PhD Defence Germain Abdul-Rahman 'Citizen Science Through the Lens of AI & Serious Games'

We are pleased to announce that Germain Abdul-Rahman will defend his PhD thesis on 11 December 2025 in the Auditorium of Campus Fryslân, Wirdumerdijk 34, 8911 CE Leeuwarden.

It is possible to follow the defence online via the livestream.

Programme:

• 13:30 - Walk-in

• 14:00 - Layperson’s talk

• 14:30 - PhD defence

• 16:00 - Reception with coffee and tea for attendees

Thesis abstract

This research shows how citizen science and serious games can help each other by using data science and artificial intelligence. Citizen-science projects often collect messy or incomplete data, but tools like machine learning and explainable AI can clean and improve it. By studying escape-room-style serious games, the research looks at how teams behave, what makes them perform well, and how to collect better data. In the end, it explains how AI can make citizen-science projects more reliable, clear, and useful.

About Germain Abdul-Rahman

Germain Abdul-Rahman is a researcher based at University of Groningen (Campus Fryslân) in the Netherlands, working in the fields of data science, artificial intelligence and social sciences. His work focuses on improving the quality and reliability of data collected in non-traditional settings (for example serious games) and enhancing citizen science using AI and machine learning.