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Curriculum vitae

Mag. Susanne F. Schmehl

urbanhuman-109.jpg

schmehl[at]urbanhuman.eu

As evolutionary psychologist and biologist I was able to specialize in different research foci. In interdisciplinary projects I deal with human-environment interaction, communication and social interaction, multimodal communication, usability of virtual and physical facilities and user-centered design. 

 

I studied biology focusing on human behavior and its evolutionary roots. In 2009 I finished my studies at the university of Vienna investigating whether there is a gender difference in humor appreciation by applying behavior observation methods. 

As a usability researcher (2009-2012) I learned how to design systems (on the user side) that hold user-specific usability by applying user-centered design methods. 

As production manager (2012-2019) and associate editor for the scientific journal Human Ethology” I got insights to publication processes on both sides – research and production.

Since 2012 I am the scientific co-director and senior researcher of Urban Human.

Education & Life

2017

2014-2015

Birth of daughter Karlotta 

University course ‘Project Management’ at Karl-Franzens University Graz, Austria (postgraduate professional education, IPMA standard Level D) 

2009

2008

2004-2009

2004-2009

2000-2001

2000

1980

Degree in Anthropology (Mag. rer. nat) at the Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria

eLearning Schulungen beim Zentralen Informatik Dienst der Universität Wien (Fronter, Blackboard Vista)

University of Vienna, Austria. Studies in General Biology and Zoology

Additional courses in Nutritional Sciences; University Vienna; Austria

Basic courses in Psychology; University of Vienna, Austria

Matura (A-levels); High School (focusing on natural sciences) at the BORG Feldkirch, Austria

Born in Heidelberg, Germany

List of Positions

since 2019

since 2015

since 2014

2014 - 2019

2013 - 2019​

2011 - 2016

2009 - 2013

2006 - 2009

​

2006 - 2007

Senior Researcher at Oberzaucher E.U. 

Scientific Co-director of association Urban Human

Associate editor of peer-reviewed journal Human Ethology

Production manager of peer-reviewed journal Human Ethology

Researcher at Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture (IFZ) in Graz, Austria

Teaching at the University of Vienna, Austria

HCI researcher at the Center of Usability Research and Engineering (CURE), Vienna, Austria

Administrative and research assistant at the Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institute (LBI) for Urban Ethology (director: Dr. Karl Grammer), Vienna, Austria

Scientific assistant in the FWF-Forschungsprojekt (P17761-G6, 2005) ‘Rudolf Pöch – Anthropologe, Forschungsreisender, Medienpionier’

Research Interests

since 2012

since 2009

since 2009

since 2009

​

since 2008

since 2006

since 2006

2006 - 2009

2006 - 2009

Human-Environment Interaction (main focus: urban environments and mobility)

Gender Differences in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

User-Centred Design

Usability, User Experience and Technology Acceptance in relation to needs of special target groups (focus on vulnerable target groups)

Multimodal communication

Evolutionary Psychology

Gender Differences in Nonverbal Communication and Emotions

Gender Differences in Humour Appreciation

Simulation of Human Behaviour 

Teaching

at the University of Vienna

​

2013 – 2017  

2011 – 2015 

2011 – 2017

2007 – 2009      

2007 – 2009 

2007 – 2008

 

 

 

Lecturer: Neurobiology: Visual Systems

Lecturer: Behaviour Analysis I

Lecturer: Presentation techniques

Tutorial: Human Ethology

Tutorial: Behaviour Analysis II

Tutorial: Behaviour Analysis III

Other Activities

  • Associate Editor on Human-Machine Interaction of peer-reviewed journal Human Ethology Bulletin (HEB) (since 2012)​

  • Reviewer of peer-reviewed journal Human Ethology Bulletin (HEB) (since 2012)

  • Invited Editor of the Human Ethology Bulletin Special Issue, 31(1) (2016) 

  • Participation in the Interdisciplinary College 2016 at Lake Möhne; Focus Theme: Transitions and Transformations in Cognition, Biology and Interactive Systems

  • Participation in the Interdisciplinary College 2014 at Lake Möhne; Focus Theme: Cognition 3.0 – the social mind in the connected world.

