Prof. Dr. Alexandre de Spindler

Prof. Dr. Alexandre de Spindler

ZHAW School of Management and Law
Institute of Information Systems
Theaterstrasse 17
8400 Winterthur

+41 58 934 68 39
alexandre.despindler@zhaw.ch

Work at ZHAW

Position

Professor of Information Systems
Co-Leading the Center for Information Systems and Technologies at the ZHAW Institute of Business Information Technology.

Focus

Alexandre’s research focuses on frameworks for multi-party human-AI collaboration, where digital agents act as context-aware partners within human teams. His work combines approaches from Design Theory and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to design and implement conversational and multimodal interactions with information systems. Through frameworks such as PROMISE and Social Behaviour Regulation (SBR), he develops methods that make large language model–based systems predictable, reliable, and socially responsive. These frameworks support applied research on forms of collaboration in healthcare, learning environments, and advisory contexts, enhancing the quality and feasibility of complex bilateral and multilateral interactions.

Teaching

Enabling students to design, develop and validate value of IT products. As part of the Information Systems Teaching (BSc, MSc) and Continuing Education (CAS) programs, we teach agile requirements engineering and prototyping and validation of data-driven full-stack applications. Our contributions to Data Science programs (BSc, MSc, CAS) range from traditional machine learning to generative AI applied to numerical, text, and image data.

Education and Continuing education

Education

Dr. sc. / Computer Science
ETH Zurich
08 / 2005 - 12 / 2010
MSc / Computer Science
ETH Zurich
09 / 1999 - 07 / 2005

Continuing Education

CAS Higher Education
ZHAW
04 / 2015

Network

Membership of networks

Competence Center for Generative AI

ORCID digital identifier

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8002-4157

Social media

Projects

Publications

Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed

Unger, T. et al. (2025) 'Using deep learning to detect upper limb compensation in individuals post-stroke using consumer-grade webcams : a feasibility study', Frontiers in Medicine, 12(1645369). doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1645369.
Meng, M. et al. (2024) 'Health issues of young adults with hearing loss or deafness : a basis for the development of a chatbot', Zeitschrift für Evidenz, Fortbildung und Qualität im Gesundheitswesen, 190, pp. 20–28. doi: 10.1016/j.zefq.2024.09.002.
Leone, S. et al. (2014) 'Component-based web engineering using shared components and connectors', Journal of Web Engineering, 13(3&4), pp. 183–202. Available at: https://journals.riverpublishers.com/index.php/JWE/article/view/3923/2719.
Grossniklaus, M. et al. (2013) 'A platform to support object database research', Journal of Object Technology, 12(2), pp. 1–31. doi: 10.5381/jot.2013.12.2.a2.
de Spindler, A., Norrie, M. C. and Grossniklaus, M. (2008) 'Recommendation based on opportunistic information sharing between tourists', Information Technology & Tourism, 2008(10), pp. 297–311. doi: 10.3727/109830508788403178.

Books, peer-reviewed

de Spindler, A. (2012) Collection-oriented programming : a collection-oriented application framework for mobile information systems. Doctoral dissertation. Südwestdeutscher Verlag für Hochschulschriften.

