Master's Educations

MEDIALOGY

In the Medialogy master’s education, students learn about the science and technology behind groundbreaking interactive digital systems, and they learn to develop computer games, computer-generated 3D-graphics and interactive media products.

Students gain a professional profile directed at both the Danish and international job market, and graduates from the education are known for their skills in designing and programming new, interactive media products and tools, for example, computer games, advanced digital user interfaces, or virtual reality experiences.. Evaluating complex media systems on the basis of tests as well as evaluating technology in relation to user-oriented aspects are also competences that students gain from the Master’s education in Medialogy. Project Example

Self-Overlapping Maze and Map Design for Asymmetric Collaboration in Room-Scale Virtual Reality for Public Spaces

This thesis addresses two problems of public virtual reality (VR) setups found in cultural places such as museums and libraries: the lack of walkable space due to the restricted room-scale tracking area, and the head-mounted display technology providing a single-user experience. The students proposed and evaluated a design for constructing a naturally walkable self-overlapping maze and a map of the maze to facilitate asymmetric collaboration between the user wearing a head-mounted display and by-standing participants close to the setup. The findings can be used when designing self-overlapping architectures for limited physical spaces and when facilitating engaging, asymmetric experiences for public VR setups.

Students: Denisa Skantarova, Sule Serubugo, Nicolaj Evers Supervisors: Martin Kraus

SERVICE SYSTEMS DESIGN

At the Service Systems Design Master’s education, students learn how to plan and organise people, infrastructure, communication, media and components of a service, in order to improve its quality, the interaction between service provider and customers, and the customers’ experience.

Some of the people who pioneered service design drive the education and it is uniquely connected to vibrant communities of entrepreneurs and social innovators in Denmark and abroad. Graduates from Service Systems Design work for companies such as Danske Bank, Bang & Olufsen, Roche, Fujitsu, Novo Nordisk and they help public organizations such as the Danish Tax Authority, Copenhagen Police, and Copenhagen Healthtech Cluster to provide better and more impactful services.

Project Example

Supporting the activation of common spaces: a shift from consumers to co-producers of urban public spaces

This thesis explores the concept of common spaces which are presented as spaces to encourage citizens’ everyday encounters; as spaces which demand new forms of governance; as spaces that promote different forms of social relations. In this regard, the role of designers in supporting the activation, interaction, and maintenance of such spaces is exemplified through a case study. Within this framework, one specific community’s ecosystem has been supported by co-designing a set of urban experiments with the goal of sparking debate on matters of concern, questioning the status quo and fostering citizen participation.

Students: Tania Cearreta Innocenti, Giulia D’Ettole, Drude Emilie Holm Ehn Supervisors: Nicola Morelli

SOUND AND MUSIC COMPUTING

Graduates from the master’s education in Sound and Music Computing will become important players in the new information society. Through a combination of practice and theory in subjects such as data modelling, signal processing, pattern recognition, sound technology and -perception, cognition and interactive systems, students obtain a solid background in a fast-growing field. Annually, Denmark exports sound and music products for over €2 billion such as hearing aids, multimedia productions, music equipment, communication technology, hi-fi equipment, games development and measuring equipment, etc.

Project Example

Superhuman Hearing - Virtual Prototyping of Artificial Hearing

Directivity and gain in microphone array systems for artificial hearing in hearing aids or hearable devices allow users to acoustically enhance the information of a source of interest that is usually positioned directly in front of them. This feature is called acoustic beamforming, and this project aimed to improve its user interactions with a virtual prototyping approach in immersive virtual environments (VEs).

Providing superhuman hearing abilities in the form of an acoustic beamformer guided by head movements combined with an additional artificial beamformer control results in statistically significant improvements in terms of pairing time, suggesting the task-relevance of interacting with multiple points of interests.

Students: Luis Viera Supervisors: Michele Geronazzo, Stefania Serafin (AAU), plus Jesper Udesen (GN resound)

LIGHTING DESIGN

In recent years, lighting technology has undergone a revolution, including intelligent and interactive control of light in rooms. Moreover, new lighting technologies and use of interactive screens are becoming increasingly visible in the public space. Therefore, professional and highly educated lighting designers are sought after. Companies are looking for people who understand lighting design, who are able to work with existing technologies and develop new and smart solutions.

The Master’s education in Lighting Design is a cross-disciplinary and international program based in a special Danish and Nordic tradition for light perception. Focus is on how the technical qualities of light and materials are applied in order to promote comfort and aesthetics.

Project Example

Liquid Light

The main focus for this master thesis project is the development of an overall lighting design concept for a specific path located in Roskilde, Denmark. The lighting design is created based on the question: “How to create an innovative, sustainable and context adapted lighting design concept that through coherence, wayfinding and visual interest, invites people to use the Musicon-path?”. The solution consists of four elements: A theme, layers, interactivity and timing. The theme is the concept of flow, which helps to create a sense of coherence and adds variability along the path. The layers consist of a functional, spatial and effect layer. The functional provides the needed lighting on the path itself, the spatial layer enhances the feeling of safety and intimacy, while the effect layer adds wayfinding and a visual interest. The effect layer is interactive and dynamic at different degrees depending on the specific contexts at the specific squares. The dimming and on/off-cycle of the lighting is synched with the changing day/night-cycle throughout the course of a year, thus minimizing energy use and light pollution.

