Colloquium: Selma Sabanovic

You are cordially invited to attend this School of Informatics Colloquium:

Monday, April 6
2:00 p.m.
Informatics East (I2), Room 130

Selma Sabanovic, Stanford University, will present, "Designing everyday robots: a social science perspective on robotics.”

Abstract:
Social robotics and human-robot interaction (HRI) envision new roles for robots as social entities—companions, care-takers, guides and receptionists, and mediators for the increasingly complex technological environments we live in. The development of social robots presents a combination of scientific, technical, and social challenges. I approach robot design from the perspective of a social scientist and “critical practitioner” by participating in robotics research and, especially, analyzing the resulting interdisciplinary collaborations. In my talk, I map out different modes of critical engagement of social scientists in robot design: 1) creating evaluation methods for existing robots that challenge and expand on design assumptions; 2) developing an iterative “outside-in design” process that begins with a keen appreciation for observation and reliance on existing empirical research for understanding the nuances of human interaction applied to robots, and 3) using human-robot interaction studies to validate models of social cognition. I describe results from studies I performed using various robotics platforms, including the seal robot Paro, GRACE (Graduate Robot Attending a ConferencE), the Roboceptionist, Keepon, and a robotic shadow puppeteer we developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. My work has implications for the analysis of the social, cultural and disciplinary assumptions informing the design of socially interactive technologies and the development of socially responsive and responsible social robot designs. It also contributes to the study of how the boundaries between the social, natural, and applied science are challenged, traversed, and redefined.