  • Participation in reSITE conference 2014 in Prague, Czech Republic.

  • Participation in conference of MVE-List (Human Behavior in Evolutionary Perspective) in Nürnberg, Germany (2013).

  • Participation in CHI course Make This! Introduction to Electronics Prototyping Using Arduino lead by W. Wu and D. Sirkin, CHI 2013, Paris, France.

  • Participation in CHI course Practical Statistics for User Experience lead by J. Lewis, CHI 2013, Paris, France.

  • Participation in CHI course Choice and Decision Making for HCI lead by A. Jameson, CHI 2013, Paris, France.

  • Participation in CHI course The Past 100 Years of the Future: CHI/HCI/UX in Sci-Fi Movies and Television lead by A. Marcus, CHI 2013, Paris, France.

  • School of photography Prager Fotoschule (2012-2013).

  • Participation in Workshop Mobile services for immigrant people: learning, information and community building for employment and integration, in Barcelona, Spain (2012).

  • Member of program committee and co-organiser of ISHE conference 2012 in Vienna, Austria.

  • Participation in 23rd annual HBES conference, 2011, in Montpellier, France.

  • Board member of Verein zur Erforschung menschlichen Verhaltes e.V. (2011-2015)

  • Summer School in Human Behavior Research 2008 Courtship Behavior, in collaboration with Karl Grammer, Elisabeth Oberzaucher and Iris Holzleitner (2008).

  • Participation in the Interdisciplinary College 2008 at Lake Möhne; Focus Theme: Cooperation.

  • Summer School in Human Behavior Research 2007 Nonverbal Communication, in collaboration with Karl Grammer, Elisabeth Oberzaucher and Iris Holzleitner (2007).

  • Participation in the science-contest Dance your PhD (presentation of Elisabeth Oberzaucher’s doctoral thesis titled “Birds of a Feather Flock Together”, at the Research Institute for Molecular Biology (2007)).

Memberships

Current: ​

  • International Society for Human Ethology (ISHE)

  • Urban Human e.V.

Past: ​

  • European Human Behaviour & Evolution Association (EHBEA)

  • North Eastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS)

  • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Awards

Alex Carmichael Award for Accessibility for

BOBETH, J., SCHMEHL, S., KRUIJFF, E., DEUTSCH, S., & TSCHELIGI, M. (2012). Evaluating performance and acceptance of older adults using freehand gestures for TV menu control. In Proceedings of the 10th European conference on Interactive TV and video, 35-44. ACM

Publications

Manuscripts in Preparation, Submitted and in Review

  • MASUCH, K., SCHMEHL, S., OBERZAUCHER, E. (in prep). Look, don’t ask – when asking questions doesn’t answer the question.

  • OBERZAUCHER, E., MASUCH, K., & SCHMEHL, S. (in prep). Risk taking behaviour and risk perception in public space.

  • SCHMEHL, S., MASUCH. K., & OBERZAUCHER, E. (in prep). My very own bubble: Personal space is the driving force behind seat choice in public transport.

  • SCHMEHL, S., DEUTSCH, S., SCHRAMMEL, J., & TSCHELIGI, M. (in prep). Sex does Matter: Effects of Experimenters Sex on Usability Evaluation. 

  • MASUCH. K., OBERRAUCH, S., RATZENBÖCK, S., WALTENBERGER, L., SCHMEHL, S., & OBERZAUCHER, E.(in prep). Communication via bathroom graffiti: Sex differences in content and territoriality.

Invited Talks

  • OBERZAUCHER, E. & SCHMEHL, S. (2013). Im Mittelpunkt der Mensch. Talk presented at the RTCA Arbeitskreis Multisensuelles Fahrzeug, Vienna, Austria (2.7.2013)

  • PALETTA, L., & SCHMEHL, S. (2012). Users of ITS - the unknown aliens? Smart ways to identify user needs and to get users involved in the innovation process. Invited talk at Special Interest Session (SIS64) at 19th ITS World Congress, 22-26 October 2012, Vienna, Austria.

