cii Doctoral Seminar 2023 – Bad Herrenalb

(03.07.2023) Like every year, the cii research group held a doctoral seminar in 2023. The three-day retreat was held at the Haus der Kirche Evangelische Akademie Baden, Bad Herrenalb, from June 28th through June 30th.

This year’s lectures and workshops took place under the seminar theme “The PhD Journey”. The research group around Prof. Dr. Ali Sunyaev organized several sessions and workshops on planning and finishing the PhD, research paradigms, research methods, and reviews and revisions.

At noon on Wednesday, June 28th, Prof. Sunyaev started the seminar with a brief welcome speech and encouraged the research group to share and discuss experiences and ideas during the workshops. This was followed by the first session on “Planning in your PhD” by Dr. Scott Thiebes, who introduced the PhD students to typical issues and how to steer clear of pitfalls during the PhD. In between the topic sessions, a speaker from the Conflict Management and Psychosocial Counseling (KMB) department commented on which challenges might arise during the PhD and how self-awareness can help to overcome these.

Afterward, in his session, Dr. Manuel Schmidt-Kraepelin presented the various types of research paradigms that exist in information systems research and how they influence the way of thinking about research. After a day of fruitful discussions and engaging sessions, the research group concluded the evening with a dinner at a local restaurant.

On the second day, Dr. Sebsatian Lins opened with a session on “Behavioral Research Methods”, in which he presented an overview of different research methods used in information systems research.

In the second main session on this day, “Sciences of the Artificial,” Dr. Tobias Dehling and Dr. Benjamin Sturm commented on the foundations of design science research (DSR). During the workshop of this session, students had the opportunity to apply many of the lecture contents to one of their research projects.

The last day encompassed another two sessions. First, Dr. Sebastion Lins, Dr. Scott Thiebes, and Dr. Manuel Schmidt-Kraepelin formed a small panel in which they openly shared their experiences with reviews and revisions. Afterward, Prof. Sunyaev presented the steps toward finishing the PhD and thereby concluded the well-structured seminar on “The PhD Journey”. Finally, everybody parted ways for a well-deserved weekend.