Dr. Albrecht Kurze

Phone: +49 371 531-36766
Fax: +49 371 531-

Room: A10.269 (alt: 1/269) at Straße der Nationen 62, Böttcher-Bau

About me

I am a Post Doctoral Researcher and Senior Lecturer working at the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). I hold a PhD in computer science and used to work in interdisciplinary projects with design, electrical engineering, social sciences and psychology. I research how smart, connected technology is used in the home and how a user-centered and participatory design approach can help develop better technologies. I am particularly interested in how sensors, sensor-based smart objects in the home and the interaction with them and their data can benefit users while avoiding undesirable effects, such as privacy infringements.

Office Hours

on-demand - Please write a mail or call for a consultation appointment.

More / Links

Google Scholar

Curriculum Vitae

Professional Experience

06/2023 – ongoing	Post Doc Researcher / Senior Lecturer in ailab, Faculty of Computer Science, Chemnitz University of Technology
06/2023 – ongoing	Sub-project Lead / PI for Chair Media Informatics, Chemnitz University of Technology project "Simplications" - implications of simple sensors and their data in the home successful participation in acquisition of public fundings
04/2023 – ongoing	Sub-project Lead / PI for Chair Media Informatics, Chemnitz University of Technology project "bitplush" - smart connected plush toys for implicit and emotional closeness over distance successful participation in acquisition of public fundings
09/2022 – 11/2023	Project Lead / PI / Lecturer, Chair Media Informatics, Chemnitz University of Technology project “Data-I – Experiencing data interactions interdisciplinary” interdisciplinary teaching-learning project on IoT sensor data successful acquisition of project funding creation and try-out of concept for integrating IoT sensor data in student HCD projects for HCI education
08/2015 – 10/2022	Post Doc, Project Co-lead, Chair Media Informatics, Chemnitz University of Technology project „Miteinander“ - interdisciplinary participatory research for smart technology in the home Internet of Things (IoT), smart home systems, networked sensing systems IoT design tools and methods creation of hardware and software concepts and prototypes for participatory research (Sensing-Home-Kit, Loaded Dice) use of created R&D prototypes in workshops and field studies in the home human-data interaction implications of IoT tech in the home, i.e. for privacy successful acquisition of additional project funding
07/2014 – 03/2015	Associated PhD student, Chair Media Informatics, Chemnitz University of Technology
04/2007 – 06/2014	Research Assistant, Chair Media Informatics, Chemnitz University of Technology project ”ValidAX” - validation of digital media annotation and retrieval tools
	projects “SWT I” and “SWT II” - Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) for mobile services and apps
	project ” sachsMedia” - digital media retrieval and distribution

Qualification

2020	Saxon Higher Education Teaching Certification (HDS Certificate)
2015	PhD (Dr.-Ing.) in Computer Science
2005	Diploma in Computer Science

International Experience

2022	Visiting Scholar, University College London, London, UK Department of Computer Science
2019	Visiting Scholar, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia Science and Engineering Faculty, School of Computer Science

Academic Service

Reviewing

ACM CHI: ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
ACM CSCW: ACM Computer Supported Cooperative Work
ACM DIS: ACM SIGCHI Conference on Designing Interactive Systems
ACM IoT Conference
ACM IMWUT: The Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies
ACM MMSYS: ACM Multimedia Systems (reviewing and Demo committee)
ACM Mobile HCI: International Conference on HCI with Mobile Devices and Services
ACM NordiCHI: Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
ACM TEI: Conference on Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction
ECSCW: European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
GI MUC: Mensch und Computer
iCom: Journal of Interactive Media
Interacting with Computers, Journal of the British Computer Society (BCS)
IASDR
MTAP: Multimedia Tools and Applications (Journal)

