Digital Design

ITU / Research / Research Departments / Digital Design

About the Department

Within the Digital Design Department, we research as well as teach the design of digital technologies and services. We focus especially on the impact that digital design will have on society, the environment, and industry in domains such as the public sector, health care, welfare, and games. The central themes of the Digital Design research agenda are care, creativity, participation, data and AI. As IT is increasingly a part of everyday life, these themes are critical to society, the environment and industry in the future.

The Digital Design Department applies critical, ethical, and sustainable perspectives to all aspects of IT in society to inform our design processes. Our research and teaching approaches are based on diversity, inclusiveness, interdisciplinarity, and collaboration.

The Digital Design Department offers a BSc and MSc programme in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies and an MSc in Games with high relevance and employability. We maintain an organisational and physical infrastructure that supports interdisciplinary collaboration. We provide lab-based research and teaching facilities and contribute to an inspiring and sound work and study environment attracting highly qualified researchers and students.

Meet Head of Department Associate Professor Lone Malmborg

See list of staff

Research Sections

Digital Society and Participation Section

Design Research Section

Play, Culture & AI Section

IxD Lab

AIR Lab

Games Teaching Lab

Digital Design stories

Do deepfake videos challenge the integrity of online information?

March 7, 2023

Deepfakes – highly realistic synthetic audio-video content depicting actual individuals – may potentially increase the dissemination of disinformation online, but research on the phenomenon and how users are affected is sparse. A new research project spearheaded by the IT University’s Human-Centered Data Science research group tackles the issue.

New research and industry collaboration to improve usability of cyber security tools

February 6, 2023

Cyberattacks are multi-dimensional, but cybersecurity software lacks the ability to represent threats. A new research and industry collaboration headed up on the ITU side by Associate Professor of Digital Design at the IT University, Daniel Cermak-Sassenrath, sets out to make cybersecurity tools more accessible and usable.

ITU researcher secures ERC Consolidator grant to develop rapid learning abilities in AI

December 13, 2022

Professor Sebastian Risi from the IT University’s Digital Design department has received 1.9 million Euros from the European Research Council to develop AI that is capable of adapting to and learning from unforeseen events in a bid to unleash more of the enormous potential of autonomous machines.

Research spinout LAIKA helps creative writers overcome the dreaded writer’s block

December 5, 2022

Associate Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, Martin Pichlmair, has spearheaded the development of LAIKA – new artificial intelligence that acts as a helping hand for creative writers struggling to find inspiration. Today, LAIKA is officially launched as a spinout company in collaboration with the ITU Business Unit.

Gaming AI engine developers modl.ai close 8.5-million-euro funding deal

November 9, 2022

The company, co-founded by Professor at the IT University, Sebastian Risi, tackles complex game development problems with automation and an army of bots.

ITU launches new Center for Digital Play

October 24, 2022

The new Center for Digital Play at the IT University of Copenhagen will serve as base for research in computer games, creative AI, design, and digital culture.

Funding: ITU researchers examine cultural dynamics in the age of digitalisation

June 1, 2022

Associate Professor at Digital Design, Luca Rossi, and Postdoc at Business IT, Vasilieos-Spyridon Vlassis, have secured 4.6 million kroner from the European CHANSE programme for their respective research projects in digital innovation and social and cultural dynamics.

Rasmus Ejlers Møgelberg and Jonas Fritsch receive grants from IRFD

May 10, 2022

The two researchers – from Computer Science and Digital Design at the IT University respectively – have each secured a grant of approximately 2.8 million kroner for their research projects.

Professor Sebastian Risi receives grant to develop policy learning with neural networks

April 20, 2022

Professor in the Digital Design Department at the IT University of Copenhagen, Sebastian Risi, has received a grant of approximately 550,000 Danish kroner for his work on neural cellular automata to grow neural network policies capable of adapting to novel complex reinforcement learning tasks.

Using Minecraft to explore climate change topics with school children

February 8, 2022

Few of the world’s most popular games deal directly with climate issues. However, games can still be used to make gamers think about real world problems, says Associate Professor, Hans-Joachim Backe, who is developing tools for teachers to discuss climate issues based on for example Minecraft.

ITU PhD fellow named Game Changer by gaming industry mainstay

January 5, 2022

PhD fellow at the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen, Leon Y. Xiao, is new to ITU, but his research into the legal and ethical aspects of the gaming industry has already made an impact. Gaming industry mainstay, GamesIndustry.biz, recently named him one of 2021’s Game Changers.

