Best Students of the Year 2025
Architecture & Design
Name: Leonie Marieke Todd
Thesis name: Re-Enchanting Reality: The Intersection of Surrealism and Narrative Abstraction in Interior Spaces as an Alternative to Maladaptive Abstraction
Abstract: This thesis explores the intersection of Surrealism and narrative abstraction as a framework for interior design, proposing an alternative to maladaptive forms of escapism. In today’s uncertain world, Surrealism presents a compelling approach to confronting and reinterpreting reality. By analyzing Surrealism’s layered narrative approach, this research proposes a foundation for designing interiors that embrace diverse perspectives and encourage meaningful re-engagement with reality across various contexts. Through a comprehensive literature review, this thesis traces the philosophical, literary, and artistic foundations of Surrealism and examines its evolution into interior design. In parallel, it explores the development of narrative design, emphasizing its capacity for reframing spatial and societal perspectives. A visual analysis of selected interior designs by Carlo Mollino anchors this investigation, providing insights into the synthesis of Surrealism and narrative abstraction in interior spaces. Through the study of Mollino’s work, this research seeks to identify how surreal narrative abstraction can be applied to interiors in ways that encourage confrontation with reality instead of its avoidance in the form of maladaptive escapism. Carlo Mollino’s interiors reveal a recurring interplay between refuge and exposure, using surrealist narrative abstraction to invite shifts in perspective rather than offering pure escape. Through ambiguity, nonlinearity, temporal eclecticism, reflective surfaces, and material juxtapositions, Mollino’s designs disrupt rational expectations and reframe the interior as a space of re-interpretation and psychological agency. The interplay of Surrealism and narrative abstraction, exemplified in Carlo Mollino’s work, reposition interior design from a mere refuge to a tool for introspection and reorientation – offering an alternative to maladaptive escapism in navigating the uncertainties of the contemporary world.
Name: Marcial Maria Koch Fuentes
Thesis name: Emotional Architecture Strategies for Interior Space
Abstract: In fast-paced urban environments, interior spaces are increasingly expected to serve more than functional or aesthetic roles, they must also support emotional and psychological wellbeing. This thesis explores the concept of Emotional Architecture within interior design, investigating how spatial strategies, particularly through the use of color and form, can be employed to shape perception, enhance emotional connection and create different atmospheres. Building on the foundational ideas of Mathias Goeritz and Luis Barragán and informed by interdisciplinary research in environmental psychology, phenomenology, neuroscience and interior design, this work reframes emotion not as an afterthought in design but as a central, measurable and embodied component of spatial experience. Key contributors such as Pallasmaa, Zumthor and Bachelard are placed in dialogue with scientific studies and design practitioners to develop a nuanced understanding of how space interacts with the body and mind. The thesis proposes a flexible design framework rooted in sensory engagement, spatial rhythm, cultural awareness and empathic mapping. It explores how material presence and spatial voids can affect mood, behavior and memory, and emphasizes the intersection of color and form as means of emotional communication. With its theoretical foundation and practical application, this study provides interior designers with practical methods for designing emotionally resonant interiors that capture the complexity of the human experience.
Business Admisnitration
Name: Vanda Vinecká
Thesis name: The Role of AI in Business Process Management and a comparative study of AI adoption among Business Process Professionals
Abstract: As Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies rapidly evolve, business process professionals are increasingly expected to integrate AI into workflows and decision-making. This thesis explores how AI is adopted in Business Process Management (BPM), what tools are used, what benefits are observed, and which barriers are encountered. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study combines ten semi-structured interviews with a follow-up survey of 55 respondents from various industries. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed five key themes: (1) AI use cases and tools (such as automation, decision support, and process modeling), (2) role-based perceptions of AI, (3) organizational factors influencing adoption, (4) experienced benefits, and (5) common challenges and limitations. Quantitative analysis tested seven hypotheses based on the qualitative themes. The results showed significant positive correlations between digital maturity, top-management support, and overall AI readiness with both perceived benefits and levels of AI adoption. The findings suggest that successful AI adoption in BPM depends less on structural factors like company size, and more on cultural readiness, leadership engagement, and the quality of underlying data and processes. This thesis highlights the importance of not only technical tools but also emotional and organizational dynamics in shaping digital transformation outcomes.
Name: Seok Joon Kang
Thesis name: Identifying GDPR Violation Patterns in Different Digital Marketing Channels: a case based analysis of enforcement decisions and strategic recommendations
Abstract: In this study, I investigate the enduring persistence of GDPR violations in digital marketing despite widespread awareness and substantial penalties. Drawing on a systematically filtered sample of 222 enforcement cases from the 1,000 most recent entries on EnforcementTracker.com, I focus on decisions issued by the five EU countries with the highest violation counts. To process multilingual legal documents efficiently, I employed large language models (LLMs) guided by rigorously engineered prompts for translation and semantic analysis. Hallucination was controlled through outline-based review checkpoints, and model outputs were cross-validated against a second, state-of-the-art LLM before all remaining discrepancies were manually verified. Quantitative analysis reveals that 19.8 % of GDPR violations occur in digital marketing contexts, with telephone/SMS campaigns presenting the highest risk. Root-cause coding uncovers that 77.3 % of cases stem from organizational governance failures rather than purely technical misconfigurations. By integrating rigorous AI-assisted methods with researcher-driven verification, this thesis offers both methodological innovation for cross-language legal-compliance analysis and actionable recommendations for strengthening governance frameworks in digital-marketing operations.