News

Our Work on User Perceptions of the Social Agency of Customizable Robots was Featured in UChicago CS News

Our work investigating user how users perceive robots as social agents when they have the ability to control and customize their behavior was featured in UChicago CS News — here's a link to the article. This work was published at HRI 2025 and received a best paper honorable mention award. You can read the full paper here (authors: Alex Wuqi Zhang, Rafael Queiroz, and Sarah Sebo).

Visit from Jodi Forlizzi

We hosted a visit from Jodi Forlizzi, Herbert A. Simon Professor in Computer Science and the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Jodi's visit included a talk on "The Role of Design in Purposeful and Pragmatic AI" as well as discussions with our lab members about our ongoing projects. We are grateful for her time and insights!

HRI Lab Participation at Museum of Science and Industry Robot Block Party

UChicago's HRI lab participated in the Museum of Science and Industry's annual Robot Block Party this past weekend, where we were able to showcase our robots and talk about human-robot interaction research with the Chicago community. It was fantastic to participate in such a fantastic event with other amazing roboticists in the Chicago area! During the event, our lab members and robots were also featured on local Chicago TV station Fox 32.

🏆 Best Paper Nomination at HRI 2025

Our paper Balancing User Control and Perceived Robot Social Agency through the Design of End-User Robot Programming Interfaces (authors: Alex Wuqi Zhang, Rafael Queiroz, and Sarah Sebo) to be presented at HRI 2025 by Alex Wuqi Zhang has been nominated for best paper!

Four Papers to be Presented at HRI 2025!

Our group has four papers accepted to the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2025) and we will present our work on March 6th (the final day of the conference):

• Balancing User Control and Perceived Robot Social Agency through the Design of End-User Robot Programming Interfaces by Alex Wuqi Zhang, Rafael Queiroz, and Sarah Sebo
• Connection-Coordination Rapport (CCR) Scale: A Dual-Factor Scale to Measure Human-Robot Rapport by Ting-Han Lin, Hannah Dinner, Tsz Long Leung, Bilge Mutlu, J. Gregory Trafton, and Sarah Sebo
• Enabling End Users to Program Robots Using Reinforcement Learning by Tewodros W. Ayalew*, Jennifer Wang*, Michael L. Littman, Blase Ur, and Sarah Sebo
• Exploring Robot Personality Traits and Their Influence on User Affect and Experience by Alex Wuqi Zhang, Clark Kovacs, Liberto de Pablo, Justin Zhang, Maggie Bai, Sooyeon Jeong, and Sarah Sebo

PI Sarah Sebo Receives NSF CAREER Award

Sarah received the NSF CAREER award to fund work focused on developing social skills for robots to interact and collaborate with groups of people! You can read more about this exciting award and project in this UChicago CS Department news article.

HRI Lab Participation at Museum of Science and Industry Robot Block Party

UChicago's HRI lab participated in the Museum of Science and Industry's annual Robot Block Party this past weekend, where we were able to showcase our robots and talk about human-robot interaction research with the Chicago community. It was fantastic to participate in such a fantastic event with other amazing roboticists in the Chicago area! During the event, our lab members and robots were also featured on local Chicago TV stations NBC Chicago and WGN News.

Lab Meetings for Spring 2024

HRI lab meetings will be held during the 2024 Spring quarter on Tuesdays from 3:30pm - 4:30pm in JCL 354 starting Tuesday, March 19. If you’re a current UChicago student and interested in learning more about our research and/or how to get involved with our research, please feel free to join our weekly lab meetings. Feel free to email sarahsebo@uchicago.edu if you have any questions.

Honorable Mention for Best Paper at HRI 2024

Our paper A Taxonomy of Robot Autonomy for Human-Robot Interaction (authors: Stephanie Kim, Jacy Reese Anthis, and Sarah Sebo) presented at HRI 2024 by Stephanie Kim was given an honorable mention for best paper!

Presentations & Participation at HRI 2024

Stephanie Kim, Spenger Ng, Jacy Anthis, and Sarah Sebo attended the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2024) in Boulder Colorado. Stephanie and Spencer both presented their papers:

• A Taxonomy of Robot Autonomy for Human-Robot Interaction by Stephanie Kim, Jacy Reese Anthis, and Sarah Sebo
• Role-Playing with Robot Characters: Increasing User Engagement through Narrative and Gameplay Agency by Spencer Ng, Ting-Han Lin, You Li, and Sarah Sebo

New THRI Publication: RoSI A Model for Predicting Robot Social Influence

PI Sarah Sebo is a joint author of the paper RoSI A Model for Predicting Robot Social Influence that was just accepted for publication at THRI. This paper proposes a new conceptual model that predicts the level of social influence a robot has in a human-robot interaction based on two factors: violation of expectation and a person's social belonging with the robot. To learn more, please read the paper:

• RoSI A Model for Predicting Robot Social Influence by Hadas Erel*, Marynel Vázquez*, Sarah Sebo*, Nicole Salomons*, Sarah Gillet*, and Brian Scassellati* (* equal contribution)