ITU’s Mogens Jacobsen wins prestigious art grant

December 8, 2021

The artist Mogens Jacobsen who teaches at Digital Design at the IT University of Copenhagen creates art inspired by technology and scientific research. Today, he is the recipient of a grant from the prestigious Niels Wessel Bagge Art Foundation.

A virtual reality visit to the doctor’s office may persuade sceptics to get vaccinated against COVID-19

October 25, 2021

According to a new scientific paper, a virtual visit to the doctor may help convince sceptics of the COVID-19 vaccine to get vaccinated. Lead author of the paper, Assistant Professor of Digital Design at ITU, Aske Mottelson, explains how VR can make a radical difference.

ITU researchers receive Villum grant to improve image recognition systems

September 23, 2021

Professor Sebastian Risi and Associate Professor Anders Sundnes Løvlie have just received a Villum Synergy grant for a project to improve image recognition systems by training on nonphotographic visual art.

Professor Profile: Sebastian Risi develops AI by having machines play videogames

August 4, 2021

How do you teach a computer to be creative and adaptive? The same way we humans learn it: by playing games and solving problems. Professor of Digital Design Sebastian Risi uses games to train neural networks for problem solving in the real world. He will give his inaugural lecture entitled "Creative AI: Machines that Play, Adapt, and Create" on August 23.

New research project at ITU: How can we make digitalization of the public sector a citizen driven project?

April 16, 2021

The lack of user participation in the digitalization of the public sector in the Nordic countries blocks a truly successful digital transformation. The aim of the new research project CAPE is to investigate how to increase user involvement in the development of public e-services.

ITU Professor in Prestigious Journal: Game Technology Can Improve AI-Development

August 6, 2020

Professor Sebastian Risi publishes paper in Nature Machine Intelligence on how to improve training of robots with popular video game technology.

New Study: User-based surveillance is not effective against fake-news

July 6, 2020

The defence against fake news, to a large extent, relies on the social media users identifying and "flagging" suspicious stories, but are we, the users, really capable of doing that? No, a new study concludes.

ITU launches research center for digital welfare

September 30, 2019

We know too little about the consequences of comprehensive digitization of the welfare society. Now, a new interdisciplinary research center at ITU will investigate the effects of public digital solutions and create a basis for ensuring that public digitization aligns with the values of the welfare society.

Computer game creates better understanding of Alzheimer's

June 26, 2019

Five students from the IT University's MSc in Games have created ‘Forgotten’ – a game that provides insight into what living with Alzheimer's is like. The students hope that the game can help give especially young people a better understanding of the disease.

Researchers at Digital Design

The robots of the future are soft and octopus-like

February 27, 2017

Soft robots made from materials like silicone have the potential to change what we use robots for and challenge how we perceive them, says PhD student Jonas Jørgensen, who uses his combined background as a physicist and art historian in his experiments with the technology.

Designing a health care system for everyone

February 20, 2017

For people who travel to a new country to work or study, getting to know a new health system can be a challenge. Erik Grönvall studies how technology might help to make public services more accessible for new and old citizens alike.

Computer games are an art form, too

January 30, 2017

Just like films, literature and theatre, computer games are important artefacts through which we can understand our cultural heritage, says Hans-Joachim Backe. His research is about finding out exactly how digital games communicate – and sometimes inspire players to reflect on the morality of their own actions.

Current research projects

Can we enjoy silent music?

The Hedonic Haptics player is a portable wearable device that plays back vibrotactile compositions. It consists of three domes each of which houses a vibration motor providing vibrotactile sensations to the wearer, and which are connected to a control unit the size of a small Walkman.

The Hedonic Haptics player can store different compositions and effects made up of haptic signals varying in amplitude, waveform and length. At the moment we have composed an ambient, rhythmic, and ‘heavy haptic metal’ composition, and designed effects such as hard and soft circles, unison swells, unison crescendo, a heartbeat, and a drum pattern.

We use these different compositions and effects to explore the hedonic potential of vibrational haptics in an embodied wearable setup. As such we seek to expand the design space for haptic expressions in interaction design.

Faculty Search

Search faculty and publications.

Digital Design Programmes

BSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies

MSc in Digital Design and Interactive Technologies

Master of Science in Games