin. Book

Daniel Buzzo and Martin Nadal (editors) 2024 Student Works in Generative Design vol III. Forlaegger fabrik. Book. ISBN 9798347692071

Daniel Buzzo (editor) 2024 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE in DESIGN. An Anthology of Student Works. Forlaegger fabrik. Book. ISBN 9798347694716

Lara Piccolo, Bernadette Christine Gruber, Martin Knobel, and Laura Stähler. 2023. A Digital Support for People with Disabilities Entering the Labour Market: Ideation Process and Design Requirements. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on Information Technology for Social Good (GoodIT '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 265–270. https://doi.org/10.1145/3582515.3609543

Lara Piccolo, Daniel Buzzo, Martin Knobel, Prasanna Gunasekera, and Tina Papathoma. 2023. Interaction Design as Project-Based Learning: Perspectives for Unsolved Challenges. In Proceedings of the 5th Annual Symposium on HCI Education (EduCHI '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 59–67. https://doi.org/10.1145/3587399.3587462

In spring 2023 Daniel Buzzo and Martin Nadal published the book of student works from the ID_02 Generative Design Module “Student works in Generative Design” ISBN: 9798211544345 https://www.blurb.com/b/11478313-student-works-in-generative-design

Sebastian Rosengruen and Fabian Geier published their book “Die 101 wichtigsten Fragen - Digitalisierung” with the German publisher C.H.Beck. https://www.chbeck.de/geier-rosengruen-digitalisierung/product/34611591

Christina Myers, Lara Piccolo, and Trevor Collins. "Democratising the Design of Educational Games for Social Change: An Approach Based on Critical Pedagogy." Journal of Learning for Development 10, no. 1 (2023): 55-74. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1383668.pdf

Daniel Buzzo 2023 Creativity in Art, Design and Technology. 2023-08-01 | Book chapter | Part of DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42097-0

Daniel Buzzo and Martin Nadal (editors) 2023 Student works in Generative Design Forlaegger Fabrik 2023-01 | Book ISBN: 9798211544345

Daniel Buzzo and Martin Nadal (editors) 2023 Student Works in Generative Design vol II Forlaegger fabrik. Book ISBN: 9798347692095

Bethge, D., Coelho, L. F., Kosch, T., Murugaboopathy, S., Zadow, U. von, Schmidt, A., & Grosse-Puppendahl, T. (2023). Technical Design Space Analysis for Unobtrusive Driver Emotion Assessment Using Multi-Domain Context. Proc. ACM Interact. Mob. Wearable Ubiquitous Technol., 6(4). doi: 10.1145/3569466

September 2022: Tina Papathoma, one of our Learning Science Researchers, presented part of the research she did during the 17th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2022, Toulouse, France. This research relates to The Enablers and Barriers of Using Slack for Computer-Mediated Communication to Support the Learning Journey. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-16290-9_51

Springer Digital Society Journal “Why AI is a Threat to the Rule of Law” published the paper by Sebastian Rosengruen where he argues that recent developments in AI technology and its role in digital capitalism threaten the rule of law. AI (or the companies who control it) promotes and monetizes free speech, political competition, and other aspects of democracy, while our societies have been shifting towards a “rule of code,” i.e., a system in which source code is able to put meaningful restraints not only on any individuals and institutions within a society, but also on law and the State. 

Peter Ruppel from CODE and researchers at TU Berlin present “A Taxonomy for Distributed Ledger Analytics”, which was published as a cover feature in the February ’21 issue of IEEE Computer. The article introduces transaction analytics, smart contract analytics, value analytics, and governance analytics as to the four main pillars for the future analysis of Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers. Source: https://doi.org/10.1109/MC.2020.3017466

Daniel Buzzo. 2021 Art as Data Set, Data Set as Art: Training machine vision systems to see as artists. 2021. Proceedings of EVA London 2021 (EVA 2021) DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2021.37

Daniel Buzzo 2021 Introduction to Generative Drawing (Workshop) Proceedings of EVA London 2021 (EVA 2021)DOI: 10.14236/ewic/eva2021.51 Contributors: Carl Hayden Smith; Daniel Buzzo; Eyal Gruss

Anne-Sofie Belling and Daniel Buzzo. 2021. The Rhythm of the Robot: A Prolegomenon to Posthuman Somaesthetics. In Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 62, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1145/3430524.3442470

Darleen Zumbruch, Annika Kaltenhauser, and Martin Knobel published. Designing positive experience for nurses in intensive care. In Proceedings of Mensch und Computer 2020 (MuC ’20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 29–32. https://doi.org/10.1145/3404983.3409999

Iverson, B., Knobel, M., Lindig, E., Roe, A. (2021). The First Semester at CODE: Preparing Students for Project-Based Learning in a Curiosity-Driven Higher Education Learning Environment. In Scholkmann, A. et. al (Eds.), PBL 2021 International Conference: Transforming PBL through Hybrid Learning Models – Timely Challenges and Answers in a (Post)-Pandemic Perspective and Beyond (pp. 33-37). Aalborg Universitetsforlag. https://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/transforming-pbl-through-hybrid-learning-models-timely-challenges