Employee spotlight – Katrine Nymann

Communication Student Assistant, Katrine Nymann has recently handed in her bachelor project in Cognitive Science made in collaboration with ScienceAtHome. The spotlight blog this month shares her experience as a student helper and writing a bachelor project with us.

How did you start to work here and when?
The Director of Learning, Janet Rafner, held a talk during my introduction week for Cognitive Science at the university about the ScienceAtHome activities. Their interdisciplinarity and innovative ideas caught my interest, so when they, a couple of months later, were looking for a communication assistant, I applied for the job. I was lucky enough to become part of the team and started in February 2019. I am currently taking my electives in physics and I will finish my bachelor’s degree this summer where I expect to start the master’s program in Cognitive Science.

What is your role at ScienceAtHome?
I work on communicating our work to our players, supporters, and collaborators. I write content and update our website, blog, and social media. I also manage support emails, make gameplay videos, and translations.

What are you passionate about in relation to your work?
I like being a part of such an interdisciplinary research group and working in communication means that you get a feel for all the different research fields and aspects.

Why did you decide to do your bachelor project with us?
I was looking for a project that could strengthen the methods that we learn in the Cognitive Science program including modeling and data analysis. I also wanted to avoid creating and carrying out my own experiment from scratch as it was in the middle of the pandemic, thus physical experiments were problematic. The collaboration with ScienceAtHome made it possible to do online data collection which was very time efficient.

What was your bachelor project about?
My bachelor project investigated how humans solve problems using the game Crystal Crop Fever where players search for the highest peak in a problem landscape. I simulated the search with agent-based modeling (ABM). ABMs are used to examine the behavior of individuals and their interactions with others in an environment. I simulated groups of agents playing Crystal Crop Fever by replicating the patterns I found in the experimental data.

Do you have a memory of a great experience related to your project?
There were a lot of small victories when working on my project, e.g. when my code finally worked, or when I saw tendencies in my data that were interesting for my hypotheses.

What was your favorite thing about your bachelor project with us?
I think I had a great project combination. I worked with methods I enjoy and a topic I find interesting, but I was also challenged and introduced to new things and ways of working. I was lucky to receive help and guidance from the head of data science, Mads Kock. Together with the small victories, it kept me on track and motivated to keep working.

Are you interested in collaborating with us on an upcoming project or are you looking for an internship? Check out the many possibilities on the Center for Hybrid Intelligence internship and student projects page. We are always interested in discussing possible collaborations.