Written conference contributions, peer-reviewed

Heierli, J. et al. (2025) 'From conversation to agent : LLM-driven design of structured healthcare agents', in Procedia Computer Science. Elsevier, pp. 269–276. doi: 10.1016/j.procs.2025.10.205.
Mladenov, P. et al. (2025) 'Missing pieces : how humans and GPT-4.1 detect absence and predict the unseen', in Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on MLLM for Unified Comprehension and Generation. Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 9–13. doi: 10.1145/3746276.3760466.
Fries, T. et al. (2025) 'DSER : dialog-structure-aware metric for speaker diarization evaluation in forensics', in 33rd Annual Conference of the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics (IAFPA), The Hague, The Netherlands, 20-23 July 2025.
Wu, W. et al. (2025) 'Persuasive prompting : the case of digital health', in ECIS 2025 Proceedings. Association for Information Systems. Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2025/health_it/health_it/10/.
Grünert, D., de Spindler, A. and Dellwo, V. (2025) 'GOOSVC : version control for content creation with generative AI', in Gerber, J. et al. (eds) Proceedings of the 10th edition of the Swiss Text Analytics Conference. Association for Computational Linguistics, pp. 66–74. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-36595.
Städeli, R. et al. (2024) 'Multimodal conversational interactions for facial composites : a case for stateful prompt orchestration', in Capol, C. et al. (eds) Proceedings of the 9th edition of the Swiss Text Analytics Conference. Association for Computational Linguistics, pp. 59–67. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-32139.
Wu, W. et al. (2024) 'PROMISE : model-driven stateful prompt orchestration for persuasive conversational interactions', in 9th Swiss Text Analytics Conference – SwissText 2024, Chur, Switzerland, 10-11 June 2024.
Wu, W. et al. (2024) 'PROMISE : a framework for model-driven stateful prompt orchestration', in Islam, S. and Sturm, A. (eds) Intelligent Information Systems. Cham: Springer, pp. 157–165. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-61000-4_18.
Helland, S., Gavagnin, E. and de Spindler, A. (2023) 'Divide et impera : multi-transformer architectures for complex NLP-tasks', in Proceedings of the 8th edition of the Swiss Text Analytics Conference. Association for Computational Linguistics, pp. 70–75. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-30386.
Färber, A. et al. (2023) 'Closing the loop for patients with chronic diseases : from problems to a solution architecture', in 2023 IEEE 11th International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI). IEEE, pp. 361–370. doi: 10.1109/ICHI57859.2023.00055.
Frei, E. et al. (2016) 'Leveraging the impact of occupation on health and well-being', in Nationaler Kongress der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Gerontologie, 'alter'@technik', Freiburg, 28.-29. Januar 2016. Freiburg: Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Gerontologie.
Bloch, A. et al. (2015) 'Battery-efficient transportation mode detection on mobile devices', in 2015 16th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Data Management. IEEE, pp. 185–190. doi: 10.1109/MDM.2015.16.
de Spindler, A., Leone, S. and Norrie, M. (2013) 'Co-ODB : integrating support for collaborative information systems into an object database', in 2013 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS). San Diego: IEEE, pp. 538–545. doi: 10.1109/CTS.2013.6567284.
Leone, S. et al. (2013) 'Integrating component-based web engineering into content management systems', in Daniel, F., Dolog, P., and Li, Q. (eds) Web engineering : 13th International Conference, ICWE 2013, Aalborg, Denmark, July 8-12, 2013. Proceedings. Berlin: Springer, pp. 37–51. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-39200-9.
Leone, S., de Spindler, A. and McLeod, D. (2013) 'Model-driven composition of information systems from shared components & connectors', in Meersman, R. et al. (eds) On the move to meaningful internet systems : OTM 2013 conferences. Berlin: Springer, pp. 204–221. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-41030-7_13.
Leone, S., de Spindler, A. and Norrie, M. C. (2012) 'A meta-plugin for bespoke data management in WordPress', in Wang, X. S. et al. (eds) Web Information Systems Engineering - WISE 2012. Berlin: Springer, pp. 580–593. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-35063-4_42.
de Spindler, A. et al. (2011) 'Using synchronised tag clouds for browsing data collections', in Mouratidis, H. and Rolland, C. (eds) Advanced Information Systems Engineering : 23rd International Conference, CAiSE 2011, London, UK, June 20-24, 2011. Proceedings. Berlin: Springer, pp. 214–228. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-21640-4_17.
Leone, S., de Spindler, A. and Norrie, M. C. (2010) 'Framework for experimentation with ambient wall displays', in Meersmann, R., Dillon, T., and Herrero, P. (eds) On the move to meaningful internet systems : OTM 2010 workshops. Berlin: Springer, pp. 140–149. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16961-8_31.
