Mic Drop #11 – Robothings for Social Good

MIC DROPS

The DSS Mic Drops are inspirational, interactive, provocative talks given by expert researchers and practitioners, on topics that relate to design, tech, societal challenges and how we can make the world a better place by integrating technology more wisely and humanely.

Robothings for Social Good

Designing intelligent and animated everyday things for education, serendipity and empowerment

ABOUT

Every days, objects, toys and even furniture could be imbued of intelligent and behavior to communicate in human term and even nudge toward collaboration, prosocial behaviors and reciprocity. I will present design and behavioral studies showing the effect of robothings on children prosocial behaviors in collaborative play. The implications from the research bring burning questions: How do we envision the robots of the future? What kind of intelligent tech will assist you in our everyday life? Will this tech look more like us? Or will robot AI, forms and behaviors follow function?

Cristina Zaga

is a Ph.D. candidate at the HMI group (University of Twente) and a visiting scholar at the RiG lab (Cornell University). Cristina’s doctoral research focuses on designing “robothings” everyday robotic objects and toys, to promote children’s prosocial behaviors in collaborative play. She envisions a future of robothings, robotics embedded in everyday objects and architecture, that meaningfully interact with people to empower them. Cristina in her after-hours explores artistic intervention to advance the discourse on human-centered robotics, using speculative design to make what she calls poetic robots. Her work in HRI interaction design for robothings and poeticrobots received an HRI student design competition award and has been exhibited at the Eindhoven Design Week 2017. Cristina was selected as Google Women TechMaker Scholar 2018 for her research quality and her support to empower women and children in STEM.

Speaker: Cristina Zaga (Twente University / Cornell University)
Date: 10 April 2019
Time: 17:00 – 19:00 (Including Drinks + Q&A)
Venue: Studio HvA, Eerste Boerhaavestraat 33E, 1091 GM Amsterdam

Watch a replay here: