[Sci-tech-public] STS Colloquium, February 12; Schedule of Events, February 12-16

[Debbie Meinbresse]

Attached is a schedule of events for the period February 12-16, 
2007.  Remember to check the MIT Calendar of Events (http://events.mit.edu/)
for a complete listing of campus activities.

Please join us on Monday, February 12th, for the first STS Colloquium 
of the spring term:

Explorations in Socially Intelligent Robots

4:00 pm, MIT E51-095

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 Designing Sociable Robots, 
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.

Abstract
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.




Debbie Meinbresse
STS Program, MIT
617-452-2390
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