Students: Simon Panduro Norstedt Supervisors: Georgios Triantafyllidis

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

The Master’s programme in Industrial Design focuses on an integrated process of concept design, construction and product development. Aesthetical competencies and creativity in the design development process are combined with knowledge of construction, product development, ergonomics, materials, environment, design management and economy. With a Master’s degree in Industrial Design, students gain an understanding of product design and business perspectives. Graduates from Industrial Design are capable of combining solutions and products that are innovative as well as functional.

Project Example

Vpod – Vertical Stabilizer for videography

Climbing is an industry, which in these days see a lot of growth. People seeks to climb the most steep and challenging rock faces in the world and to document this they use video footage.. - But how do you film stable, professional looking video footage, while you are hanging 1000 meters up in the air, while still being able to move around on the wall? Vpod is the agile stabilization solution for the professional climbing videographer.

This project deals with the opportunities found within the industry of filmmaking. In this field of work, multiple factors contribute to making a movie; such as storytelling, acting, sound recording etc., all being critical in achieving a good result. This project focuses on one of the many technical aspects of videography.

Students: Jeanet Walzl Bælum, Anders Miltersen, Rasmus Hald Vindeløv, Marcus Heinrich Abrahamsen, Jonas Bennedbæk Knudsen Supervisors: Christian Tollestrup

ARCHITECTURE

At the Master’s education in Architecture, the Nordic context is the point of departure for exploring the intersection of architecture and engineering in a local and a global perspective. Sustainability and tectonics are central and interlinked fields of importance in this regard, as the students challenge and develop the social, environmental and economic role of architecture towards an enhancement of the built environment. In doing so the students integrate a multitude of aesthetic, functional, constructive, contextual, material, and environmental aspects of architectural space while exploring its relation with- and influence upon our health and well-being in a problem based learning environment. Hence, with a foundation in an intersection of theories, methods and experiments pertaining to architecture and engineering, the Master’s education in Architecture ensures an interdisciplinary and international competence profile.

Project Example

New Parisian Stories

The project ‘New Parisian Stories’ challenges our understanding of a socially sustainable architecture through a transformation of the Passy Réservoir that tectonically weaves the history of the reservoir into its future as a life-giving resource in Paris on multiple levels. The transformation bridges high-culture and everyday-life across demography in a house that will be a part of the 2024 Olympics in Paris before attaining its determination as a social engine empowering the homeless of Paris to gain foothold in the city. ‘New Parisian Stories’ welcomes and gathers the full diversity of Paris, allowing for a journey of self-discovery and reflection, promoting learning and teaching and the creation of connections and interactions between people in this urban dwelling.

Students: Neematullah Siraj Azizullah, Sebastian Siggaard, Thomas Røn Jensen Supervisors: Marie Frier Hvejsel, Lars Damkilde

URBAN DESIGN

Specialisation in Urban Architecture The Master’s education in Urban Design with specialization in Urban Architecture takes its point of departure in a number of current and future challenges in relation to the design of the built environment and urban spaces. You will get a solid and professional foundation in subjects, methods and theories of urban design, including technologies, modelling and user involvement.

The specialisation in Urban Architecture offers each student a creative combination of problem-based learning (PBL) and realistic projects with “hands-on” challenges that equip the student to address e.g. climate change, temporary urban development projects,urban mobility, projects and strategies of the culture city, the urban landscape and city growth. Project Example

The Industrial Affair

Committed to challenge assumptions of the flawless city and ungentle urban transformations that do not balance preservation and development, this project proposes phased strategic principles for the redevelopment of a 15,6 ha industrial landscape – a former steel factory in Luxembourg City. In prolongation, it presents an architectural scenario of 7.000 m2 to manifest a plan for the activation of the area. Spurred in collaboration with the local professional creative platform, Bamhaus, the project envisions a mixed and vibrant district, grown from the life and the environment at the site in a re-actualization of industrial spatial and structural qualities: vastness, roughness and juxtaposition meet future demands.

Students: Alexander Kruse Bredgaard, Line Guldhammer Mogensen, Thor Vingolf Nielsen Supervisors: Ditte Bendix Lanng, Thomas Ruby Bentzen

URBAN DESIGN

Specialisation in Mobilities and Urban Studies The Master’s education in Urban Design with specialisation in Mobilities & Urban Studies approaches mobilities as more than simply movement and it offers a new innovative and cross-disciplinary mobility-profession based on the new mobilities turn. The specialisation in Mobilities & Urban studies integrates the diverse challenges that are related to an increasing physical mobility (traffic and transportation by car, plane or train alike), increased use of virtual mobility (mobile phones and smart transport systems), increasing social mobility (tourism and migration) and environmentally friendly and sustainable modes of transportation (e.g. bicycle cultures or bike lanes in Copenhagen). Project Example

Effects of Cycling Promotion in Vienna on the Mode Choice Behaviour of Potential Public Transport Users

This project investigated mode choice behaviour in Vienna (Austria). The project focussed on whether cycling promotion in a city with high shares of public transport and walking and a mobility culture based on public transport increases the share of sustainable mobility, or whether it mostly leads to a shift between such modes and how people give meaning to their mode choice behaviour and its change. Findings showed that most bicycle users were using other sustainable modes before they took up cycling.

Students: Martin Rauhofer Supervisors: Anette Jerup Jørgensen