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Attached is a schedule of events for the period February 12-16,
2007. Remember to check the MIT Calendar of Events
(<a href="http://events.mit.edu/" eudora="autourl">
http://events.mit.edu/</a>)<br>
for a complete listing of campus activities.<br><br>
Please join us on Monday, February 12th, for the first STS Colloquium of
the spring term: <br><br>
<div align="center"><font size=5 color="#0000FF"><b>Explorations in
Socially Intelligent Robots<br><br>
</font><font size=4 color="#0000FF">4:00 pm, MIT E51-095<br><br>
</b></font></div>
Our speaker will be Cynthia Breazeal, Associate Professor of Media Arts
and Sciences, at MIT. Professor Breazeal directs the Media Lab's
Robotic Life group and holds the LG Career Development chair, having
previously been a postdoctoral associate at MIT's Artificial Intelligence
(AI) Lab. Breazeal is particularly interested in developing creature-like
technologies that exhibit social commonsense and engage people in
familiar human terms. Kismet, her anthropomorphic robotic head, has been
featured in international media and is the subject of her book
<i>Designing Sociable Robots,</i> published by the MIT Press. She
continues to develop anthropomorphic robots as part of her ongoing work
of building artificial systems that learn from and interact with people
in an intelligent, life-like, and sociable manner. Breazeal earned ScD
and MS degrees at MIT in electrical engineering and computer science, and
a BS in electrical and computer engineering from the University of
California, Santa Barbara.<br><br>
<b><u>Abstract<br>
</u></b>The emerging field of Human-Robot Interaction is undergoing rapid
growth, motivated by important societal challenges and new applications
for robotic technologies for the general public. In this talk I present
five projects currently under development in the Robotic Life Group at
the Media Lab. Two projects explore “invisible robot” applications
where we have integrated robotic technologies into everyday artifacts
like clothing or desktop computers, and the rest focus on more
anthropomorphic social robots and interactive game characters. These
projects are motivated by the promise of social robotics and (related
technologies) to play a beneficial role in the daily lives of people. An
important goal of this work is to leverage scientific understanding of
human brains, bodies, and behavior to design robotic technologies that
can enhance human performance, learning, communication, and quality of
life. Specific applications in eldercare, health, education, and social
networking will be highlighted. <br><br>
<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Debbie Meinbresse<br>
STS Program, MIT<br>
617-452-2390<br>
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