Niklas Hypki

About Me

My name is Niklas Hypki, I am a psychologist, and my favorite color is green. Since 2019, I have been a PhD student at the University of Münster under Prof. Dr. Markus Lappe.

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Education

PhD (04/2019 - 04/2026)

At the Otto Creutzfeld Center of the University of Münster, I work on visual perception and eye movements in virtual environments. My PhD thesis is interdisciplinary, bridging psychology, computer science, and neuroscience. As part of my doctorate, I have already published several scientific articles in various peer-reviewed journals. In addition, I have presented my work at several international conferences and was awarded the i-Perception Early Career Advancement Prize as well as the IEEE AIVR Best Paper Award.

M. Sc. Psychology (10/2016 – 04/2019)

at the University of Münster (1.5)
Major subjects: Personnel and Organizational Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience
Thesis: “Shifting Perception: Adaptation to a Curvature Gain in Redirected Walking” (1.0).

B. Sc. Psychology (10/2013 – 09/2016)

at the University of Münster (1.9)
Major subjects: Work and Organizational Psychology & Educational Psychology
Thesis: "The Influence of Saccadic Adaptation on Covert Visual Search" (1.0)

General Higher Education Entrance Qualification (Abitur) (09/2004 – 09/2013)

at the Theodor-Heuss-Gymnasium in Waltrop (1.2)
Examination subjects: Mathematics, Sports, English & Educational Science

Work Experience and Internships

Research Associate at the University of Münster (since 04/2019)

At the Department of Psychology, I conduct many of my own research projects in basic research (including Eye-Tracking in Virtual Reality, Visual Search, Prediction of Self-Motion). I work collaboratively in international research teams, present my work at conferences, and publish articles in scientific journals. Additionally, I teach seminars in English and German in the Bachelor of Science in Psychology and the interdisciplinary Master of Science in Neuroscience.

Visiting Researcher at Royal Holloway University of London (11/2024 - 04/2025)

As part of the EU research project Places, I was a visiting researcher at Royal Holloway University of London in the Department of Psychology. Primarily, I developed further experiments there in which we investigated the basis on which we decide where to orient our head during a search.

Visiting Researcher at Western Sydney University (10/2022 - 04/2023)

As part of the EU research project Platypus, I was a visiting researcher at Western Sydney University at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development in Sydney. I mainly worked there on a research project regarding head and eye movements during visual search in Virtual Reality.

Project Management and Data Science in a Prototype Fund Project (04/2021 - 10/2022)

As part of the Prototype Fund of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, we developed the Local Emission Framework. Besides leading and developing the overall project, I focused particularly on the preparation and visualization of climate-relevant data.

Student Assistant & Tutor at the University of Münster (04/2015 – 03/2019)

In Personality and General Psychology, I planned, conducted, and analyzed various research projects in basic research (including Eye-Tracking, Virtual Reality, First Impressions of Personality, and Reaction Time Experiments). Furthermore, I worked as a tutor for the master's seminar "Mathematical Methods of Cognitive Neuroscience".

Internship at Zeiss Vision Science Lab in Tübingen (10/2017 – 03/2018)

At the Zeiss Research Lab in the Eye Clinic in Tübingen, I developed a toolbox for displaying distortions and blur in Virtual Reality. Additionally, I planned and conducted VR experiments on the perception of self-motion under distorted vision.

Internship at the Marriage, Family, and Life Counseling of the Diocese of Münster (05/2016 – 09/2016)

During this internship, I was allowed to accompany many initial and counseling interviews in couples and individual sessions over several months with various psychologists and gained insight into the entire counseling process and the supervision procedure. Furthermore, I dealt with diagnostics and data analysis in the counseling center and took over parts of the documentation work.

Internship at the Educational Counseling Center Vest Recklinghausen (09/2015 – 10/2015)

In this internship, I was able to participate in initial and counseling interviews with children and parents. Furthermore, I participated in and conducted test sessions to determine IQ and support needs. I also accompanied the psychologists on school and daycare visits and training sessions, e.g., on the topic of child welfare/endangerment.

Educational Counseling Vest Recklinghausen

Volunteering

Chairman Ultimate Frisbee Lüneburg (since 02/2026)

I have recently joined the board of this sports club, which currently has 68 members.

Coach at Ultimate Frisbee Lüneburg (since 10/2025)

After playing frisbee for many years in Münster, Sydney, London, and Lüneburg, I am now leading the training in Lüneburg once a week. It is an adult recreational sports group.

Sports Director at Turngemeinde Münster (06/2020 - 10/2022)

Until my stay in Australia, I was active as an assessor on the board of Turngemeinde Münster. I was particularly involved in club development, digitalization, and personnel management of the club.

Coach at TG Münster & LG Brillux Münster Athletics (02/2014 - 10/2022)

Throughout my time in Münster, I was involved in track and field. Accordingly, I have trained many groups of athletes of all ages over the years. The spectrum ranged from basic training to preparation for German championships. In addition, I organized sports festivals, pandemic online training, coaches' meetings, training camps, a new mascot, and all kinds of leisure activities. I have a track and field C-trainer license and am a qualified official/referee.

Head of Department Ultimate Frisbee at SC Münster 08 (06/2021 – 05/2022)

At SC Münster 08, I led the disc sports department with around 150 members for one year. After the department had grown strongly in the previous years, it was important to me to reorganize the many tasks in member administration and member communication and to establish a new board team. To this end, we wrote a new mission statement, digitized many processes, and redistributed many tasks. Youth work and everyday training benefited particularly from this.

Coach at LAV Stadtwerke Tübingen (10/2017 – 03/2018)

During my internship in the south, I really wanted to get involved with a track and field club in Tübingen. For half a year, I trained the U14 and U12 teams there.

Coach at TuS 09 Erkenschwick (10/2012 – 09/2013)

I gained my first experience as a trainer in Oer-Erkenschwick at the club where I competed as a sprinter myself for many years. For one year, I led my first training group there in the U14 age group.

What else I like to do

Tech

R, Python, C# + Unity, tinkering with Linux on Raspberrys & Webservers, trying out hardware, photo and video editing & I love good visualizations of complex data!

Music

Piano, Saxophone, Singing, Synthesizers & recording my own little songs in the basement studio

Sports

Running, Ultimate Frisbee & Cycling