PhD candidates connected to the PhD programme Digitalisation and Society
Our PhD programme Digitalisation and Society is constantly growing. This is a short presentation of the PhD Research Fellows currently connected to the programme. This site is updated on regularly basis.
Anam Ilyas
- Title of PhD project: The Impact of Digitalization on Norwegian Municipalities, Leaders, and Front-line Professionals in the welfare services for Children and Adolescents
Human side of Digitalization. A study of organizational structure, leader and employee competencies, and work-life balance.
Trude Tonholm
- Title of PhD project: Gamers, Nerds and Gaming Girls
I write about gaming as a phenomenon, the emergence of e-sports, and focus on the social side, socializing, identity-creating and gender perspectives related to electronic games. Some of the topics that are often discussed in gaming research are social development, socialization and aggression, and I therefore want to look into this in more detail.
Trude Skogsberg
- Title of PhD project: The Kindergarten in the Chthulucene: Co-Creative Processes and Relational Thinking in Practice with Green Screen Technology in an Early Childhood Department (Ages 1–3)
- The youngest children (0-3)
- Participation and co-creation
- Learning processes
- Digitalisationprocesses in ECEC
- Pedagogical leadership
- Research and research methodology
Marte Herrebrøden
- Title of PhD Project: Assistive Technology and Autistic Students with Auditory Sensory Differences
- Autism, Auditory Sensory Disabilities and the Use of Technology
- Neurodevelopmental Conditions
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health
- Inclusive Education
Per Storrø Petersen
- Title of PhD project: Ethical Artificial Intelligence Literacy
Ethics of artificial intelligence, implications of AI on culture
Helen Graarud
- Title of PhD project: Digital everyday life for children in care – lived experiences and formation of meaning
My research project explores how digitalisation affects the lives and well-being of children in care. The project has a phenomenological approach where the child's everyday life experiences and lived digital practices are in focus. The project seeks knowledge about what happens in the encounter between the child and digital technology, about what meaning-making processes occur and what significance this has for the child.
Abdul Ghafoor Nizamani
- Title of PhD project: Green Sponge buildings
Academic interests include sustainable architecture, climate change adaptation and mitigation, green infrastructure, urban stormwater management, and innovative building technologies for resilient and environmentally responsible urban development.
Karla Vrbova
- Title of PhD project: Co-writing processes in technology rich environments.
My PhD project examines co-writing processes in English classes in junior high school in technologically rich environments. I intend to collaborate with teachers in 9. grade to observe students while they are writing, students’ use of technology in writing processes and their interaction.
Felix Reimers
- Title of PhD project: Towards Open-ended, Adaptive and Self-emergent Artificial Intelligence
I am a doctoral student under the supervision of Stefano Nichele and Solve Sæbø. My research areas are Artificial Life, Artificial Intelligence and Complex Systems. This includes among others the design of algorithms, the study of emergent behavior and the examination of systems as a substrate for computation.
Kristine Grinderud
- Title of PhD project: A Digital Guidance Tool for Modular Evidence-Based Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Mixed-Methods and Multiple Baseline Feasibility Study [Digi-Guidance]
MEYA (Modular Evidence-Based Treatment for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder) is a digital treatment program used to address anxiety and social challenges in children and youth diagnosed with autism. MEYA was developed in the USA and is currently only used there, but the purpose of the project is to adapt and test it in a Norwegian context.
Cathrine Redi-Tränk
- Title of PhD project: Adults with auditory processing disorders – A study of use of hearing aids for adults and the pilot of a screening test to identify auditory processing difficulties in adults.
- Augmentative and alternative communication
- Auditory processing disorder in adults
- Neurodevelopmental condition, developmental language disorder
- Speech and language pathology
Ragnhild L. Torstensen
- Title of PhD project: Exposure of Children and Youth to Digital Pornography: Teachers’ and students’ experiences and perceptions of teaching practice.
I am a research fellow at Østfold University College, connected to the PhD programme Digitalisation and Society. Through this project I will investigate the topic of children and youth's exposure to digital pornography, as well as teachers' teaching strategies in dealing with this topic. The aim of this project is to identify the challenges and opportunities to strengthen critical thinking in school teaching about digital pornography.
