DTU Management

We are thrilled to share that Professor Anders Kristian Munk has secured funding from the Danish Independent Research Fund (Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond) for a groundbreaking new project titled Culturally Explainable AI (CXAI). The project addresses a crucial question in the age of AI: how do large language models (LLMs) produce culture? While LLMs are often seen as reflecting cultural patterns from their training data, a robust theory of how they convey culture is still missing. The CXAI project aims to bridge this gap by drawing on insights from anthropology and science and technology studies. The idea is to develop a theory of culturally explainable AI by investigating how users interact with cultural patterns in LLM outputs, and understanding how LLMs can become culturally explainable to diverse users. The project will involve an innovative computational anthropology experiment with university students from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. This Nordic collaboration also ties into international research projects, paving the way for a broader understanding of AI's cultural dimensions now, and in the future. Stay tuned for more updates as we embark on this exciting journey to explore the cultural impacts of AI!

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Senior Researcher Mette Møller at DTU Management! Mette has a master's degree in psychology from the University of Copenhagen and wrote her PhD in collaboration with DTU Transport. Her education points to a more clinical direction, but in her career, she took a liking to the field of traffic psychology. She has since then, for the past 25 years, focused on this topic at DTU Management in the Transportation Science Division. Her focus is on road safety, accident prevention, and road user behaviour, with a strong focus on young road users, both motorists, and mopeds, and in later years, bicycles and scooters. Mette analyzes their accidents and the patterns that occur in traffic, and the connection between their lifestyle and driving style. In addition, she has dealt with road rage and recently has had an increased focus on distraction by cyclists in traffic. The influence of her expertise on society can, among other things, be seen in the change of the driving license laws in 2017 that allowed 17-year-olds to drive with an experienced driver as a companion. A lot of Mette’s research has been connected to scientific advice which is reflected in her collaboration with Transportministeriet, the Swedish Transport Agency, the Rådet for Sikker Trafik , and her place in the Commission for Road and Traffic Accidents. Mette looks forward to continuing her research at DTU: "It's a really good workplace, and even though it's the same research field I've focused on throughout my time here, it's constantly changing. You are allowed to use many different skills, and it is exciting.” Thank you Mette Møller for your time and dedication to DTU Management.

🎓 Laurent Cazor defends his PhD thesis ”Advancing the behavioural realism of large-scale-applicable choice models” on Wednesday 6 November at 1:00 PM, at DTU Lyngby Campus, Akademivej 358, room 030. Everyone is welcome.

I onsdags afholdt Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab i samarbejde med Ældre Sagen en helt unik workshop i Hjallese, hvor deltagerne fik indblik i, hvordan de kan interagere med kunstig intelligens (AI) og lære at prompte. Professor Anders Kristian Munk og professor Brit Ross Winthereik fra DTU Management præsenterede to flabede chatbots, som deltagerne kunne udfordre med deres egne spørgsmål og input.   “Deltagerne ser, hvad en prompt er, og hvad den gør, så de får en hands-on forståelse af AI. De får noget teknisk indsigt og bliver inspirerede til at have holdninger, så de bedre kan tale med andre om kunstig intelligens,” siger Brit Ross Winthereik. Formålet med workshoppen var at vise, hvordan AI påvirker vores samfund, og hvordan vi alle kan få en bedre forståelse af teknologien, som spiller en stadig større rolle i vores digitale liv. Workshoppen i Hjallese er en del af VidenSkaber, et forskningsformidlingsprojekt støttet af Lundbeckfonden / Lundbeck Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation og Carlsbergfondet, som bringer forskernes viden ud til borgerne og indsamler deres input til videre forskning. Er du interesseret, kan du læse mere om VidenSkaber her: https://lnkd.in/d6HGVNfm 

We are thrilled to announce that Associate Professor Tanja Schneider has been appointed as the new Head of the Human-Centred Innovation at DTU section at DTU Management. Tanja joins us from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, bringing a rich interdisciplinary background spanning business administration, economics and sociology. Her expertise lies in Science and Technology Studies (STS), focusing on the societal impacts of science and technology. Tanja was particularly drawn to Brit Ross Winthereiks' research vision for the Human-Centred Innovation Section and is eager to collaborate with the talented team in her new role. Brit warmly welcomes her, saying:” I am incredibly pleased that Tanja has chosen to join DTU Management. She was a top candidate in an impressive pool of applicants. Her research on the digitalization of eating and citizen participation and non-participation in the digital society inspires me a lot in my own research, too. I look forward to continuing growing the STS (Science and Technology Studies) environment in collaboration with Tanja”, Brit said. Tanja’s recent research attends to food science and technology. critically examining how digital platforms and devices shape people’s everyday eating practices but also how they can shape digital platforms in the development - as explored in an interdisciplinary research collaboration alongside computer scientists that was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. As the new Head of Section, Tanja aims to foster an inspiring, collaborative research environment that contributes to cutting-edge debates in STS and informs public discussions on emerging technologies. Please join us in giving a huge welcome to Tanja Schneider as she embarks on this new exciting journey at DTU Management!