  • GRAMMER, K., & SCHMEHL, S. (2008). Rudolf Pöch – normierte Gesichtsfotografie aus heutiger Sicht. Talk presented at symposium Archival horizons: Landscapes of knowledge and borders of perspective within the multimedia estate of anthropologist and explorer Rudolf Pöch.

Conference Presentations - Talks

  • SCHMEHL, S., (2022) Talk presented at the 7th Summer Institute, 2022, in Würzburg, Germany.

  • SCHMEHL, S., MASUCH, K., ENGELBOGEN, T., OBERZAUCHER, E. (2021). Look, don’t ask – when asking questions can lead you astray. International Society of Human Ethology, July 2021, online meeting.

  • MASUCH, K., PRAGER, K., BÖHM, P.M., SCHMEHL, S., RIGGS, E., ZINCK, M., BATRES, C., FISHER, M.L., OBERZAUCHER, E. (2021). Fighting the Pandemic – A Crosscultural Study of Compliance in Mask Wearing. Gemeinsamer Soziologiekongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie und Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Soziologie, August 2021, online meeting.

  • MASUCH, K., PRAGER, K., BÖHM, P.M., SCHMEHL, S., RIGGS, E., ZINCK, M., BATRES, C., FISHER, M.L., OBERZAUCHER, E. (2021). Are conscientious people really the minority? Compliance in face mask wearing behavior in a cross-cultural study. International Society of Human Ethology, July 2021, online meeting.

  • POLT, M.-H., FISHER, M.L., BATRES, C., SCHMEHL, S., MASUCH, K., BÖHM, P.M., OBERZAUCHER. E. (2021). Sexual dimorphism in spatial behavior. International Society of Human Ethology, July 2021, online meeting.

  • SCHMEHL, S., BÖHM, P., MASUCH, K. ,… OBERZAUCHER, E. (2019). Which seat to take, which one to offer? Seat choice in mixed dyads. A cross-cultural study. Talk presented at the 7th Summer Institute, 2019, in Zadar, Croatia.

  • SCHMEHL, S., ENNSBERGER, A., MASUCH, K., MÜLLER, H., WEINLINGER, CH., HARRER, G., OBERZAUCHER, E. (2016). Can Ethology Inform FDM Diagnosis and Therapy? Talk presented at XXIII. Biennial International Conference on Human Ethology (ISHE), in Stirling, Scotland.

  • OBERZAUCHER, E., SCHMID, S. & SCHMEHL, S. (2016). The ontogeny of the sexual dimorphism in error management theory. Talk presented at XXIII. Biennial International Conference on Human Ethology (ISHE), in Stirling, Scotland.

  • SCHMEHL, S., MASUCH K., & OBERZAUCHER, E. (2015). Where to sit? – Environmental Preferences Affect Seat Choice in Public Transport. Talk presented at 5 th Summer Institute of the International Society for Human Ethology, in Athens, Greece.

  • OBERZAUCHER, E., SCHMEHL, S., ENNSBERGER, A., MASUCH, K., MÜLLER, H., WEINLINGER, CH., HARRER, G. (2015). Are Pain Gestures Derived From Auto-Therapy? Talk presented at 5 th Summer Institute of the International Society for Human Ethology, in Athens, Greece.

  • SCHMEHL, S., GRAMMER, K., & OBERZAUCHER, E. (2012). Embodiment – Understanding and Speaking by Doing. Talk presented at XXI. Biennial International Conference on Human Ethology (ISHE), inVienna, Austria.

  • BOBETH, J., SCHMEHL, S., KRUIJFF, E., DEUTSCH, S., & TSCHELIGI, M. (2012). Evaluating performance and acceptance of older adults using freehand gestures for TV menu control. Presented at EuroITV 2012, in Berlin, Germany. 

  • SCHMEHL, S., DEUTSCH, S., SCHRAMMEL, J., PALETTA, L., & TSCHELIGI, M. (2011). Directed Cultural Probes: Detecting Barriers in the Usage of Public Transportation. Talk presented at INTERACT 2011: 13th IFIP TC 13 International Conference 2011, Lisbon, Portugal.

  • SCHMEHL, S., BUCHEGGER, C., OBERZAUCHER, E., & GRAMMER, K. (2009). Sex Differences in Humor Appreciation: An Ethological Approach. Talk presented at the 2 nd Summerinstitute of the International Society for Human Ethology in Orono, Main, USA.