de Spindler, A. et al. (2010) 'Using tag clouds to promote community awareness in research environments', in Yuhua, L. (ed.) Cooperative Design, Visualization, and Engineering : 7th International Conference, CDVE 2010, Calvia, Mallorca, Spain, September 19-22, 2010, Proceedings. Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 3–10. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16066-0_1.
Grossniklaus, M. et al. (2010) 'Dynamic metamodel extension modules to support adaptive data management', in Pernici, B. (ed.) Proceedings of CAiSE 2010 : 22nd International Conference on advanced information systems engineering. Berlin: Springer, pp. 363–377. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-13094-6_29.
Grossniklaus, M. et al. (2010) 'A flexible object model and algebra for uniform access to object databases', in Dearle, A. and Zicari, R. V. (eds) Objects and databases. Berlin: Springer, pp. 56–69. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-16092-9_8.
Leone, S. et al. (2010) 'Synchronising personal data with Web 2.0 data sources', in Chen, L., Triantafillou, P., and Suel, T. (eds) Proceedings of WISE 2010 : 11th international conference on web information systems engineering. Berlin: Springer, pp. 411–418. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-17616-6.
Leone, S. et al. (2009) 'From static methods to role-driven service invocation : a metamodel for active content in object databases', in Laender, A. H. F. et al. (eds) Conceptual Modeling - ER 2009 : 28th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, Gramado, Brazil, November 9-12, 2009 : Proceedings. Berlin: Springer, pp. 444–457. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-04840-1_33.
Grossniklaus, M. et al. (2009) 'Unified event model for object databases', in Norrie, M. C. (ed.) Proceedings of ICOODB 2009 : 2nd International Conference on object databases. Berlin: Springer, pp. 113–131. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-14681-7_7.
de Spindler, A., Grossniklaus, M. and Norrie, M. C. (2009) 'Development framework for mobile social applications', in van Eck, P., Gordijn, J., and Wieringa, R. (eds) Advanced Information Systems Engineering : 21st International Conference, CAiSE 2009, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 8-12, 2009. Proceedings. Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 275–289. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-02144-2_24.
de Spindler, A. et al. (2009) 'Information sharing modalities for mobile ad-Hoc networks', in Meersman, R., Dillon, T., and Herrero, P. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2009 : Confederated International Conferences, CoopIS, DOA, IS, and ODBASE 2009, Vilamoura, Portugal, November 1-6, 2009, Proceedings, Part I. Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 322–339. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-05148-7_22.
Signer, B., de Spindler, A. and Norrie, M. C. (2009) 'A framework for link sharing in cooperative cross-media information spaces', in Luo, Y. (ed.) Proceedings of the 6th international conference on cooperative design, visualization and engineering. Berlin: Springer, pp. 185–192. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-04265-2_27.
Signer, B., de Spindler, A. and Norrie, M. C. (2009) 'Collaborative ad-hoc information sharing in cross-media information environments', in Meersmann, R. and Dillon, T. (eds) Proceedings of CoopIS 2009 : on the move to meaningful internet systems. Berlin: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-05148-7.
Norrie, M. C. et al. (2008) 'Semantic data management for db4o', in Edlich, S. and Paterson, J. H. (eds) Proceedings of ICOODB 2008 : 1st International Conference on Object Databases. Brno (Brünn): Tribun EU, pp. 21–38.
de Spindler, A. et al. (2008) 'Harnessing facebook for the evaluation of recommender systems based on physical copresence', in Zanker, M., Felfernig, A., and Burke, R. (eds) Proceedings of ECAI 2008 : Workshop on Recommender Systems. IOS Press, pp. 20–25.
de Spindler, A., Norrie, M. C. and Grossniklaus, M. (2007) 'Collaborative filtering based on opportunistic information sharing in mobile ad-Hoc networks', in Meersman, R. and Tari, Z. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2007: CoopIS, DOA, ODBASE, GADA, and IS : OTM Confederated International Conferences CoopIS, DOA, ODBASE, GADA, and IS 2007, Vilamoura, Portugal, November 25-30, 2007, Proceedings. Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 408–416. doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-76848-7_28.
de Spindler, A., Grossniklaus, M. and Norrie, M. C. (2007) 'A collection-oriented framework for social applications', in Meersman, R., Tari, Z., and Herrero, P. (eds) On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2007: OTM 2007 Workshops : OTM Confederated International Workshops and Posters, AWeSOMe, CAMS, OTM Academy Doctoral Consortium, MONET, OnToContent, ORM, PerSys, PPN, RDDS, SSWS. Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 437–446. doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-76888-3_66.
de Spindler, A. et al. (2006) 'Spatio-temporal proximity as a basis for collaborative filtering in mobile environments', in Latour, T. and Petit, M. (eds) CAISE '06 : 18th Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering : trusted information systems, Luxembourg, 5-9 June, 2006 : proceedings of the workshops and doctoral consortium. Presses universitaires de Namur, pp. 912–926.

