Chiara Ullstein

Chiara Ullstein is a Research Associate and PhD Student at the Chair of Cyber Trust.

With a background in Politics and Technology, Chiara's research explores public participation in the development and regulation of AI applications. Chiara applies both qualitative and quantitative research methods. In her teaching, she focuses on the EU AI Act and participatory AI. Chiara is a Friedrich Schiedel Fellow at the TUM Think Tank exploring how participatory AI can benefit operationalizing the EU AI Act requirements.

In August and September 2024, Chiara was a visiting researcher at Prof. Hiromi Yokoyama's lab at The University of Tokyo for a continuation of a collaboration on cross-national attitudes towards reasonable AI inferences. In August and September 2022, Chiara was visiting Prof. Hirotaka Osawa's Hai Lab at KEIO University, Tokyo, for a Design Futuring project on the Metaverse. Between February and July 2020, Chiara was a visiting researcher at the Kyoto Design Lab at the Kyoto Insititute of Technology, Japan, doing research on design methods for promoting deliberative citizen dialogues under the supervision of Prof. Daijiro Mizuno. More information on the project Speculative Design Research for Democracy Enhancement can be found here.

Between July and August 2019, Chiara was a visiting researcher at the Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She obtained a scholarship by the Jean Monnet Network on EU-Canada Relations.

Research interests:

Citizen Participation, Participatory AI Ethics, AI Regulation, Ethics of Machine Learning, Design Futuring

E-mail: chiara.ullstein@tum.de

(Please note that I am currently not accepting requests for final thesis supervision.)

Publications

Journal & Magazine Articles

Hohendanner, M., Ullstein, C., Socher, G., & Grossklags, J. (2024) “Good and Scary at the Same Time” – Exploring Citizens’ Perceptions of a Prospective Metaverse. IEEE Pervasive Computing, Special Issue: The Pervasive Multiverse, 23(1), 27-36. Publisher Version (Open Access)
Hohendanner, M., Ullstein, C., Miyamoto, D., Fukuwatari Huffman, E., Socher, G., Grossklags, J., & Osawa, H. (2024) Metaverse Perspectives from Japan: A Participatory Speculative Design Case Study. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 8(CSCW2), Article No. 400. Author Version

Conference Proceedings

Ullstein, C., Engelmann, S., Papakyriakopoulos, O., Ikkatai, Y., Arnez Jordan, N., Caleno, R., Mboya, B., Higuma, S., Hartwig, T., Yokoyama, H., & Grossklags, J. (2024) Attitudes Toward Facial Analysis AI: A Cross-National Study Comparing Argentina, Kenya, Japan, and the USA. Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (ACM FAccT), pp. 2273-2301. Acceptance rate = 24.1% (725 submissions, 175 accepted full papers) Publisher Version (Open Access) Author Version
Hohendanner, M., Ullstein, C., Buchmeier, Y., & Grossklags, J. (2023) Exploring the Reflective Space of AI Narratives Through Speculative Design in Japan and Germany. Proceedings of the Third ACM International Conference on Information Technology for Social Good (GoodIT), pp. 351-362. Publisher Version (Open Access)
Ullstein, C., Engelmann, S., Papakyriakopoulos, O., Hohendanner, M., & Grossklags, J. (2022) AI-competent Individuals and Laypeople Tend to Oppose Facial Analysis AI. Proceedings of the Second ACM Conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization (EAAMO), Article No. 9. Author Version Publisher Version (Open Access)
Engelmann, S., Ullstein, C., Papakyriakopoulos, O., & Grossklags, J. (2022) What People Think AI Should Infer from Faces. Proceedings of the 5th ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (ACM FAccT), pp. 128–141. Author Version Appendix Publisher Version (Open Access)
Hohendanner, M., Ullstein, C. & Mizuno, D. (2021). Designing the Exploration of Common Good within Digital Environments: A Deliberative Speculative Design Framework and the Analysis of Resulting Narratives. Proceedings of the Swiss Design Network Conference on Design as Common Good: Framing Design Through Pluralism and Social Values. ISBN: 978-88-7595-108-5. Publisher Version (Open Access) Complete Proceedings

Book Chapters

Hohendanner, M. & Ullstein, C. (2024). Speculative Design for Policy? – Zur politischen Anschlussfähigkeit von Speculative Design & Design Fiction Ansätzen. In: Ebert, I., Rahn, S. & Rodatz, C.(Edt.). Wie gestalten wir Gesellschaft? – Interdependenzen zwischen Design und dem Feld des Sozialen. Transcript Publishing, Bielefeld. Publisher Version (Open Access)

Workshop and Poster Papers

Ullstein, C., Pfeiffer, J., Hohendanner, M., & Grossklags, J. (2024) Mapping the Stakeholder Debate on Facial Recognition Technologies: Review and Stakeholder Workshop. Companion Publication of the 2024 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW), forthcoming.
Ullstein, C., Hohendanner, M., & Grossklags, J. (2024) Mapping Policymakers' and Laypeople's Perceptions of genAI and FPT in the Context of the EU AI Act. Proceedings of the 3rd European Workshop on Algorithmic Fairness (EWAF), forthcoming.
Ullstein, C., Engelmann, S., Papakyriakopoulos, O., & Grossklags, J. (2023) A Reflection on How Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Ethics of Facial Analysis AI Can Inform EU Policymaking. Proceedings of the 2nd European Workshop on Algorithmic Fairness (EWAF). Publisher Version (Open Access)
Ullstein, C., & Hohendanner, M. (2020, September 7–11). Exploration of the Future of Co-Creative Systems Through Collaborative Speculative Design Practices. International Computational Creativity Conference 2020 (ICCC’20): The Future of Co-Creative Systems – A Workshop on Human-Computer Co-Creativity, Coimbra, Portugal. Publisher Version (Open Access)

Conference Talks

2023

Talk on How Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Ethics of Facial Analysis AI Can Inform EU Policymaking at the European Workshop on Algorithmic Fairness (EWAF), Winterthur, Switzerland | Workshop Scedule | with Severin Engelmann
Talk on How People Ethically Evaluate Facial Analysis AI: A Cross-Cultural Study in Japan, Argentina, Kenya, and the United States at the Many Worlds of AI Conference, Cambridge, United Kingdom | Conference Program | with Severin Engelmann
Talk on Imagining AI and a Prospective Metaverse: A Participatory Speculative Design Case Study from Japan and Reflections from Germany at the Many Worlds of AI Conference, Cambridge, United Kingdom | Conference Program | with Michel Hohendanner

2022

Talk on Cross-cultural perspectives on technology-driven future societies through the lens of collaborative speculative design. at the Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the Human – Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Science and Fiction, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Japanese-German Center Berlin (JDZB) and Waseda University Tokyo | Conference Program | with Michel Hohendanner and Yosuke Buchmeier

Project Documentations and Reports

Design Discourse: Speculative Design Research for Public Participation

Teaching

Seminars

The EU’s AI Act Proposal: From Framework to Practical Application (each semester: SS 2022 - SS 2024)
Participatory AI and the EU AI Act (SS 2024)
Making People Understand Facial Recognition Technologies: Building an AI Application as Didactic Tool (WS 2022/2023)

Lecture Assistance

IT & Society (each year: SS 2022 - SS 2024)