Student Supervision

Available student projects

General projects
I am always interested in supervising student projects at the BSc, MSc, and PhD level. However, due to my many commitments I am often constrained to supervision of a limited set of students on specific programs. For my own work, take a look at my most recent publications, and the list of current and former research projects to get a flavor of my interests. You can also find the theses of my students on Igitur (Utrecht University thesis database). After doing that, schedule a meeting with me to discuss what might be an interesting project for you (and me). I am also open to sharing supervision with another researcher who can benefit the project.
I am also happy to talk to you about internships (I've done quite a few myself).
You can find my contact information here.
Concrete projects are available around the following themes. In each case, the exact details of the project would be set with the student. The focus can be on empirical studies, modeling human performance, or (in rare cases) a literature review. My focus ranges from very theoretical work to very applied work (e.g., see Janssen, Iqbal and Ju, 2014):
  • Human Behavior in (semi-)autonomous driving I am starting multiple projects in the area of autonomous driving, and understanding how humans behave in such situations. This ranges from theoretical/modeling work (see Janssen, Boyle, Kun, Ju, Chuang, in press, IJHCI) to applied (Van der Heiden, Iqbal, Janssen, 2017, CHI) to neuroscience (Van der Heiden et al., 2018 Plos One). I am also thinking about how insights from the interruptions literature (see Brumby, Janssen, Mark, in press) can be tied to understand automated driving.
  • Cognitive Modeling & Machine Learning I am interested in how computer simulations can help to understand human behavior. Almost always I have some modeling projects running. Lately, I am also getting more and more interested in exploring the power of machine learning and data science techniques to understand and predict human behavior. For example, how hidden markov models can be used to detect mental states.
  • Rewards and multitasking: How do rewards of tasks influence how we divide our time between two or more tasks? This builds on work such as that published in Janssen et al. (2011, Topics in Cognitive Science), Janssen & Brumby (2015, Plos One), and Farmer, Janssen et al (2018, Cognitive Science).
  • Driver distraction and autonomous driving: In Utrecht we have a new driving simulator with which we can study various aspects of driver distraction. I am particular interested in measuring how well people notice and respond to unexpected events (e.g., suddenly braking cars).

Ongoing (Student) supervision


PhD students
  • Floor Bontje (2023 - ): Researchers psychologically valid models of digital twins in urban mobility. This project is co-funded by the AI labs and by TNO. Co-supervised by Dr. Bas Spierings, Dr. Roland Geraerts, and Dr. Leendert van Maanen and by Dr. Taoufik Bakhri (TNO) . Read about the project here
  • Talha Ozudogru (2023 - ): Researchers how planners of railway systems interact with AI systems. This project is funded by NWO, the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs, NS and ProRail. Co-supervised by Dr. Silja Renooij, Dr. Leendert van Maanen, and Prof. Dr. Mehdi Dastani. Read about the research here
  • Rutger Stuut (2021 - ) PhD student working on understanding eye-gaze in real contexts of work. Rutger is supported by the Dutch Traffic Authority
Research Assistants

MSc students (This list is not up to date; sorry!)
  • Myrna van den Berg (2020-2021). MSc AI student working on a project together with TU/eindhoven, funded through the human-AI Alliance. To better understand human autonomy in semi-automated vehicles
  • Marik Westerhof (2020-2021). MSc AI student studying the potential of AI for sustainability in the mobility domain. Together with ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management

BSc students



Former supervision


PhD students
  • Remo van der Heiden(2016 -2020) PhD research investigating human behavior in autonomous vehicles. Publicly defended on June 5 2020! [PhD thesis, press release ].
  • Justin Edwards (2018-2023) PhD student at University College Dublin (primary supervisor Dr. Ben Cowan). I am a member of Justin's "doctoral supervision panel", and in that role external supervisor and collaborator. Justin studies interruptions in conversations (tying in with my research on understanding interruptions and multitasking).

Post-doctoral researchers
  • Iris Schutte (2019 - 2020) Post-doc studying how neuroscientific techniques can be applied in dynamic study set-ups such as driving.

Research Assistants
  • Oetse Donner (2021). Working on public engagement project "Mensen en Machines van de Toekomst" (human-machine interaction).
  • Nina Haukes (2018). Assisting with measuring EEG in driving contexts.

