Research stay at the University of Stuttgart

Over the past few weeks, Santiago de Leon-Martinez, our MSCA Eyes4ICU PhD student, has had a productive research stay in Germany. He began by working with Andreas Bulling’s research group at the University of Stuttgart. This opportunity, part of the prestigious MSCA Doctoral Networks programme, provided Santiago with a platform to discuss research ideas and forge collaborations with other researchers, significantly enhancing his project on carousel (Netflix-like) recommendation systems.

During his stay, Santiago integrated new insights and ideas into his research, focusing on improving the understanding of user interactions with carousel interfaces, a prevalent but under-researched aspect of recommender systems. His work aims to address critical gaps in the field by conducting the first eye-tracking user study within a carousel movie recommendation environment, creating a unique dataset of user gaze and clicks.

To add to the academic rigor, Santiago participated in a week-long research retreat near the Austrian-German border, where he presented his research progress and received valuable feedback. He concluded his trip with a final research presentation to another Eyes4ICU research group led by Anke Huckauf at the University of Ulm.

“It was an amazing experience and privilege to be part of Professor Bulling’s and Professor Huckauf’s group. I’ve left Germany with new ideas, friends and collaborators”. We are very proud of Santiago and grateful for the support of the MSCA doctoral networks. 

MSCA Doctoral Networks are the most prestigious European grants that offer full funding for PhD students across institutions and disciplines, all researching a certain topic. They additionally provide funding for each student to have a research and industry stay with other partners/institutions in the network.