  • SCHMEHL, S., BUCHEGGER, C., OBERZAUCHER, E., & GRAMMER, K. (2009). Sex Differences in Humor Appreciation: An Ethological Approach. Talk presented at the 3 rd Congress of the North Eastern Evolutionary Psychology Society in Oswego, New York, USA.

Conference Presentations - Posters 

  • SCHMEHL, S., BÖHM, P., MASUCH, K. ,… OBERZAUCHER, E. (2019). Which seat to take, which one to offer? Seat choice in mixed dyads. A cross-cultural study. Poster presented at the 7th Summer Institute, 2019, in Zadar, Croatia.

  • MASUCH, K. SCHMEHL, S., OBERZAUCHER, E. (2019). He writes a lot, she gets to the point. Sex differences in bathroom grafitti. Presented at the 7th Summer Institute, 2019, in Zadar, Croatia.

  • BOBETH, J., SCHREITTER, S., SCHMEHL, S., DEUTSCH, S., & TSCHELIGI, M. (2013). User-Centered Design between Cultures: Designing for and with Immigrants. Poster presented at INTERACT conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

  • SCHMEHL, S., BOBETH, J., DEUTSCH, S., & TSCHELIGI, M. (2012). Sex does Matter: Effects of Experimenters Sex on Usability Evaluation. Poster presented at the XXI. Conference of the International Society of Human Ethology (ISHE) 2012, in Vienna, Austria.

  • SeniorEngage AAL-JP project presentation. Presented at AAL Forum 2012 in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

  • KONICAR, G., GRAMMER, K., HOLZLEITNER, I., SCHMEHL, S., MATT, E., & OBERZAUCHER, E. (2008). Patterns of Attraction. What Motion tells us about Sexual Interest. Poster presented at the 2nd MEi:CogSci Student Conference in Bratislava, Slovakia.

  • SZUGFIL, L., ARENDT, F., FENK, L., FILIADIS, CH., FUCHSBAUER, A., KEBER, A.M., KOESSNER, I., MAYER, CH., REISINGER, M., RICHL, E., SCHÜTZE, H.C., SPEISER, N., STOCKINGER, E., GRAMMER, K., OBERZAUCHER, E., SCHMEHL, S., & HOLZLEITNER, I. (2008). Gender Differences in Hand Gestures. Poster presented at the 2nd MEi:CogSci Student Conference in Bratislava, Slovakia.

  • SCHMEHL, S., HOLZLEITNER, I., OBERZAUCHER, E., GRAMMER, K., ALSCHER, W., PFLÜGER, L., STEINKOPF, L., & ALTEHELD, L. (2008). The signal quality of head movements. Poster presented at the XIX. Conference of the International Society of Human Ethology 2008 in Bologna, Italy and the IK (Interdisziplinäres Kolleg) 2008 Focus theme: “Cooperation” in Günne, Germany.

  • HOLZLEITNER, I., SCHMEHL, S., STAHL, S., OBERZAUCHER, E., & GRAMMER, K. (2008). The dynamics of smiles and brow movements. Poster presented at the fourth EHBEA Conference 2009 in St. Andrews, UK, at the XIX. Conference of the International Society of Human Ethology 2008 in Bologna, Italy and at the IK (Interdisziplinäres Kolleg) 2008 Focus theme: “Cooperation” in Günne, Germany.

National Projects (Austria/Germany)

  • Station4All (FEMTech Forschungsprojekt 2020): Ziel des Projektes ist es tiefgehend zu erforschen, in welchem Ausmaß die oft sehr unterschiedlichen Bedürfnisse verschiedenster Personengruppen an den ÖV berücksichtigt oder vernachlässigt werden, um daraus klare Handlungsanweisungen zur Verbesserung der regionalen und der ÖV-Servicequalität zu erarbeiten. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf regionalen ÖV-Stationen, da diese im Vergleich oft nur rudimentär ausgestattet sind. Allerdings stellen diese ÖV-Stationen für die lokale Bevölkerung eine wesentliche Schnittstelle zum ÖV und darüber hinaus zu vielfältigen Aktivitäten und Angeboten dar. Um die verschiedenen Personengruppen vermehrt zur Nutzung des ÖV zu bewegen oder generell eine gleichberechtigte Mobilität zu bieten und gleichzeitig die strukturschwachen Regionen zu stärken, ist es erforderlich, ÖV-Stationen in peripheren ländlichen Regionen ins tägliche Leben zu integrieren.