Meet Dario Stolze, a PhD student at DTU Management. Dario is part of the ERC-funded research project “URGENT”. His research focuses on why, when, and how people’s daily travel behaviour might change when they move house. With a background in cognitive science and psychology, Dario is particularly interested in the mental processes during this life transition. A key area of his work is the reconfiguration of travel habits. Research in this area is crucial as it can inform the timing and nature of transport policy interventions targeting sustainable behavioural change. The URGENT project, led by Sonja Haustein, explores how people's everyday travel behaviour changes in response to major life events. The project team focuses on the events of residential moving, retirement, road crash involvement, and switching to an electric vehicle. This research design has the potential to more accurately examine what causes people to alter the way they travel. Dario is passionate about applying his expertise to transport research: “What I appreciate most about my research is that I don’t need a laboratory to encounter it – aspects of mobility can be found almost everywhere as soon as you step outside. My specific PhD project is very meaningful to me because I get to study some of the factors that might cause or prevent the desperately needed changes in the high-emitting transport sector. I believe that psychological science can play a crucial role in that discovery process.” Contact Dario Stolze for more information about the project.

Camilla K. E. Bay Brix Nielsen defends her PhD thesis ”Towards integrative behavioural design: understanding relationships between behavioural problems, solutions, and the design process” on Friday 27 September at 1:00 PM, at DTU Lyngby Campus, Akademivej 358, room 030. Everyone is welcome.

Imagine a world where public transport is so decentralized, independent, and self-organizing that the trains can take operational decisions by themselves. That is one of the ambitious goals of the M-ERA.NET-funded “Sorted Mobility” project. For the past three years, researchers at DTU Management have been contributing to this project, by exploring ways in which we can achieve that level of decentralization. Funded by Innovationsfonden, and in collaboration with Université Gustave Eiffel, as well as Banedanmark, researchers Associate Professor Carlos Lima de Azevedo, Associate Professor Filipe Rodrigues and their team at Intelligent Transportation Systems, including Georges Sfeir, Dang Viet Anh NGUYEN, and Victor Flensburg have been working diligently to develop mathematical models that demonstrate the potential of advanced algorithms to bring public transportation to the next level. In their work on these solutions, they have focused on passenger behaviour prediction and how it can help to adjust future systems to be sensitive to passenger demands. Over these three years, they have developed a new machine-learning architecture that represents a leap forward in predicting people’s movements compared to previous models, particularly in integrating dynamic systems into its predictions. To assess these new solutions, they have also created an extensive simulation of the entire Danish transport demand, SimDanmark, using data collected by DTU Management, Bane Danmark, and Vejdirektoratet. Although not a direct goal of the project, this ambitious simulation is a valuable byproduct that will be immensely useful for studying transport patterns in the future. You can read more about the “Sorted Mobility” project here: https://lnkd.in/dX3nsXKs

The European Leadership Programme for Industrial Scientists (ELPIS) is now ready to announce its latest course, "Impact from Life Science: Shaping Opportunities at the Intersection of Technologies." On the 23rd of September, the programme and pilot at DTU will be announced on a webinar together with Dr. Andreas Worberg from DTU BioSustain and Professor Liisa Välikangas from DTU Management. The webinar is from 5.00 – 6.00 pm and is free to join for everyone interested in the program. Here, you will get an introduction to the new leadership programme for industrial scientists and learn about leading innovation across science and technology fields with a perspective on biosolutions. DTU - Technical University of Denmark is one of the leading universities in developing the ELPIS programme together with other leading technical universities in Europe with the pilot being lead together with DTU faculty and industry stakeholders. The course will explore the state of the art across scientific opportunities, and technological ecosystems, hone leadership, and networking skills to shape corporate agendas, and influence business decisions, and public policies. The participants play a key role in growing innovation, driving technological advancements, and leading cutting-edge research on behalf of their organization. This course is for those of you who are interested in learning from the latest technological developments within life sciences and are ready for 4 days at DTU learning and contributing to the industry with experts and other industrial scientists. This is a possibility for you to use your many years of experience in a field and contribute new knowledge to your company. So, if this seems interesting and if you are an R&D senior specialist, an industrial scientist, and/or a domain expert from the industry, this 4-day course at DTU might be for you. The course is a prelude to the pioneering European executive programme. Sign up for the webinar and learn more about the programme together with Professor Liisa Välikangas here: https://shorturl.at/qWj4L And join the ELPIS programme or learn more about it here: https://rb.gy/obypkr

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Rico Krueger for receiving the prestigious European Research Council Starting Grant for his project IMMERSION: Explaining human decision-making by combining choice and process data! In this five-year project, Rico and his team will establish a novel framework to understand and predict human behaviour in hypothetical and futuristic scenarios. This includes new models for integrating choice and process data, new statistical inference procedures tailored to such models, and new methods for collecting rich behavioural data in immersive experiments using extended reality. The project also involves extensive empirical work with implications for the human-centric design of future transport and infrastructure systems. The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the award of 494 Starting Grants with a total of nearly €780 million going to young scientists and scholars across Europe. One of them being Rico Krueger from DTU Management. The ERC funding is a part of the EU Horizon Europe programme and supports cutting-edge research in different fields, with Rico Krueger being from social sciences and humanities. The ERC is the premier European funding organisation for frontier research, funding researchers of any nationality and age across Europe. With 3,474 proposals evaluated by peer review panels of internationally renowned researchers, 14.2% of the proposals were selected for funding for interesting and important projects. Mette Wier, Head of Department at DTU Management congratulates Rico with the prestigious grant saying, “I am so happy for Rico who can now amplify his research vision the best possible way. I am also proud that the department has now won 3 ERC grants in only two years. Scholars at the department are contributing magnificently. Big congrats to Rico.” Thanks to the European Research Council Starting Grant and a huge congratulations to Rico Krueger for this esteemed grant.