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There was again a great interest in our sixth Seed Grant call. We received 21 project applications, five of which we are able to fund. Whether closing knowledge gaps around solar energy, learning more about bird populations with an unusual AI-based monitoring system, exploring the use of AI tools together with students or making health research more accessible and patient-centered – these are five diverse and exciting projects. We present them briefly here.
The project aims to enhance the understanding and adoption of solar energy - a cornerstone of the Switzerland’s energy transition. Preliminary research, conducted through surveys and focus groups by HSLU Art & Design students in 2023, reveals that successful adopters often have technical backgrounds or strong personal networks for support. In order to reach other people and close knowledge gaps, the project plans to encourage community-driven sharing of photovoltaic experiences, fostering a "Swiss solar narrative." This initiative will collect detailed accounts of system installations, operations, and performance, promoting peer-to-peer learning and informal cross-validation among users. By partnering with Walenstadt Municipality, home to over 200 installations, the project leverages an engaged community familiar with solar research to pilot this innovative approach.
The project researches AI-based writing practices in high schools. Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are playing an increasingly important role here, as so-called large language models can produce grammatically correct, semantically coherent and pragmatically meaningful texts in interaction with users and with a memory for past communication. Schools and universities are therefore faced with the task of thinking differently about writing and writing didactics. AI literacy should play a central role in this. However, it is unclear how students actually use such AI tools, what potential they attribute to them and what skills they themselves consider important. Together with students, writing consultants and teachers, these questions are being investigated in the project in order to identify AI writing skills in practice.
One in four children and adolescents is affected by chronic pain. However, new research findings are mostly not accessible to them and their parents. This is because the dissemination of research results often takes several years and predominantly takes place through scientific conferences and publications in specialized journals. Another complicating aspect is the language and vocabulary used by researchers and healthcare professionals. The goal of the project is to listen to and learn from adolescents with chronic pain to understand their needs and questions regarding the issues surrounding dissemination of research findings, communication and vocabulary to improve their quality of life. The project aims to generate clearly defined research topic(s) and questions.
We still have remarkably little insight into the factors that contribute to the globally reported declines in bird populations. To change this, the project has developed artificial intelligence-based algorithms that can individually identify birds from pictures and videos and extract features of the birds - such as their size. These AI algorithms are then integrated into a smart bird feeder. The aim is to establish the use of this smart bird feeder as a platform for large-scale Citizen Science driven monitoring of wild bird populations. Given that millions of people in Europe use bird feeders, the project has the potential to collect the largest ever individual-level dataset on wild animals. This dataset will allow to address fundamental questions in ecology and evolution, and to track in real time the impacts of climate change and other threats (e.g. infectious diseases).
Non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia (nvHAP) is a common and serious healthcare associated infection. Effective prevention measures exist but are not systematically implemented. This project aims to investigate the needs of patients and families to self-engage in nvHAP prevention and to collaboratively create prototypes for solutions that address these needs – e.g. videos, posters, leaflets, small products. The aim is to increase self-efficacy of patients and lower the burden of healthcare-workers.
Ursina Roffler