MSc students
  • Shianne van Mierlo (2021). MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology studying human-automated vehicle interaction. Together with MWLC
  • Kevin Hardeman (2021). MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology studying human-automated vehicle interaction. Together with MWLC
  • Alistair Weir (2021). MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology studying human attention. Together with Christoph Strauch
  • Simon Buil (2021). MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology studying physiological markers of vigilance
  • Alexandra van Leeuwenkamp (2020). MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology. Thesis topic: Attachment and the workplace. With MMEK
  • Anahid Karimi (2020). MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology. Thesis topic: modeling situational awareness
  • Leonard Praetorius (2020). Msc student from University of Groningen, virtually visiting Utrecht. Modeling timing of interruptions in automated vehicles
  • Giselle Veerman (2020). MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology. Thesis topic: Susceptibility to audio under cognitive load
  • Caterina Maidhof (2020). MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology. Thesis topic: Response to personalized alerts in automated driving. Together with Duncan Brumby and Priscilla Wong (UCL)
  • Ya Liu (2020). MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology. Thesis topic: Behavior in response to pre-alerts
  • Wicorel van der Pol (2020). MSc Artificial Intelligence. Thesis topic: Human decision making and biases. Research at TNO
  • Lovis Heinrich (2020).MSc Artificial Intelligence. Thesis topic: making safer and robust image classification in automated vehicles. Research done at TNO.Graduated Cum Laude
  • Sьnje Clausen (2019) MSc AI student. Thesis with daily work with Nadia Berthouse at University College London on technology use and perception of gender. Thesis passed cum laude. Sьnje is about to start her PhD thesis research in Germany. Resulted in Publication Clausen et al (2021).
  • Jesse Grootjen (2019) MSc AI student. Using Machine Learning to predict fluctuations in workload. Jesse is now a PhD student at LMU Munich
  • Bas Oppenheim (2019)MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology student. Studying automated driving from an interruptions perspective
  • Annelinde Lettink (2019) MSc AI student. Thesis with daily work at TNO on trust in collaboration with automated agents.
  • Alexandra Bremers (2017) MSc AI student. In-car user interfaces (together with Jaguar-Landrover). Thesis passed cum laude. Resulted in Publication Bremers et al. (2021). Alexandra continued working at JLR and then moved on as PhD student with Prof. Wendy Ju at Cornell Tech.
  • Aikaterina Tompoidi (2017) MSC AI student. Applying Machine Learning techniques to understand EEG data. Together with Daniel Oberski (Methods and statistics) and Leon Kenemans
  • Hendrik Nunner (2017) MSc Artificial Intelligence thesis project on using Cognitive Models to understand social phenomena. Supervision together with Dr. Wojtek Przepiorka (Dep. Sociology). Thesis passed cum laude. Hendrik now works as a PhD student at the department of Sociology in Utrecht
  • Jolijn de Heer (2017) MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology, external research at Bartimeus on haptic perception by individuals that are deaf-blind. Thesis passed cum laude
  • Nathalie Korbee (2017) MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology, external research at SWOV on education of traffic safety. Thesis passed cum laude
  • Stef van Gogh (2017) MSc internship in Applied Cognitive Psychology at Careweb, on UX in health care.
  • Ken Beckers (2017) MSc internship in Appliec Cognitive Psychology, focusing on measuring skin conductance in driving simulator settings.
  • Hidde van der Meulen (2016) MSc thesis Artificial Intelligence on hand-over in automated driving. Conducted at University of New Hampshire together with Prof. Andrew Kun. Resulted in conference paper for Automotive-UI. Thesis passed cum laude. Hidde is now a PhD student at UC Dublin.
  • Vere Weermeijer (2015-2016) MSc thesis in Science and Business Management, investigating the role of rewards in task switching.
  • Jackie Poos (2015-2016) MSc thesis in Neuroscience and Cognition (Research Master) on reducing cognitive biases through serious games (with Dr. Karel van den Bosch at TNO). Thesis passed cum laude. Resulted in journal paper for Computers & Education.
  • Elcke de Geus (2015-2016) MSc thesis in Applied Cognitive Psychology, conducted at SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research. Work presented at Dutch Traffic Behavior days (Graduated Cum Laude - highest honors)
  • Mitchell van Zuylen (2016) MSc thesis in Applied Cognitive Psychology, conducated at Philips. Mitchell is now a PhD student at TU Delft
  • Bertine van Deijzen (2016) Small project within MSc AI on use of technology to support learning. Internship in industry
  • Saskia Brakenhoff (2015-2016) small project for MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology.
  • Iris van Hooijdonk (2015-2016) MSc Applied Cognitive Psychology, small project on red light crossings at bridgets, together with Rijkswaterstaat. Work presented at Dutch Traffic Behavior days
  • Remo van der Heiden (2015) MSc thesis in Applied Cognitive Psychology on lane switching (together with Rijkswaterstaat)(Graduated Cum Laude - highest honors). THis resulted in a journal paper (Van der Heiden et al. Transportation Research Part F), and Remo continued as a PhD student in my lab.
  • Robbert Martens (2015) MSc thesis in Applied Cognitive Psychology on detecting unexpected events in automated systems
  • Kimberly Hulleman (2015) MSc thesis in Applied Cognitive Psychology on automated driving, conducted at SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research
  • Tamara Will (2015) MSc internship in Applied Cognitive Psychology at Philips Research (Graduated Cum Laude - highest honors)
  • George Farmer (2010): MSc thesis Human-Computer Interaction (shared supervision with Dr Duncan Brumby). Awarded with a distinction and with the John Long prize for outstanding research promise.Read George's thesis here.This work was also been published as a paper in Cognitive Science journal. George now (2016) works as a post-doc at Univeristy of Cambridge.
  • Samantha Davies (2010): MSc thesis Human-Computer Interaction (shared supervision with Dr Duncan Brumby). Awarded with a distinction. Read Samantha's thesis here. This work was also presented at CHI 2011 (see publications)
  • Rae Garnett (2009): Mini-project research Master Psychology (shared supervision with Dr Duncan Brumby). Part of this work contributed to a 2012 paper in the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making (see publications)
  • Nina del Rosario (2009): MSc thesis Human-Computer Interaction (shared supervision with Dr Duncan Brumby). Awarded with a distinction and with the John Long prize for outstanding research promise. Read Nina's thesis here. Part of this work is reported in one of our ICCM 2010 papers (see publications)


