Hasbro project in the news!
The HCRI partnership with Hasbro makes the news during National Family Caregivers Month!
Link after the break.
Beth and Maartje interviewed for Medyascope, Turkish News
My fellow HCRI post-doc Maartje de Graaf and I were recently interviewed by journalist Liora Morhayim for the independent Turkish news site, Medyascope, about the field of human-robot interaction. Liora is a student studying Journalism and Psychology here at Brown. Way to go Liora!
Link after the break.
I really like making posters.
I really enjoy making posters of my projects. I know sometimes posters can be seen as the "less good" presentation type. But, in my experience, the conversations I've had have been far more productive and rewarding when in poster sessions than in lecture sessions. I also like making things, and posters are a great way to make tangible research papers and ideas. When my undergrads are learning how to make posters, we do a "poster walk" where we go around looking at other people's example posters and we talk about all the things we like or would improve upon. Two of my students have won best poster awards. (Just to be clear, that was not a humble brag. It was a regular brag. I have great students and they have great posters).
I decided that I should not let them sit in the physical or digital closet anymore. Thus, I have created a page where you can explore some of these creations. Please enjoy.
Link after the break.
This day in UCF history
Today, John Hitt President of the University of Central Florida announced that he will be retiring after 25 years leading UCF. This announcement hit home. Specifically some of Dr. Hitt's comments about UCF during his tenure as President. Under President Hitt's leadership, UCF shattered the idea that "Exclusivity is a virtue of higher education." This type of thinking is what allowed me and thousands like me access to higher education. In fact, inclusivity has allowed UCF to become one of the largest universities in the nation while retaining high academic standards (avg. GPA for students 4.05) and amazing research productivity (classified as an intensive research institution). Under Dr. Hitt's leadership, UCF has proven that innovation, inclusivity, and access to all does not equal compromise in academic standards. It means opportunity. Thank you, Dr. Hitt, for your service and leadership. UCF is a great place to call my Alma Mater.
Introducing the ABOT Database
My colleagues at Brown and I recently completed the first iteration of a large (and largely fun!) project we are calling the Anthropomorphic RoBOT (ABOT) Database. Motivated by a wealth of studies about the anthropomorphic appearance of robots, the creation of ABOT was an attempt to conduct a large, systematic survey of the tremendous variety of anthropomorphic (human-like) robots and provide a useful tool for studying the human-like appearance of robots.
Link after the break.
Happy National Ergonomics Month!
It’s National Ergonomics Month!
As the NEM chair, I am happy to announce that we just started the 14th National Ergonomics Month (NEM)--a campaign designated by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society as a time to highlight the work of human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) professionals toward bettering the lives of people around the world.
Happy to announce that the papers submitted with the CS department to the International Symposium on Robotics Research were accepted! I'm looking forward to more collaborations with the robotics group in the CS department.
A few weeks back I was invited by my good friend Dr. Ben Sawyer to speak at MIT's AgeLab about the HCRI and our aging related projects. I had a great time and made some new friends. Ben and some of his colleagues will be making the trek down to Providence to speak to at Brown this Fall.
Today I get to send a serious email to procure a bunch of teddy bears and tablets for kids. It's going to be a good day.
The summer of writing continues on! My manuscript of my dissertation work was accepted pending revisions, which is great news. With a marathon week of writing, I was able to get the changes in by the deadline. I'm looking forward to seeing what the reviewers think of the changes. *fingers crossed*.
Another great collaboration with my friends and colleagues at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is under way. We just submitted a proposal to a special conceptual issue of Group and Organizational Management. Excited to see how this one turns out!
Lazzara, E., Keebler, J.R., Ullman, D., Phillips, E., & Baker, A. L. (under review). Swift trust in human vs. robots: Drawing parallels and understanding divergence. Group and Organizational Management
Overview after the break
Trust repair paper gets revise and resubmit
Happy to announce that the article my colleagues and I submitted to the ACM Transactions on Interactive and Intelligent Systems (TiiS), Trust in Human-Machine Interaction got a revise and resubmit. After a facelift, the revised article is back in for review. Fingers crossed, we'll be hearing back soon.
Baker, T., Phillips, E., Ullman, D., & Keebler, J. (under review). Toward an understanding of trust repair in human-robot interaction: Current research and future directions. Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems
bstract after the break
Quick update: The Women in Robotics Workshop is this weekend as part of the Robotics: Society and Systems conference at MIT. The other co-organizers and I have been working really hard to support female student participation in this event. Thanks to support from NSF, X (Google), Mayfield Robotics, and Toyota Research Institute (Heavy lifting done by my co-organizers) we are supporting more than 20 student travel awards both domestically and internationally.
More info after the break.
Update: Walkerbot/Tablebot project makes progress!
Earlier I posted on the successful funding of our Walkerbot project which is focused on developing robots and other robotic devices to help older adults maintain personal connections to others as well as physical activity as they age. I'm happy to present an update on the progress of the Walkerbot project. With this funding we were able to support an engineering student to develop Tbo (Tablebot), the first in the class of situated robots.
Partnering with the CS department has been really productive over the last semester. We just submitted another new paper to the International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR). I am truly grateful for being able to work with such a talented and generous group of faculty and students.
Rosen, E., Whitney, D., Phillips E., Chen, G., Tompkin, J., Konidaris, G., & Tellex S. (Submitted). Communicating robot arm motion intent through mixed reality head-mounted displays. International Symposium on Robotics Research
Abstract after the break.
TFW Transformation Tuesdays
Since moving to Providence, I've been working out with a group called Training for Warriors (TFW). TFW is a global group of gyms, coaches, and affiliates started by Martin Rooney, trainer to MMA fighters and other athletes. Although I have no aspiration to become an MMA fighter, I do want to be stronger. I am a fierce advocate for the belief that taking care of my body will help me to take care of my mind. And for the time being, my mind is the most valuable income earning asset I have. Anyway, TFW is awesome! Coach Mike with TFW Providence is a great friend and mentor and I cherish the time I spend with the group, even though it's hard to carve the time out of my week. I think it's important to share my progress. So here's the first (of hopefully many) Transformation Tuesdays.
With the creation of the HCRI, new professors joining the university, and new classes being offered to students, the drone community at Brown is growing fast. In fact, one of our first drone projects was drone delivery of cookies. Yum! As a result, the University has asked the HCRI to draft the first University wide drone policy. I'm really excited to have been asked to co-author this policy. I think it will be great experience for me and will allow me to make a practical and lasting contribution to the University and its community.
More after the break.
Partnership with Sproutel gets funded, $50,000!
The Rhode Island Innovation Voucher submitted in partnership with Sproutel was selected for funding! Looking forward to working with Sproutel and Jerry the Bear!
I'm excited to share the Human Factors community with the grad students and other colleagues I am working with here at Brown. We'll be presenting these in Austin, TX later this year.
Phillips, E., Ullman, D., de Graaf, M. & Malle, B.F. (Accepted). What does a robot look like?: A multi-site examination of user expectations about robot form. Submitted to Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, Austin, TX.
Odette, K., Rivera, J., Phillips, E., Jimenez, C., & Jentsch, F. (Accepted). Robot self-
assessment and expression: A framework. Submitted to Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, Austin, TX.
Abstracts after the break.