B.SC. COMPUTER SCIENCE

Programme Focus

The Computer Science programme at TU Dortmund has a strong theoretical foundation — algorithms, formal methods, complexity theory — alongside applied tracks. I concentrated in Human-Computer Interaction and interactive systems, with a secondary focus on algorithmic geometry.

The HCI courses were taught by researchers active in the field, which meant the reading lists were current and the project briefs were connected to ongoing research questions rather than textbook exercises.

Thesis

Structural Constraints as Design Grammar: UI Pattern Analysis in Resource-Limited Interfaces

The thesis examined interface design in contexts where rendering capability, input resolution, and display size are significantly constrained — embedded systems, e-ink displays, early-era computing. The argument: that constraint functions as a design grammar, forcing compositional decisions that produce more legible visual structures than unconstrained design typically yields.

The analysis drew on a corpus of 180 interfaces spanning 1978–2010, catalogued by display technology, input modality, and visual structure. Pattern analysis identified 14 recurring compositional strategies that appear across unrelated platforms and time periods — suggesting they arise from the constraints rather than from cultural influence.

Grade: 1.0 (highest possible).

Relevant Coursework

• Human-Computer Interaction I & II
• Interactive Systems and Prototyping
• Computational Geometry
• Information Visualisation
• Software Engineering with Formal Methods
• Computer Graphics (OpenGL pipeline)