  • Usability Analyse und Überarbeitung der BONNmobil App – in Zusammenarbeit mit Baumgardt Consult, Berlin.

  • SICHERMOBIL (MdZ – 9. Ausschreibung 2017) – Möglichkeiten zur Attraktivitätssteigerung nachhaltiger Mobilitätsformen durch Verbesserung der Sicherheit.

  • GEBÄUDESOFTSKILLS (FoKo – Qualifizierungsnetzwerke 3. Ausschreibung 2017) - Qualifzierungsnetzwerk Humanwissenschafen und Bautechnik 

  • MULTISENSE FAHRZEUG (FEMTech 2014 – Konzeption eines multisensuellen Fahrzeugs zur geschlechtsspezifischen Optimierung des subjektiv empfundenen Komforts)

  • MUSE (project partner: Wiener Linien) – Multisensuelles Schienenfahrzeug: Since evolutionary history has shaped human perception, cognition and behaviour, humans still respond in a specific way to their surrounding. Based on this assumption, the project intends to optimise the interior design of railed vehicles, both in an economic and a passenger-related way. Applying qualitative and quantitative methods like contextual interviews and behaviour observation studies in the field, the aim is - besides gaining a deeper understanding of the interaction between social and physical environments – to derive guidelines for the furnishing and colour schemes in the vehicles.

  • MARIA (ways2go: 825228) Mobile Assistenz für barrierefreien Öffentlichen Verkehr von SenioRInnen, MigrantInnen und AnalphabetInnen: MARIA aimed to develop a mobile service assisting people with deficiencies in reading and understanding written text in German. MARIA enables elderly people, illiterates and immigrants without language knowledge to use public transport more efficiently and increases their subjective feeling of self-efficacy on their journeys. The main technical innovations of Maria include image based text recognition and translation, location awareness and mobile speech recognition. 

  • CARUSO (ways2go: 828979) Privates Carsharing im Living Lab: Nachhaltige Mobilität durch Empowerment: A special toolkit (consisting of a system for automatic reservation, an electronic logbook with additional services for accounting, as well as an optimized insurance package, an access system and much more) for facilitating private carsharing has been developed and tested within a Living Lab (users from Vorarlberg and Vienna were involved over several months) in order to extract needs and barriers of different user-groups in the context of this mobility solution. While the carsharers made use of the toolkit, various quantitative and qualitative observation and interrogation techniques were applied to find out more about the users’ special needs and behavioral tendencies. Besides developing the technological components, the interdisciplinarity of the team guaranteed the consideration of social and economic aspects within the project. 

  • ELVIS (ways2go: 825220) BenutzerInnenerlebnisse bei der Verwendung von Verkehrs(informations)systemen: Elvis dealt with the exploration of User Experience factors and psychosocial barriers during the usage of traffic and transport systems as well as in the area of traffic and transport information systems. Further the project aimed to define an indicator to categoriese user groups of traffic and transport (information) systems called “perception of traffic and transport (information) systems”. Additionally, a set of guidelines indicating how information systems are able to diminish or overcome physical mobility barriers was formulated. Field trials were carried out with user groups equipped with self-recording tools that allowed them to record positive and negative facts occurring to them during the time of the trial. The result was a collection of positive and negative experience factors and psychosocial barriers. Relevant context factors (moment of decision) and personalization factors of traffic and transport information were also identified within the field trials. 

  • AIR (COMET: 825345) – Advanced Interface Research: The goal of the project was to explore new ways of interaction with interactive systems in real-world scenarios, looking into the very specifics of the interaction contexts in these scenarios. Current and emerging interaction techniques were investigated in order to enhance the usability, user experience, accessibility, and the overall quality of products and delivered services. User-driven innovation approaches were developed and defined to reach these goals. Within the project three main contexts in which end-users interact with technology were investigated in detail: (i) context home and extended home, (ii) context mobility, and (iii) context advanced service interactions. In order to reach these goals, tools for intelligent context measurement and a modular management platform for Living Lab research were investigated and developed. 

