LLM supported, Web-Based and Interactive Data Mapping and Exploration Tool for Smart Tourism
(master thesis)
This thesis is carried out in collaboration with Salzburg Research and iSPACE plus and is motivated by the IBW project SmartTourism Hub. Regional tourism stakeholders often have access to valuable data sources, but these are fragmented, heterogeneous, and difficult to explore in a structured way. The thesis addresses this challenge through the conception and prototypical implementation of a web-based interactive data mapping tool for smart tourism that supports the structured representation and exploration of data sources, stakeholders, and application contexts, with a strong focus on data modeling, visual analytics, and interaction design. Integrated AI/LLM capabilities help to uncover synergies, identify missing data sources, and derive new data-driven use cases.
The goals of the thesis include:
- Conception and prototypical implementation of a lightweight web-based tool for the structured exploration of tourism-related data sources.
- Development of a data model linking data sources, metadata, stakeholders, spatial references, and potential application contexts, as well as an interface for exporting these structured relations to a separately developed data streaming system.
- Design (optional) and implementation of interaction and visualization concepts, such as graph-based views, hierarchical structures, faceted filters, or map-based representations, with support for browsing, clustering, and filtering by properties such as data type, geospatial coverage, temporal scope, stakeholders, seasonality, and unused synergies.
- AI-supported assistance for metadata enrichment, similarity detection, automated tagging, and identification of meaningful combinations of data sources, stakeholders, and potential use cases.
- Support for multiple users and persistent user-specific views (optional: collaborative work).
We offer:
- Professional supervision by a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Salzburg.
- Close collaboration with and practical supervision by Salzburg Research and iSPACE plus in an application-oriented research project.
- A paid 20-hour position at Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH
- Gross monthly salary of EUR 3,328 (full-time, 38.5 hours/week, salary group D1 under the collective agreement for non-university research), limited to 6 months.
Required skills/interests:
- Experience in databases, data modeling, and data-driven systems.
- Experience in the development of web-based tools, e.g., with JavaScript / TypeScript and frameworks such as React, is an advantage.
- Interest in information visualization, visual analytics, and interaction design.
- Interest in AI / LLM-integration into exploratory web interfaces.
- Familiarity with interactive visualization libraries such as D3.js, Cytoscape.js, Leaflet, or p5.js is beneficial.
Contact: Nikolaus Augsten,