Urszula Srebrowska
- Title of PhD project: «Appen er sjefen min» - Tolkeprofesjonen og konsekvenser av digitalisering i norsk offentlig sektor
Interpreting, translation, the professionalisation of interpreting, digitalisation and society, welfare state, the public sector equality duty.
Joan Pla Vivoles
- Title of PhD project: The Case for a Public Service Social Media Network. Value, feasibility and viability
- Journalism and the Digital Public Sphere
- Political Economy of Communication
- Public Service Media in Europe
- Philosophy of Technology
- Decentralised Social Networks
- FLOSS
Ellen Englund
- Title of PhD Project: AI Chatbots and Racialization in Teacher Education
In my PhD project I research the role of generative AI chatbots in Nordic teacher education from the perspectives and experiences of student teachers who have immigrated to Norway and Sweden and learned the language of instruction as adults or teenagers.
Natalia Murashova
- Title of PhD project: Ethical AI in practice: addressing challenges of ethical AI in organizations through co-creation and learning
- AI ethics
- Responsible innovation
- Organisational Development
- Stakeholder engagement
- Co-creation
Michelle Husebye
- Title of PhD project: Creating teaching methods for AI literacy education in primary and secondary schools
My academic interests include the design process, co-design/participatory design, and AI literacy in education. I also enjoy learning more about graphic design, programming, and game development.
Gea Restad
- Title of PhD Project: “Building a sustainable healthcare service through optimal task shifting across health service levels, professional groups and the use of digital technology.”
My background in municipal healthcare has given me experiences that sparked an interest in contributing to the development of services and in teaching, particularly through supervising students during their placements.
Additionally, digital tools, the ethics surrounding their use, and the need for research on the effects of their implementation have become increasingly important to me in recent years. This interest has led me to the PhD programme at Østfold University College.
Elizabeth Noble
- Title of PhD project: Cybersecurity and critical infrastructure: human interaction with digital spaces within the context of cybersecurity training
- Cybersecurity training in critical infrastructures
- Human interactions with technology
- Political and social impacts on cybersecurity
Milan Krivanek
- Title of PhD project: Interactive 3D Reconstruction and Uncertainty Visualization of Archaeological Artifacts
I focus on developing an interactive 3D framework that brings archaeological artifacts back to life— not as a single definitive model, but as dynamic visualizations of multiple possibilities. The goal is to make the process of reconstruction transparent, showing not only what we know but also what we don't know. By visualizing this "uncertainty," we can better understand the different interpretations and assumptions that archaeologists make.
Jamal Abdullah
- Title of PhD project: Designing Energy Flexibility Solutions for Positive Energy Districts: A Norwegian Perspective
Energy Systems Engineering, Energy Optimization in Building, Energy Flexibility and Energy Management.
Tina C. Knudsen
- Title of PhD project: Beyond the Hospital Walls: Digital competencies in Hospital-at-Home services
- Digitization and innovation, Hospital at home, prehospital services and emergency medicine.
Christopher Vibe
- Title of PhD project: Internal Models in AI: Interpreting Complex Neuro-Inspired Systems through Methods and Insights from Computer Science and Neuroscience
- Neuro-inspired AI
- Explainable AI
- Reservoir Computing
Arina Surko
- Title of PhD project: Transfer Retrieval: A new paradigm for personalised medicine through AI-driven genomic database search.
- Artificial Intelligence
- Bioinformatics
- Medicine
Maka Alsandia
- Title of PhD project: Legal and Ethical Dimensions of AI in Political Communication: A Study of the Upcoming 2025 Elections in Norway
- AI§ Law, human rights, democratisation, rule of law
Stine M. Brynildsen
My Phd project is on writing in the age of chatbots, where I follow Norwegian students and teachers in upper secondary school over three years. The advent of chatbots in schools has made it necessary to explore what students and teachers use (or do not use) this technology for, and how they experience it in their practices.
