Doctoral students improve usability linked to personal integrity

On 25–27 August, twelve doctoral students embarked on an international research programme as part of the European network Privacy&Us at Karlstad University. The students, who are stationed in various places in Europe and have different competencies and perspectives, will study and address issues relating to usability and personal integrity on the net.

The project Privacy&Us was launched in December 2015 with the aim of educating and training 13 doctoral students to discuss, design and develop innovative solutions to problems related to usability and personal integrity on the net. The project is interdisciplinary, primarily including computer science, psychology and jurisprudence.
- Last spring we worked on recruiting creative, entrepreneurial and innovative doctoral students, says Leonardo Martucci, project coordinator and associate senior lecturer at Karlstad University. We are very pleased that the first on-campus meeting has taken place and that they can start their work now.
The students will meet for courses and training in different places in Europe every sixth month. The start in Karlstad was the first in the series of meetings.
- The three-day meeting covered an introduction to the project, lectures given by experts, workshops, skills training in networking and academic writing as well as social activities, says Leonardo.
Two of the doctoral students are computer science employees at Karlstad University and they will focus on the user’s access to information on how and who is storing, using and accessing personal data and how the user takes the information into consideration and acts in connection with settings in relation to personal integrity, for example. Agnieszka Kitowska, one of the Karlstad doctoral students, commented on the introductory meeting:
- We had the opportunity to meet a good mix of people from academia and industry, who represented many different areas, for instance, integrity, security, psychology and law. For me, the introduction to usability was particularly valuable since this is part of my research. It was also great to meet the doctoral students and other members of the project face-to-face since I’ll be working with them at a distance for some time.
Privacy&Us is an international research project, which is coordinated by Computer Science at Karlstad University. Nine universities, companies and organisations from five countries in Europe cooperate on this venture to train thirteen doctoral students at a cost of SEK 34 million. The project is linked to the EU frame programme Horizon 2020 and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action (MSCA). (project no. 675730).