Aalto students awarded for their master’s theses in the field of human-computer interaction
SIGCHI Finland rewarded Aalto University students Zhifa Chen and Minja Axelsson for their master’s theses in the field of Human Computer Interaction.
The winner of SIGCHI Finland thesis competition 2019 is Zhifa Chen from the School of Arts, Design and Architecture with her thesis Co-designing a Chatbot for and with Refugees and Migrants.
‘The topic is current and important, and has a clear societal impact. Conversational user interfaces are increasingly becoming an important part of digital services and can be utilised in aiding in different kinds of situations.’
This year the jury rewarded two master’s theses as Minja Axelsson from the School of Science received an honorary award for her thesis Designing an InMoov Robot to Teach Assistive Sign Language to Children with Autism. The thesis presents a framework for designing social robots and an InMoov Robot to teach assistive sign language to children with autism.
Congratulations!
Read more news
The Business Leader of the Year 2026 is Annikka Hurme, CEO of Valio
In addition, Annika Blomqvist was awarded for promoting entrepreneurship and Sanni Mustonen for her excellent master’s thesis.
Student exchange in Europe? Unite! can take you there
Aalto is a member of Unite!, a European university alliance that gives students the opportunity to internationalise their degrees both online and in-person. Join the webinar to find out more.
EAA Best Paper and Presentation Award for Young Researchers for postdoctoral researcher Thomas Deppisch
The awarded work shows how speech can be made clearer in noisy environments while still preserving directional cues