We are proud to announce that Dr. Katrin Hartwig, now post-doctoral researcher at PEASEC, has been awarded the “Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievements” for the best dissertation of the Department of Computer Science at TU Darmstadt in 2024!
Dr. Katrin Hartwig received this prestigious award for her outstanding dissertation, “Navigating Misinformation: User-Centered Design and Evaluation of Indicator-Based Digital Interventions.”, conducted within the NEBULA project and supervised by Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Reuter.
Her dissertation addresses the increasing challenge of navigating the complex digital information landscape, filled with both reliable and false information, particularly on social media. It focuses on user-centered digital misinformation interventions, such as smartphone apps and browser plug-ins, to help users manage misinformation in various forms. Dr. Hartwig employed a human-centered design approach to analyze and categorize existing interventions systematically, design new interventions, and evaluate their effectiveness through user studies. Key findings include the identification of valuable and comprehensible indicators for different content modalities (text, audio, video), designing and testing a simulated TikTok app, and recognizing both the potential and limitations of these interventions, such as users’ blind trust in them. The research also offers insights into the transferability of these findings to cybersecurity contexts. For more detailed information: https://peasec.de/2024/promotion-dr-hartwig.
This marks the second time a researcher from the PEASEC division has received this honor. In 2021, Dr. Marc-André Kaufhold was also awarded for his dissertation.
The “Awards for Outstanding Scientific Achievements” are presented by the Vereinigung von Freunden der Technischen Universität zu Darmstadt e.V., an association founded in 1918. With approximately 2,200 members and 80 companies, the association plays a crucial role in promoting science in research and teaching at TU Darmstadt.
Congratulations, Katrin Hartwig, on this well-deserved recognition!
For more information about the Vereinigung von Freunden zu Darmstadt e.V., please visit their website: Vereinigung von Freunden zu Darmstadt e.V.