Organized Conferences, Workshops and Sessions

10/2025	Gender and Tech Workshop with Leonie Tanczer (https://www.genderandtech.net/), local organization
04/2025	Research Products and Time: When, For How Long, And Then What? Workshop at CHI 2025, Yokohama, co-organisation, https://thingsofdesign.info/
12/2024	Plushification – Soft DIY Devices for Private Communication. Workshop at Things 2024, Amsterdam, main organisation
12/2023	From simple sensors to (un-)intended implications. Workshop at Things 2023, Rotterdam, main organisation
12/2023	From (un-)intended implications for privacy to implications for design and use. Workshop at Things 2023, Rotterdam, main organisation
12/2023	Data-Centric Design Symposium on Data as Human-Centred Design material, 2023, Delft, co-organisation
11/2023	Sensordaten in der Lehre: interaktiv und interdisziplinär, HDS workshop, Chemnitz, main organisation
04/2023	SIG Session on Data as Human-Centered Design Material, CHI 2023, Hamburg, co-organisation
06/2022	Workshop “Virtual and in-person co-design workshops: from alternative to complementary approaches”, ACM Creativity and Cognition 2022, Venice, co-organisation
12/2021	Workshop “Diversifying Approaches to Co-Designing the Smart Everyday”, IASDR 2021, Hong Kong (online), co-organisation
12/2019	Workshop “Making IoT Design Methods Work”, ThingsCon 2019, Rotterdam, co-organisation
12/2018	Workshop “Ideas of Things”, ThingsCon 2018, Rotterdam
10/2018	IoT Ideation Expert Workshop, Chemnitz
09/2017	Workshop „Partizipative Technikentwicklung“ GI conference Informatik 2017
11/2016	Workshop „Demokratisierung von Technologie, Demokratisierung von Gender“, IGDN conference 2016, Chemnitz
11/2016	IGDN conference 2016, Chemnitz
09/2011	„Mensch und Computer 2011“ (MUC), Chemnitz, organisation support
07/2010	“Workshop Audiovisuelle Medien 2010” (WAM), Chemnitz
06/2009	“Workshop Audiovisuelle Medien 2009” (WAM), Chemnitz

Awards

2025	Best Demo Award at Mensch und Computer 2025 (MuC) together with Karola Köpferl for Write Again(st) the Machine: Reanimating a GDR-Era Typewriter as a Reflective Interface for Human-AI Dialogue
2022	Eleonore Dießner Award for outstanding student theses for master thesis by Alexa Becker "Ein innerhäusliches Kommunikationssystem für Reizdarmsyndrom-Betroffene" (co-supervision)
2020	Eleonore Dießner Award for outstanding student theses for master thesis by Jeannine Lorenz "Smarte vernetzte Plüschtiere" (supervision)

Editorships / Special Issues

2023-2025

Bourgeois, Jacky; Mathias Funk; Gould, Sandy JJ; Kurze, Albrecht: Special Issue: Data-Centric Design: Data as a Human-Centred Material. In Frontiers in Human Dynamics. Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/58823/data-centric-design-data-as-a-human-centred-material

Publications

In Press

Köpferl, Karola; Kurze, Albrecht: Write Again(st) the Machine: Reanimating a GDR-Era Typewriter as a Reflective Interface for Human-AI Dialogue. MuC'25, Mensch und Computer 2025 – Workshopband, Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. 31. August - 03. September 2025. Chemnitz, Germany. Best Demo Award.

Stephan, Klaus; Eibl, Maximilian; Kurze, Albrecht: HugSense: Exploring the Sensing Capabilities of Inflatables. Mensch und Computer 2025. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. Chemnitz. 31. August - 3. September 2025.

Börner, Andy; Köpferl, Karola; Kurze, Albrecht: See the unseen: Datenspuren smarter Technik für Verbraucher:innen sichtbar machen. Informatik 2025 - Tagungsband. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. Potsdam. 16. - 19. September 2025. S. 489-493. https://nextcloud.gi.de/s/YcW26W9ApSLD6on

Köpferl, Karola; Kurze, Albrecht; Bischof, Andreas. A(I) Typewriter - Nostalgic Interface for Human-Chatbot Interaction. Accepted for Creative AI Exploration and Imagination: Innovative Methods for Alternative Digital Futures. Leipzig. 24. – 26. September 2025.

Nischwitz, Lena; Stephan, Klaus; Kurze, Albrecht; Chuang, Lewis. Affective Plush. In Workshop "Affective Interaction and Affective Computing" at CHI25 - Computer Human Interaction Conference. April 27, 2025, Yokohama, Japan. 2025. https://sites.google.com/view/affectiveinteraction-chi25/

2025

Köpferl, Karola and Kurze, Albrecht. Human-Chatbot Interaction: When ChatGPT meets an old Typewriter. In Proceedings of the 21th International Conference on Culture and Computer Science (KUI '24). October 03-04, 2024. Florence, Italy. ACM, New York, NY, USA. 8 pages. ISBN 979-8-4007-1032-2. doi: 10.1145/3719236.3719250.

