Category: Research
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Temporal Analysis of Session Clusters in Clickstream Data from a Price Comparison Platform
Author: Luca Turin Supervisor: Julia Neidhardt, Co-Supervisor: Ahmadou Wagne Abstract Understanding user behaviour is essential for designing digital services, improving user experience, and optimising commercial outcomes. This thesis investigates how behaviour varies over time and across contexts on a major price comparison platform. Building on prior work that offered a static segmentation of sessions, it…
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Measuring Controversy in Online Discussions
Author: Ivan Andreev Supervisor: Stefan Woltran, Co-Supervisor: Julia Neidhardt Abstract In today’s digital era, analyzing and improving online discourse is crucial. Polarisation is indeed a significant issue in contemporary society, particularly amplified within online discussions. The ability to accurately measure polarisation in these contexts is crucial for understanding societal dynamics and addressing associated challenges effectively.…
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Analysing Dynamics Over Time of Bias in Recommender Systems
Author: Boris Staykov Supervisor: Julia Neidhardt, Co-Supervisor: Thomas E. Kolb Abstract Recommender systems play a pivotal role in personalizing user experiences across various domains such as e-commerce, news, and entertainment platforms. However, the presence of bias within these systems poses significant challenges, potentially leading to unfair treatment of users. This thesis addresses the critical issue…
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Evaluating the Fairness of News Recommender Algorithms Within Detected User Communities
Author: Bernhard Steindl Supervisor: Julia Neidhardt, Co-Supervisor: Thomas E. Kolb Awards: Bernhard Steindl won the ASAI Masterthesis Prize 2025 (Informatics Website) Abstract This work addresses the problem of unfair treatment of different user groups in the recommendations they receive from recommendation algorithms. Recommender systems (RS) are algorithms that suggest items to a user that are…
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Improving Trust in Recommender Systems through Context Clues
Author: Tobias Sippl Supervisor: Irina Nalis-Neuner, Co-Supervisor: Julia Neidhardt Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting government measures have triggered a wave of protests and demonstrations in Austria. We saw some protestors resorting to populist rhetoric to express their dissatisfaction, which in some cases, led to anti-democratic tendencies. Populist talking points have not been confined…