Are you a student looking for thesis topic? See list of thesis topics I am happy to mentor!

Collocated interaction

I study how people use computers when they are in a shared physical venue. This includes situations where a computer-mediated environment is used to support a planned event or tools which are used to support face-to-face interaction, like large public displays. The former has been the topic of my Ph.D. work, where an idea of hybrid interaction is presented to address the complexity of maintaining both a physical and digital performance.

Next steps

During 2018-2020, I hope to

  • empirically validate potential formats (use patterns) for hybrid interaction
  • develop measurements to predict success and engagement in hybrid interaction
  • reflect what implications hybrid interaction has for design of interactive systems

Example publications

Nelimarkka M., Salovaara A., Semaan B., Jacucci G. (2017): Theory-Driven Collocated CMC. Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '17
Nelimarkka M., Kuikkaniemi K., Salovaara A., Jacucci G. (2016): Live Participation. Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems - DIS '16
Vepsäläinen J., Savolainen P., Ojala J., Rienzo A., Nelimarkka M., Kuikkaniemi K., Tarkoma S., Jacucci G. (2016): Web-Based Public-Screen Gaming: Insights from Deployments. IEEE Pervasive Computing
Nelimarkka M., Lehtinen V., Ukkonen A., Kuikkaniemi K., Jacucci G. (2015): Threading and conversation in co-located chats. Computers in Human Behavior
Nelimarkka M., Kuikkaniemi K., Jacucci G. (2014): A Field Trial of an Anonymous Backchannel Among Primary School Pupils. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Supporting Group Work
Kuikkaniemi K., Lehtinen V., Nelimarkka M., Vilkki M., Ojala J., Jacucci G. (2013): Designing for presenters at public walk-up-and-use displays. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction

Computational social sciences & data science

One of the 2010s scientific booms is around computational methods for social science research. My work in computational social sciences has focused on media, communications, and, politics, in particular, within Finland. My approach takes advantage of my background not only in computer science but as well, in social sciences, and aim to integrate with the existing theories in those fields.

Next steps

During 2018, I will aim to

  • discuss the validity and reliability of these methods
  • develop novel methods to study the hybrid media systems
  • reflect how to mainstream these methods

Example publications

Nelimarkka M., Sund R. (2017): Viestinnän mittaaminen big datan avulla. Procomma

Learning technologies

My focus in learning technologies has been their ability to support social knowledge construction and avoid traditional knowledge distribution - the mainstream of most massive open online courses (MOOCs).

Example publications

Nelimarkka M., Hellas A. (2018): Social Help-seeking Strategies in a Programming MOOC. Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education - SIGCSE '18
Nelimarkka M., Salovaara A., Semaan B., Jacucci G. (2017): Theory-Driven Collocated CMC. Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '17
Nelimarkka M., Vihavainen A. (2015): Alumni & Tenured Participants in MOOCs. Proceedings of the Second (2015) ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale - L@S '15
Nelimarkka M., Kuikkaniemi K., Jacucci G. (2014): A Field Trial of an Anonymous Backchannel Among Primary School Pupils. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Supporting Group Work
Nelimarkka M., Suomela R. (2007): Wireless Education Platform - an Open Source Way to Create Mobile Education. Computers and Advanced Technology in Education