Research line: Learning and Innovation in Resilient Systems
PhD research
Start 2022

Contact: prof. dr. Roland Klemke

This multidisciplinary project aims at developing methods to inspire behavior change towards a more sustainable life. We do this using (beyond)-state-of-the-art technology grounded on psychology and educational theory and practice. More specifically, we propose the use of Internet-of-Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), gamification, and psychological intervention designs to facilitate behavior change.

Living labs

To facilitate behavior change, first, we need to understand the behavior patterns, and psychological determinants of the inhabitants of a house or an office. Two living labs, an office building and a household, will be equipped with an array of IoT sensors (e.g., motion, temperature, power usage). These will provide us with information regarding the behavior patterns of the inhabitants and how a living space is being used. We will use the IoT sensor data to train inhabitant behavior models using machine learning algorithms of varying complexity. With these models we can predict the inhabitants’ behavior patterns.

Gamification

Our pedagogical model consists of interventions (e.g., displaying the energy use of the most recent activity) and gamification to sustain the desired behavior change for longer durations. In the game two categories of players, inhabitants and AI, act cooperatively. The objective of the AI-player is to identify opportunities for energy-saving behavior and shares them with the inhabitants. The objective of the inhabitants is to seize these opportunities either by taking action themselves or delegating the energy-saving task to the AI. Players gain/lose points proportional to the seized/lost opportunities.

Team

Faculty of Educational Sciences: Prof. Dr. Roland Klemke (promotor).
Faculty of Sciences: Dr. Deniz Iren (copromotor).
Faculty of Psychology: Dr. Gjalt-Jorn Peters (copromotor).