  • WIKIVIENNA (funded by WWTF; project partners: FTW, VRVis): The basic idea of the project was to reconstruct the inner city of Vienna in a collaborative effort. Instead of the (during the project, 2007-2009) very expensive and inflexible reconstruction methods, mobile phone or digital camera users shall contribute with their own photos, by uploading them to a central server. http://www.vrvis.at/projects/WikiVienna

International Projects

  • MASELTOV (FP7-ICT: FP7-288587) - Mobile Assistance for Social Inclusion and Empowerment of Immigrants with Persuasive Learning Technologies and Social Network Services: MASELTOV recognizes the major risks for social exclusion of immigrants from the European information society and identifies the huge potential of mobile services for promoting integration and cultural diversity in Europe. Mobile persuasive assistance is crucial for more efficient and sustainable support of immigrants. The key objective of MASELTOV is to facilitate and foster local community building, raising consciousness and knowledge for the bridging of cultural differences. These goals are realized by the development of innovative social computing services that motivate and support informal learning for the appropriation of highly relevant daily skills. A mobile assistant embeds these novel services addressing activities towards the social inclusion of immigrants in a persuasive and intuitive way (including beneficial information and learning services – such as ubiquitous language translation and learning, navigation, administrative and emergency health services).

  • MUSES (FP7-ICT: FP7- 318508): Multiplatform Usable Endpoint Security: The overall purpose of MUSES is to foster corporate security by reducing the risks introduced by user behavior. Data security and privacy are of fundamental importance to organizations, where they are defined and managed via Security Policies. Most security incidents are caused by organization insiders, either by their lack of knowledge or inadequate or malicious behavior. Nowadays, information is highly distributed amongst corporate servers, the cloud and multiple personal devices like PDAs, tablets and smart phones. MUSES will provide a device independent, user-centric and self-adaptive corporate security system, able to cope with the concept of seamless working experience on different devices. During project development, metrics of usability, context risk evaluation, user current trust situation and device exposure level have been defined, and several guidelines for design of secure applications, company policies and context-based security requirements were produced. A real-time trust and risk analysis engine will be developed with security mechanisms hard to compromise once installed on the target platforms.

  • HERMES (FP7-ICT: FP7-216709) – Cognitive Care and Guidance for Active Aging: HERMES aimed to develop assistive technology for older people to reduce age-related decline of cognitive capabilities and assist the user where necessary in retrospective and prospective memory. Based on intelligent audio and visual processing and reasoning, the project resulted in a combination of a home-based and mobile device to support the user’s cognitive state and prevent cognitive decline. HERMES aimed specifically at supporting the decline in capabilities by using other functional cognitive skills and training them, thereby reducing the need for active care and support and substantially increasing the ability to cope with everyday life and to live independently. 

  • AALuis (AAL JP: AAL-2010-3-070) - Ambient Assisted Living user interfaces: Many services older adults could benefit from lack accessibility, adoptability and usability of the user interface. The aim of the AALuis project was to facilitate the connection of different services to different types of user interfaces and thus to enable the future users of AAL Systems to use more services interacting in their preferred way. The project developed an open middleware layer that can be used for different platforms in order to connect different user interfaces to existing AAL Systems. This was also demonstrated by the development of new services and their connection to new innovative user interfaces. 

  • FoSIBLE (AAL JP: AAL-2009-2-135) - Fostering Social Interactions for a Better Life of the Elderly: The aim of FoSIBLE was to create and assess usable and affordable products and services for older adults with a focus on social networks. The solution envisioned centers around a TV based Social Media Center. An entertainment console and media center technologies were used to provide different communication, broadcasting and entertainment services to improve the social side of health. To enrich communication and emotional support a research focus has been on sensor-based haptic input and output devices based on game technologies and intelligent furniture. 

© 2021 by Elisabeth Oberzaucher

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