Maciej Biedacha
- Title of PhD project: MYCOBUILD Multicriteria sustainability assessment of insulation materials integrating bio-based phase change materials (bioPCMs) into lignocellulosic fibres bound by fungal mycelia.
My academic interests are deeply rooted in life cycle assessment (LCA) and sustainability. I am particularly passionate about bio-based construction materials and their potential to positively impact climate change mitigation. I take great pride in equipping industry professionals and other stakeholders with the knowledge and tools necessary to make well-informed, science-based, and sustainable decisions.
Anita Pandian
- Title of PhD project: Cybersecure Green Business Model for Future Wireless Network
Maren Svendsen Folkvord
- Title of PhD project: Utsatthet i en digital tid: Et innblikk i barn og unges digitale hverdagserfaringer på omsorgsinstitusjoner
The aim of Folkvord's doctoral project is to explore children's digital everyday lives; How and why do children use digital media and how do they understand their own digital everyday life? In this study, Folkvord will conduct ethnographic fieldwork in the children's own everyday lives – at school, at home and in their spare time. Even though children's and young people's digital everyday lives are an increasingly relevant research area, the available knowledge is still inadequate, and children's own experiences, meaning making and situated practices have been far less studied.
Martin Arthur Andersen
- Title of PhD project: Digital Twins as a Vehicle for Collaboration
- Cyber-Physical Systems
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Modeling physical processes
- Machine learning
- Digital twins for industrial optimization and collaboration
Anda Leseanu
Title of PhD project: Multiway and Multitask Learning for Complex Decision Making in Intensive Care Units
Øyvind Stokseth
Karuna Shrestha
Title of PhD project: Digital intervention to reduce mental health problems in intensive care unit survivors - development, pilot testing, and evaluation of effect.
Veslemøy Fossum Johansson
- Title of PhD project: Digital exclusion among children and young people
In my PhD project, I explore digital exclusion among children and young people, with particular attention to how they themselves describe the barriers they experience in school, family, and leisure contexts. I am especially interested in how research and practice can be combined to create more inclusive solutions, and how children’s own perspectives can be used to strengthen participation and recognition.
Maria Rønning Ramsdal
- Title of PhD project: Digitalization and service development in the child welfare services: work, coordination and user participation
The aim of the project is to gain insight into how digital solutions are understood, developed, and implemented across different levels of the child welfare sector, and how national digitalization initiatives and policy objectives are translated into practice. The project examines how digital technologies, work practices, and organizational arrangements are mutually shaped through their interaction, and how this influences service development.
Kseniia Makhortova
- Title of PhD project: AI-generated feedback as a cultural tool in learning and teaching
I am an interdisciplinary researcher with a strong interest in the intersections of artificial intelligence, culture, and lifelong learning. With a background in Philosophical Anthropology and technical skills in R, Python, and machine learning, my research focuses on human-centered approaches to digital technologies. As part of the AI-EXCAfL project, my study is focused on how AI can support learning, creativity, and critical reflection, developing tools that enhance education while fostering ethical and culturally aware use of technology.
Bente Marie Jacobsen
- Title of PhD project: Navigating Bioliteracy: Transforming Health Education in the Digital Age
Ibrahim Abbas Elamen Ahmed
- Title of PhD project: Enhancing Power System Resilience through Grid-Forming Inverters and Battery Storage Systems in Intelligent Microgrids
I am interested in studying how grid-forming inverters can be used to improve the stability, reliability and resilience of microgrids.
Quang Minh Than
- Title of PhD project: Digital Control of Smart Building Materials for Energy Efficiency and Human Comfort in Buildings
Ina Helgesen
- Title of PhD project: Digital Exposure Support in Selective Mutism: Effects and Experiences of a Web Application Intervention
Jeg forsker på digitale eksponeringsverktøy for personer med selektiv mutisme, med særlig fokus på hvordan med/uten veiledning og med/uten samtidig autisme kan påvirke utbyttet av digitale tiltak. Som del av prosjektet videreutvikles den tidligere appen Quiet V (Voices) til Quiet E (Exposure), og blir en ny webbasert løsning som skal undersøkes som støtte i eksponeringsbasert intervensjon i skole og hverdagsliv.