Fostering Human-Robot Rapport
We explore how robots can exhibit social skills, like building rapport, that can facilitate positive long-term human-robot interactions.
Our Research
Robots as Social Agents
We examine how factors such as robot personality, customizability, and autonomy can influence human-robot interactions.
Interaction-Shaping Robotics
We study how robots can shape human-to-human interactions in groups to improve group outcomes such as trust and inclusion.
Recent News
Oct 27, 2025
UChicago HRI Lab Featured on UChicago's Inside the Lab
The work of our lab has recently been featured on UChicago's Inside the Lab series! Check out the video below and the corresponding news article to learn more about our lab's mission and research areas, as well as some of the exciting projects we are working on.
Oct 11, 2025
Our Work Exploring how Robots can Shape Human-Human Connections in Decision-Making Tasks Published in Computers in Human Behavior
Work in our lab led by Timmy Lin explores the influence of a robot's positive or negative feedback on the interpersonal connectios between people in shared decision-making tasks. Published in Computers in Human Behavior (link to the article here), this work shows that both the human-likeness of a robot and its feedback distribution can impact human interpersonal closeness in decision-making contexts.
Sep 10, 2025
Our Work Showing Robots are Less Anxious Reading Aloud to Robots Published in Science Robotics
Work in our lab led by Lauren Wright demonstrated that children experience less anxiety when reading aloud to a robot as opposed to a human adult. Published in Science Robotics (link to the article here) demonstrates a unique advantage that robots can have in educational settings, creating safe spaces for children to make mistakes while learning without fearing judgment. This work has already been featured in UChicago News and UChicago CS News.
Aug 28, 2025
Lauren Wright Presents Work on Ingroup/Outgroup Effects in Human-Robot Interactions with Multiple Robots at the 2025 RO-MAN Conference
Lauren recently presented her work exploring how people respond to a robot's instructions that may undermine another robot, specifically in the context of ingroup and outgroup dynamics, at the 2025 RO-MAN Conference. Read more about this exciting work soon, once the conference proceedings are published!
