Kai Kunze is a pioneer in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) who works on extending human capabilities through technology. „Wir freuen uns sehr, dass Sie aus Japan zu uns gekommen sind. Ich bin gespannt, wie Sie die großen Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten in Ihrem Forschungsbereich nutzen werden“, said TU president Dr.-Ing. Sylvia Schattauer at the appointment.
Grown up in Baden-Württemberg, he first studied computer science and business at the International University in Germany (Bruchsal), then earned his doctorate at the Embedded Systems Lab of the University of Passau in wearable computing. Research stays and internships took him to the Palo Alto Research Center, the MIT Media Lab, Sunlabs Europe (Grenoble) and Deutsche Börse in Frankfurt. From 2012 to 2014 he was research associate and assistant professor at Osaka Prefecture University; he then moved to Keio University’s Yokohama campus as professor.
Within wearable computing his focus is the human eye (eyewear computing), using sensor data from the eye to gain insights into the user’s cognitive state. Further focal points are the digitisation of human emotions and the augmentation of the human senses. He has published more than 250 articles in renowned journals and at top conferences.
At TU Clausthal his first focus is on building project-based courses: „Es gilt Lehre und Forschung miteinander zu verzahnen und das Verschulte hinter uns zulassen. So können wir die Studierenden motivieren“, Kunze also observed in Japan.
Source: tu-clausthal.de (7 April 2026).