Engaging with Robots - Workshop and Thesis Defense by Mirjam de Haas
On Wednesday April 20th, the CSAI department at Tilburg University hosts a workshop on engaging with robots and AI. Especially in situations where humans need to interact with robots for a longer period of time, the motivation to do so is dependent on their ongoing engagement. PhD candidate Mirjam de Haas studied this engagement as part of the Horizon 2020 L2TOR project, which is focused on robots teaching preschoolers a second language.
Increasingly, digital instruments of various kinds support teachers in their work. Humanoid robots have an advantage over screen-based tools through their embodiment and their increased ability to act as a social agent. Mirjam’s research uncovers the effect robots can have on children’s engagement in the lesson, as well as the perception children form of the robot as a teacher, fellow student, or friend.
The morning starts with a workshop* including various speakers:
| 10:00 - 10:10 | Welcome |
| 10:10 - 10:30 | Rianne van den Berghe (Windesheim University of Applied Sciences) - The Use of Social Robots in a Translanguaging Pedagogy |
| 10:30 - 10:50 | Tibor Bosse (Radboud University) - Exploring Moral Considerations Towards Social Robots |
| 10:50 - 11:10 | Pieter Spronck (Tilburg University) - Procedural Content Generation in Games |
| 11:10 - 11:30 | Break |
| 11:30 - 11:50 | Emilia Barakova (Eindhoven University of Technology) - Social Robots as Motivators in Musical Instrument Practicing |
| 11:50 - 12:10 | Koen Hindriks (Vrije Universiteit) - Conversational Design for a Robot Math Tutor |
* there are still a few places available, please contact the CSAI department office
After a lunch break, we continue at 14:00 with the thesis defense of Mirjam de Haas, entitled "Staying engaged in child-robot interaction: A quantitative approach to studying preschoolers’ engagement with robots and tasks during second-language tutoring".
The department of course hopes to conclude this day of learning by festively welcoming the newly minted Dr. de Haas!
You can follow the defense online.
The Doctoral Thesis of Mirjam de Haas is available via https://doi.org/10.26116/fr4m-gq74
You can find more information about the L2TOR project on www.l2tor.eu
Author: Lisa E. Rombout
Image credit: Mirjam de Haas