Biography

I studied Psychology as a major and Computer Science as a minor at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. My Master thesis which I did at Max-Planck-Institute for Psychological Research in Munich with Prof. Günter Knoblich was in the field of social cognition.

The interest in applied research made me join the lab of Prof. Friedrich Hesse at the Knowlegde Media Research Center (KMRC) in Tübingen for my PhD in the field of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). I investigated the benefit of knowledge awareness, i.e. knowing what the other learners in the group know, for communication and collaboration. The CHILI lab of Prof. Pierre Dillenbourg at EPFL welcomed me for a visiting PhD stay.

After the PhD I worked at the University of Fribourg on gender-equal university teaching with Prof. Bernadette Charlier and Helene Füger. Later I joined EPFL as a postdoc in a project on technology-enhanced vocational training (Dual-T).

During 4 years I worked on pedagogical innovation in the EdTech startup Coorpacademy which is part of the Swiss EdTech Collider. While I am grateful for the rich experiences outside of academia, I returned to EPFL when the Center for Learning Sciences opened in 2018 to take the challenge of being its executive director.