"Fernstudent": Creating an Immersive Experience for Remote Students in Hybrid Lectures

Problem Statement

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the emergence of hybrid lectures in traditional in-person universities. Remote participation has become popular among students due to its advantages, and they wish to continue using it depending on the situation. However, the mix of on-site and remote participants has negatively impacted interaction in courses.
To address this issue, the "Fernstudent" a robot avatar has been developed to allow remote students to participate in lectures from a distance and engage in discussions by controlling the robot. This technology aims to reconnect physically separated lecture participants and facilitate natural interaction between them.
The project aims to enhance the "Fernstudent" concept and its physical prototype, providing remote students with a more immersive experience in the lecture hall.

Tasks

• Design Research
• Prototyping (design of a physical and/or software prototyp)
• Concept evaluation (design and conduction of user studies)

Requirements

• Interest in human-robot-interaction
• Good web development skills
• Basic knowledge on hardware and software prototyping