- Role
- Research assistant and lead developer
- Timeline
- 2023 to 2025
- Type
- Applied research, sustainability
- Stack
- Node.js, Firebase, JavaScript, Python
The problem
Recycling rules are hard to turn into everyday habits. The Transformers project at Rhine-Waal University asked whether interactive learning and game mechanics could change that.
What we built
A web platform that combines learning activities, rewards and real-time engagement tracking. The published paper describes quizzes, sorting activities and progress feedback.
My role
I was research assistant and lead developer from September 2023 to May 2025. I built the research platform in Node.js and Firebase and analysed the behaviour data in Python with pandas and scikit-learn.
How it fits together
- Interactive learning activities
- Node.js event and reward logic
- Firebase for real-time engagement data
- Python analysis with pandas and scikit-learn
The hard part
Every tap a participant made had to become clean research data without turning the experience into a questionnaire. The platform had to feel like a game to the people using it and work like an instrument for the researchers.
Where it stands
Two peer-reviewed publications in 2025: a paper at the European Conference on Games Based Learning and a chapter published by Nomos. The work also fed into the technical architecture of a EUR 116,300 EXIST start-up grant proposal. I don't claim a measured change in recycling behaviour.
What I took from it
A research prototype has two audiences: the people using it and the researchers asking questions of it. It has to serve both.
Sources and scope
Sources: my CV and the two DOI records. The ECGBL paper describes AI personalisation as future work, not a shipped feature.