Bourgeois, Jacky; Mathias Funk; Gould, Sandy JJ; Kurze, Albrecht: Editorial: Data-Centric Design: Data as a Human-Centred Material. Special Issue Data-Centric Design: Data as a Human-Centred Material. In Frontiers in Human Dynamics. Frontiers. 2025. DOI: 10.3389/fhumd.2025.1674782

Kurze, Albrecht; Reuter, Christin; Börner, Andy: Sensorkit: A toolkit for simple sensor data in research, education and beyond. MuC'25, Mensch und Computer 2025 – Workshopband, Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. 31. August - 03. September 2025. Chemnitz, Germany. doi: 10.18420/muc2025-mci-demo-271

Reuter, Christin; Kurze, Albrecht: AnnoTool: A User-Friendly Annotation Tool for Simple Sensor Data in the Home. Mensch und Computer 2025. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. Chemnitz. 31. August - 3. September 2025. doi: 10.18420/muc2025-mci-wip-284

Köpferl, Karola; Kurze, Albrecht: Friction by Design: Tangible Encounters with Large Language Models. Workshop Be-greifbare Interaktion at Mensch und Computer 2025 - Workshopband. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. Chemnitz. 31. August - 3. September 2025. doi: 10.18420/muc2025-mci-ws11-222

Stephan, Klaus; Eibl, Maximilian; Kurze, Albrecht: Pressure Proof: A DIY Guide to Creating a Pneumatic Testing System for Validating Inflatable Product Designs. Workshop Be-greifbare Interaktion at Mensch und Computer 2025 - Workshopband. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. Chemnitz. 31. August - 3. September 2025. doi: 10.18420/muc2025-mci-ws11-137

Börner, Andy; Köpferl, Karola; Kurze, Albrecht: Usable Privacy im Sensor-Kit als Forschungswerkzeug für Smart-Home-Sensordaten. Workshop Usable Security and Privacy at Mensch und Computer 2025 - Workshopband. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. Chemnitz. 31. August - 3. September 2025. doi: 10.18420/muc2025-mci-ws05-349

Kurze, Albrecht; Bischof, Andreas; Berger, Arne: Smart, simple, sincere - Why and how we might rethink connected things in our smart homes. The Responsible Internet of Things Report 2025. ThingsCon. June 6, 2025, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.16227093

Köpferl, Karola and Kurze, Albrecht: Machines, AI and the Past//Future of Things. The Responsible Internet of Things Report 2025. ThingsCon. June 6, 2025, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. https://thingscon.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/RIOT-2025-Karola-Koepferl-Albrecht-Kurze.pdf

Berger, Arne; Hildebrandt, Stephan; Kurze, Albrecht; Odom, William; Jenkins, Tom; Pierce, James; Chatting, David; Oogjes, Doenja; Nabil, Sara; Boucher, Andy and Gaver, William. 2025. Research Products and Time: When, For How Long, And Then What? In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 796, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3706709

Köpferl, Karola und Kurze, Albrecht: "Ein Typenrad auf der Überholspur: Die Kult-Schreibmaschine "Erika" trifft KI." 18. Internationales Symposium für Informationswissenschaft (ISI 2025), Chemnitz, Deutschland. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14925622

Kurze, Albrecht, Köpferl, Karola und Börner, Andy.: "Management von Sensordaten im Smarthome: Besonderheiten und Ansätze." 18. Internationales Symposium für Informationswissenschaft (ISI 2025), Chemnitz, Deutschland. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14925630

2024

Kurze, Albrecht; Reuter, Christin (2024): Understanding and addressing user needs for annotation of simple sensor data: Bridging the gap between human sensemaking and machine interpretation. INFORMATIK 2024. DOI: 10.18420/inf2024_34. Bonn: Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. ISSN: 2944-7682. PISSN: 1617-5468. EISSN: 2944-7682. ISBN: 978-3-88579-746-3. pp. 465-472. 8th International Workshop on Annotation of useR Data for UbiquitOUs Systems. Wiesbaden. 24.-26. September 2024

Börner, Andy; Köpferl, Karola; Lehmann, Tanja; Becker, Alexa; Berger, Arne; Bischof, Andreas; Kurze, Albrecht: Ohne Big Brother und Cloud, aber nicht ohne Probleme: Fallbeispiele zu Implikationen smarter Technik mit einfachen Sensoren im Zuhause. IUG2024: Digitale Souveranität im Spannungsfeld von Informatik & Gesellschaft, 24.-26. 2024, Wiesbaden, S. 773 - 779. - Bonn : Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V., 2024. doi:10.18420/inf2024_65

Köpferl, Karola; Lehmann, Tanja; Börner, Andy; Becker, Alexa; Berger, Arne; Bischof, Andreas; Kurze, Albrecht (2024): Ich sehe das, was Du nicht siehst: Spuren einfacher Sensordaten im smarten Zuhause erleben und reflektieren.. Mensch und Computer 2024 - Workshopband. DOI: 10.18420/muc2024-mci-ws17-153. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. MCI-WS17: Usable Security und Privacy Workshop. Karlsruhe. 1.-4. September 2024.

