News

1 May 2024
The EBD-Toolkit has received a major update, including added visualization functionality and dedicated tutorials
21 February 2024
We kicked off the course Evidence-Based Design in Architecture, where I will be TAing and teaching this semester.
1 October 2023
I started working as a research assistant at the IVIA Lab

About

I am a Master Student in Computer Science, with a major in Machine Intelligence. I am currently working as a research assistant at the IVIA Lab, lead by Menna El-Assady, and the Chair of Cognitive Science, lead by Christoph Hölscher.

My research focuses on the intersection of AI, architectural design, and cognition. My goal is to design systems that augment human creativity and decision-making in architectural design to shape the built environment of the future.

Publications

MazeMastery: A Python Framework for Teaching Maze-Traversal in High School

MazeMastery: A Python Framework for Teaching Maze-Traversal in High School

Raphaël Baur,
Jens Hartmann,
Jacqueline Staub
ISSEP2023
MazeMastery is a Python framework for teaching maze traversal to high school students. It helps students develop abstraction skills by providing a didactic tool. They can test their algorithms against randomized test cases of increasing complexity. The framework facilitates learning analysis and conceptual challenges. MazeMastery is an open-source project for scientists and educators.
RLHF-Blender: A Configurable Interactive Interface for Learning from Diverse Human Feedback

RLHF-Blender: A Configurable Interactive Interface for Learning from Diverse Human Feedback

Yannik Metz,
David Lindner,
Raphaël Baur,
Daniel Keim,
Mennatallah El-Assady
ICML2023
RLHF has the potential to transform the way we interact with RL agents. However, the current state of the art in RLHF is limited by the lack of a unified and configurable interface for human feedback. To address this, we present RLHF-Blender, a configurable interactive interface for learning from diverse human feedback. RLHF-Blender is designed to be a flexible and extensible platform that can be easily adapted to different RLHF scenarios.
The DesignMind Toolkit: A toolkit for evidence-based, cognitively-informed and human-centred architectural design

The DesignMind Toolkit: A toolkit for evidence-based, cognitively-informed and human-centred architectural design

Michal Gath-Morad,
Raphaël Baur,
Christoph Hölscher
ECAADE2023
Integrating empirical evidence into architectural design has the potential to create more humane, legible, and inclusive spaces. Yet, the fast-paced nature of the design process, limited proficiency in scientific terminology, and a natural reliance on design intuition limit architects’ ability to effectively apply empirical findings to inform their design decisions. To address this gap, this paper presents DesignMind, a toolkit for evidence-based, cognitively-informed, and human-centred architectural design. DesignMind has four complementary modules: (1) evidence-based design flashcards, (2) topological and geometric analysis, (3) agent-based simulation, and (4) cognitive walkthrough in virtual reality.