Student Assistant (Research) for Chair of Design and Transdisciplinarity

18.02.2025, Studentische Hilfskräfte, Praktikantenstellen, Studienarbeiten

The Chair of Design and Transdisciplinarity (DAT) is part of the TUM School of Engineering and Design (ED) and centrally located in the heart of Munich. We teach and research approaches to design that center societal value and consider regenerative impact through participation, utilizing a sophisticated understanding of systemic approaches, a reframing of power dynamics in design, and a focus on equitable outcomes. We create spaces where wildly creative ideas for a hopeful future can emerge through close collaboration with other disciplines. 

We are looking for a student assistant who will work with our Chair for at least two semesters and help to build our research portfolio. You will be supporting our work with the following tasks:

• Review Course Readings: Look through the papers we use in our courses to help us evaluate if they’re helpful and accessible for students.

• Dive into Research: Help search for and read up on academic articles about topics like the value of design, transformation design, and more.

• Summarize What You Find: Write up short and clear summaries of existing research, pointing out trends, big ideas, important gaps and interesting findings.

• Support with Interviews: We have at least 2 original papers planned and would need support with shaping the interview questions based on the literature review, transcribing (with the help of otter.ai or similar) and coding the text (i.e. finding common topics and surprising new information in NVivo)

• Organize and Share Ideas: Keep things organized in Zotero and in a literature review sheet, and help put together useful notes, lists, or resources based on the research we’re working on.

• Find Useful Design Tools: Explore different validated design tools and techniques (in academia and beyond) that can help involve different groups of people in research projects.

  
  

This is a great opportunity to learn about academic research, as you will have the opportunity to learn how to do these tasks over time. You will be working in close collaboration with Dr. Regina Sipos, Postdoctoral Researcher, who has 15 years of experience in participatory and grassroots design, critical making, social innovation, and international development (UN).

Weekly hours: 8; workdays flexible; strong preference for working hours between 10-16h. Some of the work can be done remotely, but we prefer in-person collaboration.

Location: Chair of Design and Transdisciplinarity, TUM Stammgelände, Arcisstraße, München

Requirements: Familiarity with collaborative digital software, readiness to learn Zotero and NVivo. German is not a prerequisite, but is an advantage as some research might take place in German.

Kontakt: application.dat@ed.tum.de