Every year, the best graduates of the past academic year are honored at HKA's Academic Year Celebration. This year, our colleague Daniel Hepperle is among them, having been awarded a doctoral scholarship by the Heinrich Hertz Foundation. Daniel is doing his doctorate at the University of Hohenheim in the field of media use under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jens Vogelgesang and at the Institute for Intelligent Interaction and Immersive Experience under Prof. Dr. Matthias Wölfel.
In his thesis "Potential of Virtual Reality in the Context of Social Science Studies", Daniel deals with highly topical, forward-looking concepts that have great potential to improve the way studies are conducted in the future.
As part of his dissertation, he is laying a foundation for future scientific work by investigating the extent to which studies that traditionally take place in the real world are suitable for being conducted in an immersive virtual environment.
Through his research, Daniel is actively involved in tackling challenges such as the replication crisis. Adhering to the highest scientific standards, he develops novel solutions for the use of future-oriented technologies. His approach has the potential to reduce trial costs and increase and diversify the study population to increase knowledge gain. This innovative approach makes it possible to explore complex (social) phenomena and gain new, robust insights that would be difficult to achieve with conventional research methods.
Daniel Hepperle's research has the potential to change, expand and democratize the way scientific research is conducted. His scientific foresight combined with a broad range of different technical, design and social science skills open up novel perspectives for all further challenges in the fast-paced world of science.
As his supervisor, I wish Daniel every success and all the best for his doctorate.
Matthias Wölfel
Interview with Daniel Hepperle
Many thanks to Jan Holthaus from the HKA video editorial team for the video!
You can also find all of Daniel Hepperle's work on Google Scholar.