IIS Research Seminar “Digitalization in Business and Society”

Digitalization in Business and Society

The IIS research seminar offered by the Schöller Endowed Chair for Information Systems, esp. Digitalization in Business and Society, focuses on our three research areas:

  • Responsible Artificial Intelligence
  • Digital Transformation Management
  • Future of Work

For each of these areas, several researchers from the chair offer individual thesis topics. At the kick-off session, students select a topic and a corresponding supervisor. Throughout the semester, students then develop an individual research question and choose a research method to answer it. While the supervisors provide basic guidance and feedback, it is the students’ responsibility to work self-reliantly on their topic and come up with results that answer their research question. In the end, every student hands in a written seminar thesis and presents their findings to the seminar audience. Additionally, halfway through the seminar, students conduct peer reviews of their projects. This allows them to practice the scientific review process and to receive constructive feedback guiding their own work.

Objectives

The key objective of this seminar is to get first-hand experience in planning, conducting, reviewing, and presenting a self-guided research project within the area of Information Systems. To achieve this objective, students need to:

  • develop their individual research idea and present their research question and research method in the form of an extended abstract,
  • present their extended abstract to the seminar audience and answer questions about it,
  • conduct a peer-review of the extended abstracts of two colleagues,
  • self-reliantly execute the chosen research method to find a scientifically grounded answer to their research question,
  • write up their results in an academic seminar thesis,
  • present their final results to the seminar audience.

Organization

The seminar is offered during summer term. In the kick-off session, students choose their seminar topic and supervisor. After electronically submitting their extended abstract, students conduct a peer review of the projects proposed by two seminar colleagues, before presenting their own project as well as their reviews during the midterm presentation session. After completing their individual research projects, students hand in their written seminar thesis and present their final results to the seminar audience.

  • The seminar language is English. This applies both for the language of instruction as well as for all deliverables (seminar thesis, peer review, presentations).
  • The module grade (worth 5 ECTS) is composed as follows:
    • 70 % on the written seminar thesis
    • 30 % on the midterm presentation (extended abstract and peer review)
    • additional grade bonus worth 0.3 grade points on the final presentation
  • Please note that, as seminar places are limited, students of the International Information Systems (IIS) program are given preferential admission to the seminar.

In order to pass the seminar, both seminar thesis and midterm presentation (incl. extended abstract and peer reviews) must be successfully completed. While the final presentation is optional, it allows students to further improve their overall seminar grade.

Agenda

The application phase for the seminar in summer term 2024 starts on Monday, March 18. Please apply until Friday, April 5, via the central StudOn application portal. Further details on the agenda will be announced in the seminar’s StudOn course after the seminar spots have been assigned.