Melanie A. Kilian, MA

01 | Research

PhD Project "Where to Go and What to Do: Towards Understanding Task-Based Information Behavior at Transitional Spaces"

In public transitional spaces, such as airports, users are faced with diverse challenges regarding information interaction and use. These challenges arise due to the scheduled and/or location-dependent procedures users are required to perform. Understanding what these users need or desire in the context of such spaces, what information is on offer, both online and in situ, and how these aspects interrelate is important to facilitate the design of systems that are accepted by the users concerned. However, very little is known about human information behavior (HIB) in public transitional spaces. As a starting point to understand how behavior in such spaces relates to or differs from information behavior in other contexts, holistically, I will create an explanatory model of airport information behavior by conducting an exploratory grounded theory based field study and relating my findings to those of existing models.

(Excerpted from: Melanie A. Kilian . 2019. Where to Go and What to Do: Towards Understanding Task-Based Information Behavior at Transitional Spaces. In 2019 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR ’19), March 10–14, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland Uk. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages.)

02| Teaching

Advanced Seminar on Information Ethics and Philosophy: Ethics for Software Engineers & Data Scientists

Winter 2017/18 | Winter 2018/19 | Winter 2019/20 | Winter 2020/21 | Winter 2021/22 | Winter 2023/24 | Winter 2024/25

Computer Science and Society (in cooperation with the Chair of Data Security and Cryptography - Prof. Dr. Juliane Krämer)

Winter 2023/24 | Winter 2024/25

Hands-On Course on Qualitative Interviews and Grounded Theory Analysis

Summer 2017 | Winter 2017/18 | Winter 2018/19

Information Ethics and Philosophy

Summer 2016 | Winter 2016/17 | Summer 2017 | Summer 2018 | Summer 2019 | Summer 2020 | Summer 2021 | Summer 2022 | Summer 2023 | Summer 2024 | Summer 2025

Research Seminar on Conducting Qualitative and Mixed Methods Human Information Behavior Research

Winter 2019/20 | Winter 2020/21

Research Seminar on GIScience & Human Information Behavior (in cooperation with Markus Kattenbeck)

Summer 2017

Research Seminar on Human Information Behavior (in cooperation with Markus Kattenbeck)

Winter 2016/17

Seminar on Qualitative and Quantitative Data Collection (in cooperation with Christina Bauer)

Summer 2019

Research Seminar on Requirements Engineering & Air Travel Information Behavior

Winter 2017/18

Since 2018

PhD Candidate at the Chair of Information Science (University of Regensburg)

Since 2016

Research Associate and Lecturer at the Chair of Information Science (University of Regensburg)

2020 – 2021

University Certificate "Cultural Competence" of the Technical University of Applied Sciences Regensburg and the University of Regensburg

2012 – 2015

MA Media Studies (University of Regensburg)

2009 – 2012

BA Media Studies and Business Administration (University of Regensburg)

Peer-Reviewed Papers

Talks & Presentations

Invited Talk

05/2018

„Big Data, Big Brother, Big Problems –  Ethical Challenges in an Increasingly Digitalised World“ (translated title) as part of the 2nd general meeting 2018 of the Green Youth Ostbayern, May 19-20, 2018, Kelheim, Germany.

Doctoral Consortium Presentations

03/2019

“Where to Go and What to Do: Towards Understanding Task-Based Information Behavior at Transitional Spaces” as part of the Doctoral Consortium of the ACM SIGIR 2019 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR), March 10–14, 2019, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

06/2018

„Facing Information Behavior in Public Spaces: Using Procedure Adaptation for Sustainable Assistance at Airports“ as part of the 1st Doctoral Workshop of the Network Internet and Digitization Ostbayern (INDIGO), June 20, 2018, University of Passau, Passau, Germany.

Poster Presentation

10/2018

“Theory Construction through Thick Data - How to Model Airport Information Behavior Holistically” as part of the 1st Regensburg Big Data Day, October 30, 2018, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.

Memberships

Member of the iSchools community "Qualitative Research Group" (2023-05 - now)

Services to the Community

CHIIR 2022 (Webmaster and Member of the Local Arrangements Team)

European iSchools Doctoral Seminar Series (2020-11 - 2020-12: Organizing Committee Member)

CHIIR 2019 (Student Volunteer)

Committee Work

Current Roles and Offices

Member of the working group "Development of a M.Sc. program in Data Science at the University of Regensburg" (2023-11 - now)

Member of the working group "Development of a M.Sc. program in Computer Science at the University of Regensburg" (2023-11 - now)

Re-elected representative of the group of academic staff and doctoral candidates in the faculty council of the Faculty of Informatics and Data Science (term of office: 2023-10 - 2025-09)

Member of the working group "Study matters of the Faculty of Informatics and Data Science" (2023-06 - now)

Representative for Public Relations of the Faculty of Informatics and Data Science (2022-07 - now)

Past Roles and Offices

Member of the working group "Development of a B.Sc. program in Data Science at the University of Regensburg" (2023-01 - 2023-06)

Member of the working group "Development of a B.Sc. program in Computer Science at the University of Regensburg" (2022-06 - 2023-04)

Member of the Presidential Committee "Digital Teaching at the University of Regensburg" (2022-05 - 2022-07)

Representative of the group of non-professorial academic staff in the faculty council of the Faculty of Informatics and Data Science (2022-03 – 2023-09)

Tasks at the Chair of Information Science Besides Research and Teaching

• Organizing and moderating the seminar for PhD students of the chairs of information science and media informatics at the University of Regensburg
• Web editing/content management and public relations
• Managing qualitative research equipment
• Teaching and counseling degree candidates in qualitative research methods