Other publications

Brucker-Kley, E. et al. (2024) Science fiction prototyping : friendship with artificial intelligence. Winterthur: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-2495.
Brucker-Kley, E. et al. (2024) Science Fiction Prototyping : Freundschaft mit Künstlicher Intelligenz. Winterthur: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-2494.
Moser, A. et al. (2021) Vom Formular zum Dialog : neue Wege der Auftragserteilung in der Finanzbranche. Winterthur: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-2407.
Färber, A. et al. (2018) FairCare : the network based solution for collaborative future care : AAL final project report. Bern: Eidgenössisches Departement für Wirtschaft, Bildung und Forschung.
Frei, E. et al. (2016) 'Plattformen zur Weitergabe von Erfahrungen älterer Menschen : Beschäftigung als wichtiger Einflussfaktor auf Gesundheit und Wohlbefinden', in 5. AAL Tagung, Wädenswil, 18. März 2016.
Signer, B., de Spindler, A. and Norrie, M. C. (2009) A peer-to-peer-based distributed link service architecture. Zürich: ETH Zürich. doi: 10.3929/ethz-a-006836279.

Oral conference contributions and abstracts

de Spindler, A., Heierli, JasminJ. and Händler-Schuster, D. (2026) 'From hearing loss to the SIRA-framework : Ergebnisse aus dem Projekt GeHör', in ZHAW Digital Health Lab, Winterthur, Schweiz, 17. März 2026.
Grünert, D. et al. (2024) 'Generating synthetic datasets for the validation and training of automatic speech analysis systems in the context of organized crime', in 2nd Interdisciplinary Conference on Voice Identity, Marburg, Germany, 28-30 August 2024. Available at: https://www.uni-marburg.de/en/fb09/institutes/german-linguistics/phonetics/media/voiceid-booklet.pdf.
Grünert, D., de Spindler, A. and Dellwo, V. (2023) 'Speaker diarization systems in the context of forensic audio analysis', in 31st IAFPA Conference : Book of Abstracts. Zurich: Centre for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics (CFPA), pp. 74–75.
Keller, T. et al. (2023) 'Science Fiction Prototyping für verantwortungsvolle Innovationen – Freundschaft mit KI immersiv erleben', in Projektabschluss-Event Swiss Science Center Technorama, Winterthur, Schweiz, 28. November 2023.
Borghoff, B. et al. (2023) 'Freundschaft mit KI immersiv erleben – Science Fiction Prototyping für verantwortungsvolle Innovationen', in IAM MediaLab Veranstaltung, Winterthur, Schweiz, 26. Oktober 2023.
Zigan, N. and de Spindler, A. (2018) 'Projekt FairCare', in Fachtagung Altersforum, Winterthur, 17. April 2018.
Färber, A. et al. (2017) 'FairCare - die Vermittlung von formeller und informeller Pflege für ältere Menschen optimieren : EU-Forschungsprojekt aus dem AAL Programm', in 6. AAL Tagung Netzwerktreffen FM Perspektiven, Wädenswil, 7. April 2017. ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.
de Spindler, A. (2017) 'A feasibility study of measuring indoor people encounters for the analysis of the spread of infectious diseases', in 4th Medtech & Pharma Platform Annual Conference, Basel, Switzerland, 26-27 October 2017.
Keller, T. et al. (2014) 'Transportmittelerkennung : Motivation, Ideen, Umsetzung und Validierung', in IWI Faculty Workshop, Winterthur, 13. Februar 2014.
de Spindler, A. (2014) 'XINIX : bisherige Arbeiten, Stand und nächste Schritte', in IWI Faculty Workshop, Winterthur, 13. Februar 2014.
Rohrkemper, R., Keller, T. and de Spindler, A. (2013) 'Hot author detection via social network analysis', in IWI Faculty Workshop, Winterthur, 24. Januar 2013.

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