BSc students
  • Amber van Schaik(2021). BSc Psychology: Physiological markers of vigilance
  • Anneke van Wordragen(2021). BSc Psychology: Physiological markers of vigilance
  • Jasper Burow(2021). BSc Psychology: Physiological markers of vigilance
  • Jiska Hendriksen(2021). BSc Psychology: Physiological markers of vigilance
  • Josephine Hilberink (2021). BSc Psychology: Physiological markers of vigilance
  • Mida Stцfsel(2021). BSc Psychology: Physiological markers of vigilance
  • Rosalie Lucas (2021). BSc Psychology: Physiological markers of vigilance
  • Sabine de Clerq (2021). BSc Psychology: Physiological markers of vigilance
  • Alissa Hoevenaars (2020). Honors student BSc Psychology. Researching machine learning for vigilance detection.
  • Cathelijne Kwetters (2020). Honors student BSc Psychology. Researching machine learning for vigilance detection.
  • Tom Kinnegram (2019) BSc Psychology student. Efficiency of multitasking and impact of contextual (dis-)order.
  • Aafke van Welbergen (2018) BSc Artificial Intelligence student. Project investigated fallacies in human reasoning. Project passed cum laude
  • Perpe Luijben (2017) BSc Artificial Intelligence student. Project looking at modeling (ir) rationality in the context of logical statements. Supervision together with Rosalie Iemhoff
  • Evy van Weelden (2017) honors student BSc Psychology. Creative challenge on the use of digital stories for science communication. Watch the result: on my Youtube channel
  • Sissi Cao (2016) BSc Artificial Intelligence. Individual differences in multitasking
  • Maud Stigted (2016) BSc Artificial Intelligence. Automation in airplanes and cars
  • Tariq Mouhtadi (2016) BSc Artificial Intelligence. Investigating the use of modeling and machine learning in driver distraction settings
  • Lotte Hardeman (2016) BSc Psychology (honors student) investigating cognitive distraction using ERP techniques. Project passed cum laude.
  • Keri Mans (2016) BSc Psychology (honors student) investigating cognitive distraction using ERP techniques. Project passed cum laude.
  • Naomi Prins (2015) BSc report Liberal Arts and Sciences. Investigating the role of Artificial Intelligence in Japanese culture.
  • Koen Verlaan (2016) BSc report Liberal Arts and Sciences. Investigating how well humans are equipped to drive at high speeds on the highways.
  • Emma Everaert (2015) BSc Psychology - honors trajectory. Moved on to MSc Neuroscience and Cognition
  • Ghislaine Mensing (2015) BSc Psychology -honors trajectory. Moved on to: MSc Economics
  • Heleen Hendriksen (2015) BSc Psychology - honors trajectory
  • Laura Tigchelaar (2015) BSc Psychology -honors trajectory. Moved on to: student BSc Computer Science.
  • Elaine Ching (2009): Project for BSc in Psychology (shared supervision with Dr Duncan Brumby at UCL).


If you are a student who would like to work on a project with me, please contact me to discuss some ideas. I would be very interested!