Köpferl, Karola; Lehmann, Tanja; Börner, Andy; Becker, Alexa; Berger, Arne; Bischof, Andreas; Kurze, Albrecht (2024): Partizipative Ansätze in der Entwicklung smarter und privatsphärefreundlicher Technik für das Zuhause. INFORMATIK 2024. DOI: 10.18420/inf2024_69. Bonn: Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. ISSN: 2944-7682. PISSN: 1617-5468. EISSN: 2944-7682. ISBN: 978-3-88579-746-3. pp. 823-828. Smartes Wohnen 2034 - Digitalisierung für ein selbstbestimmtes und gesundes Leben (SW24). Wiesbaden. 24.-26. September 2024

Stephan, Klaus; Eibl, Maximilian; Kurze, Albrecht (2024): Just the Normal Fluff: The Wheel Of Plush as an Example for Human Centric Data Normalization. Mensch und Computer 2024 - Workshopband. DOI: 10.18420/muc2024-mci-ws02-160. Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.. MCI-WS02: 17th Workshop "Be-greifbare Interaktion". Karlsruhe. 1.-4. September 2024

Natalie Sontopski, Stephan Hildebrandt, Lena Marcella Nischwitz, Klaus Stephan, Albrecht Kurze, Lewis L Chuang, and Arne Berger. 2024. Wheel of Plush: A Co-Design Toolkit for Exploring the Design Space of Smart Soft Toy Materiality. In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2958–2971. doi:10.1145/3643834.3660744

Albrecht Kurze and Alexa Becker. Simplications: Why and how we should rethink data of/by/for the people in smart homes and its privacy implications. In Workshop "Data of/by/for the People: Designing Participatory Approaches to Data Governance" at DIS24 - Designing Interactive Systems. July 1, 2024, Copenhagen, Denmark. 4 pages.doi:10.48550/arXiv.2412.06960

Albrecht Kurze and Karola Köpferl. From Simple Sensors to Complex Context: Insights for HabiTech. In workshop "HabiTech" at CHI24 - Computer Human Interaction Conference. May 11, 2024, Honolulu, HI, USA 2024. 4 pages, 5 figures.doi:0.48550/arXiv.2412.06085

2023

Arne Berger, Andreas Bischof, and Albrecht Kurze. 2023. Gar nicht so harmlos - Einfache Sensoren, schwierige Frage. doi:10.18420/inf-2023-03-26 https://inf.gi.de/03/gar-nicht-so-harmlos

Albrecht Kurze, Lewis Chuang, Arne Berger, Klaus Stephan, Natalie Sontopski, Stephan Hildebrandt, Elisabeth Jost, and Maximilian Eibl. 2023. Bitplush: Unleashing the Paws-ibilities of Smart Materials in Smart Plush Toys. In Mensch und Computer 2023 - Workshopband. https://doi.org/10.18420/muc2023-mci-ws09-420

Albrecht Kurze, Karola Köpferl, and Maximilian Eibl. 2023. Data-I – Interactive Experience of IoT Data: A Practical Tool for IoT Sensor Data in Interdisciplinary Human-Computer Interaction Education. In Proceedings of the 5th Annual Symposium on HCI Education (EduCHI '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 85–90. https://doi.org/10.1145/3587399.3587405

Albrecht Kurze, Karola Köpferl, and Andy Börner. 2023. Data-I: Daten-Interaktion interdisziplinär erleben. In HDS Sommerfest 2023. https://tuc.cloud/index.php/s/mMtD4z64WY4kiX2

Arne Berger, Albrecht Kurze, Andreas Bischof, Jesse Josua Benjamin, Richmond Y. Wong, and Nick Merrill. 2023. Accidentally Evil: On Questionable Values in Smart Home Co-Design. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 629, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581504

Alejandra Gomez Ortega, Peter Lovei, Renee Noortman, Romain Toebosch, Alex Bowyer, Albrecht Kurze, Mathias Funk, Sandy J. J. Gould, Samuel Huron, and Jacky Bourgeois. 2023. SIG on Data as Human-Centered Design Material. In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 518, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3583180

2022 and before

see in University bibliography