My PhD Defense: A Journey in HCI & ML

On March 21, 2025, I successfully defended my PhD dissertation at the Artificial Intelligence Institute (KI), University of Stuttgart.

My research, titled “Spatiotemporal Fusion of Nonverbal Voice & Eye Gaze for Human-Computer Interactions,” explored the intersection of multimodal inputs to create more intuitive and seamless digital experiences. You can read more about the research details and my findings here.

The PhD Commission

I was honored to present my work to a distinguished committee of experts in the field:

• Prof. Dr. Steffen Staab (Main Supervisor & Examiner, KI, University of Stuttgart)

• Prof. Dr. Ken Pfeuffer (External Examiner, Aarhus University)

• Prof. Dr. Michael Sedlmair (Additional Examiner, VIS, University of Stuttgart)

• Prof. Dr. Andreas Bulling (Chair of PhD Commission, VIS, University of Stuttgart)

A Heartfelt Thank You

This achievement was a collaborative effort, and the “we” throughout my dissertation reflects the indispensable support of my colleagues.

I owe a deep debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Steffen Staab, for his unyielding patience and intellectual rigor. I am also incredibly thankful to Prof. Dr. Andreas Bulling and Prof. Dr. Michael Sedlmair for their rigorous evaluation and insightful feedback, which significantly sharpened the final perspective of my work.

Special thanks go to Dr. Chandan Kumar for his mentorship and friendship, and to Dr. Raphael Menges for his collaboration in bridging the gap between research and real-world products. I am also honored to have had Prof. Dr. Ken Pfeuffer review this work; his research in multimodal interaction has been a constant inspiration.

Finally, thank you to all the study participants and voice contributors. Without your data and time, this research would not have been possible.