Pathfinder

Pathfinder was developed as part of the AWP module at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in close collaboration with the Kriminalpolizei Offenburg. The project was designed to support investigative work by structuring complex case-related information, improving traceability, and making large amounts of data easier to manage and review. Pathfinder combines case management, measure management, entity review, document handling, cross-referencing, filtering, pagination, and visual analysis in one central application.

A major goal of the project was to create a tool that supports real investigative workflows instead of adding another layer of complexity. Users can create and manage cases and measures, link measures in a traceable chain of custody, and keep related information clearly assigned to the correct investigative context. Automatically extracted entities can be reviewed directly in the application, which means they can be edited instead of recreated from scratch. This includes changing values and types, adding comments and dates, and grouping identical entities to improve readability and overview. To make the application usable even with larger data sets, Pathfinder also supports bulk editing, bulk deletion, filtering by type and value, and full navigation through paginated result sets. In addition, different file types can be uploaded and assigned to measures, so documents remain connected to the relevant case structure. The application also provides clear graphical and analytical views to help identify relationships and patterns more quickly.

My own contribution included both project management and implementation work. While I took on a very active role in requirements engineering and coordination, I also invested a significant amount of time in programming. Since programming is not my strongest area, I deliberately contributed in a way that combined technical implementation with strong organizational responsibility. I worked extensively in Jira, translated customer requirements into structured tasks, maintained and refined the backlog, and kept track of progress throughout the sprints. I continuously followed up with the team, checked what was still open, prepared sprint reviews, and made sure the development process stayed aligned with the current priorities.

On the technical side, I implemented and improved several parts of the application myself. This included features for editing and deleting measures, linking measures in a chain of custody, and improving the user feedback after creating cases and measures. I also worked on the review workflow for extracted entities, including direct editing, additional metadata fields, grouping logic, filtering, pagination, and bulk actions. In addition, I contributed to the document upload functionality for measures and helped ensure that the implemented features worked reliably in practice. This allowed me to connect the client’s requirements with the actual implementation and to contribute both conceptually and technically to the project.

A large part of my responsibility was to keep the project structured, transparent, and well documented. I documented the implemented user stories technically, supported the review process, and helped validate the finished features. Even though I was heavily involved in project management, I also made sure to contribute directly to the codebase and to take ownership of several implementation tasks myself. The project was awarded a grade of 1.3 overall, and individual contributions were also assessed separately, which made it important to clearly document both the team result and my personal role.

P.S. A short demo video of the prototype is available below. It may lag slightly on my laptop due to hardware limitations, but it still shows the core functionality of the project.