The heritage of Siegen as a home for education and research dates back to the 16th century. In 1536, William the Rich assigned to Saxon educator and theologian Erasmus Sarcerius the task of reconstituting a Siegen-based Latin school to establish what we call today a high school. During the period 1595 to 1599 and 1606 to 1609, the "Universa Schola Nassovica Sigenensis" was established, the "High School" for the Land of Nassau, within the city’s walls.

With the foundation of "Pädagogische Hochschule Siegerland" (Educational University Siegerland) in 1964, Siegen’s academic heritage saw a revival. In 1972, the merger of the technical college and educational university paved the way for the establishment of University of Siegen (in the form of a comprehensive university). The new university started by offering a total of nine university programmes. The mission was to bring together theoretical and practical training, to implement enhanced permeability and equality of opportunity in the educational system while driving a  combined approach of study programmes and research.

The research group "information systems" headed by Prof. Volker Wulf investigates the development, introduction and appropriation processes of cooperation and media systems. This class of applications supports the interaction among human actors with IT systems. Examples of these systems are: communication and cooperation systems, community systems and learning platforms, interactive TV, indoor and outdoor position tracking technologies, cooperative games and digital arts. The research group is internationally well known in the areas of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), community research, interactive TV research, and for empirical studies in applied Computer Science and Information Systems. The research focuses on user-centred, practice-oriented IT media design and participatory action research. In terms of complementarities of expertise the research group brings in broad experience and knowledge of designing community-centred interactive TV formats and practice- and user-centred research methodologies (inter alia, the living lab approach).

Cooperation exists with the business area of User-oriented Software Engineering (USE) at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FhG-FIT), with the Institute for Media Research at the University of Siegen (IfM), and with the International Institute for Socio-Informatics (IISI), Bonn.

Role in the consortium:

University of Siegen (USI) is the co-ordinator of the whole project. USI will closely collaborate with the content-related research partners (esp. DSHS & NeuRA) doing requirements analysis and practical evaluation in real end-user environments in Germany (DBKG, Vitalis). Together with AIT, University of Siegen will lead the development of an iTV application to handle KBS data. All of this includes the development of appropriate user-centred technologies design and methodologies. A framework will be developed for the elicitation of user requirements and practical evaluation in the Living-Lab approach. With support of DBKG and their network to primary (Vitalis Elderly Homes) and secondary end-user organisations (e.g. care provider, etc.), USI will select and accompany primary and secondary end-users and involve them in the technology design process. Together with other partners, USI also plays a role in the dissemination and exploitation of iStoppFalls.

Key Personnel:

Volker Wulf
He is a professor in Information Systems at the University of Siegen. At Fraunhofer FIT, he heads the research group User-centered Software-Engineering (USE). His research interests include Human Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, Participatory Software-Engineering, and Integrated Organization and Technology Development. Recently he developed a strong interest in the role of IT in enabling the aging society. Based on a profound investigation into life practices, his group designs new devices and socio-technical services.

Rainer Wieching
He holds an MSc & PhD in Exercise Physiology. During the last 15 years of his professional career, he has headed a health care SME, being responsible for technical, medical & scientific aspects in global pharma marketing & medical education, especially concerning prescription drugs (cardio­vascular, oncology), evidence based medicine (clinical trials, guidelines), and medical technology (ultrasound). During his studies and PhD thesis, he has worked in the cardiopulmonary data laboratory of the physiology institute at DSHS Cologne and in the exercise testing laboratory of the clinic for pediatrics at a university hospital (RWTH Aachen), being responsible for exercise testing devices, bio-signal computing algorithms, data management and statistical analysis. Additionally, he disposes of considerable working experience in system analysis, data modeling and programming of multi-process redundant software systems, gained during an 8 year assignment in a software engineering company. He has successfully participated in IT/health related national research projects in Germany (BMBF) and has profound experiences in global health care market related aspects (pharma & medical technology).

Claudia Müller
She is a cultural anthropologist with special interest and experience in socio-technical and ethnography-based ICT-design. As a researcher at the institute for Information Systems at the University of Siegen she currently works on topics such as independent living and social inclusion for elderly people by means of new media.

Konstantin Aal
He is a PhD student and research associate at the chair for Information Systems and New Media at the University of Siegen, Germany. Currently his main research focus is fall prevention with older adults (iStoppFalls) and the usage of Social Media during the Arab Spring (Arabellion). He is also part of the come_IN team, which founded several computer clubs for children and their parents in Germany and the Westbank.