Interaction-Shaping Robotics Paper Published in THRI

PI Sarah Sebo is a member of a collaborative team that has just published a paper in the THRI journal defining the sub-field of HRI called Interaction-Shaping Robotics (ISR). ISR investigates robots that influence the behaviors and attitudes exchanged between two (or more) other agents. To learn more, please read the paper:

• Interaction-Shaping Robotics: Robots that Influence Interactions between Other Agents by Sarah Gillet, Marynel Vázquez, Sean Andrist, Iolanda Leite, and Sarah Sebo

Lab Meetings for Winter 2024

HRI lab meetings will be held during the 2024 Winter quarter on Mondays from 3:30pm - 4:30pm in JCL 346 starting Monday, January 8. If you’re a current UChicago student and interested in learning more about our research and/or how to get involved with our research, please feel free to join our weekly lab meetings. Feel free to email sarahsebo@uchicago.edu if you have any questions.

Two Papers Accepted to HRI 2024

Our group has two papers accepted to the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2024):

• A Taxonomy of Robot Autonomy for Human-Robot Interaction by Stephanie Kim, Jacy Reese Anthis, and Sarah Sebo
• Role-Playing with Robot Characters: Increasing User Engagement through Narrative and Gameplay Agency by Spencer Ng, Ting-Han Lin, You Li, and Sarah Sebo

UChicago Magazine Article about Summer High School Robotics Course Taught by Members of the HRI Lab

On a hot morning in July, a sleepy John Crerar Library starts to rouse as students arrive for Introduction to Robot Programming and Design, a college-level summer course for Chicago Public Schools rising seniors. Since Crerar’s renovation five years ago,...

Midwest HRI Meetup 2023

The Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) labs at the University of Chicago (UChicago), the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW Madison), and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) gathered to discuss future collaborations.

CHI 2023 Paper Acceptance

Our group had a paper accepted to CHI 2023 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23)
Ice-Breaking Technology: Robots and Computers Can Foster Meaningful Connections between Strangers through In-Person Conversations by Alex Wuqi Zhang, Ting-Han Lin, Xuan Zhao, Sarah Sebo

HRI Lab Demos at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry's Robot Block Party

Our lab demoed our some current research projects at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry for their Robot Block Party event. It was incredibly fun to share our work and robots with so many interested children, adults, and robo-enthusiasts!

UChicago, Stanford Researchers Explore How Robots and Computers Can Help Strangers Have Meaningful In-Person Conversations

A first-of-its-kind study looked at the effectiveness of using technological facilitators to “break the ice” between strangers and increase overall well-being.

Lab Meetings for Spring 2023

HRI lab meetings will be held during the 2023 Spring quarter on Mondays from 11:30am - 12:30pm in JCL 346 starting Monday, March 27. If you’re a current UChicago student and interested in learning more about our research and/or how to get involved with our research, please feel free to join our weekly lab meetings. Feel free to email sarahsebo@uchicago.edu if you have any questions.

University of Chicago Prof. Sarah Sebo presents robot-human interaction research

Imagine a world where humans empathize with robots. Well, according to recent research at the University of Chicago, they already do. About 40 students gathered in classroom B211 in the Technological Institute Friday afternoon to hear about University of Chicago computer science Prof. Sarah Sebo’s research as director of the Human-Robot Interaction Lab. Sebo presented

Lab Meetings for Winter 2023

HRI lab meetings will be held during the 2023 Winter quarter on Wednesdays from 3:00pm - 4:00pm in JCL 346 starting Wednesday, Jan 11. If you’re a current UChicago student and interested in learning more about our research and/or how to get involved with our research, please feel free to join our weekly lab meetings. Feel free to email sarahsebo@uchicago.edu if you have any questions.

Lab Meetings for Fall 2022

HRI lab meetings will be held during the 2022 Fall quarter on Wednesdays from 12:30pm - 1:30pm in JCL 354 starting Wednesday, September 28. If you’re a current UChicago student and interested in learning more about our research and/or how to get involved with our research, please feel free to join our weekly lab meetings. Feel free to email sarahsebo@uchicago.edu if you have any questions.

Welcoming New PhD Students

This fall, we are welcoming two new PhD students to the lab: Lauren Wright and Tewodros Ayalew. Welcome Lauren and Tewodros!

RO-MAN 2022 Paper Presentations

Our group is presenting 3 papers at the IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2022):

• Physical Touch from a Robot Caregiver: Examining Factors that Shape Patient Experience by Alex Mazursky, Madeleine DeVoe, and Sarah Sebo
• Benefits of an Interactive Robot Character in Immersive Puzzle Games by Ting-Han Lin*, Spencer Ng*, and Sarah Sebo (*equal contribution)
• Parental Responses to Aggressive Child Behavior towards Robots, Smart Speakers, and Tablets by Keziah Naggita, Elsa Athiley, Beza Desta, and Sarah Sebo

HRI Lab at 2022 RO-MAN

Lauren, Spencer, and Timmy are attending RO-MAN in Naples, Italy this week to present their work!

RO-MAN 2022 Paper Acceptances

Our group had 3 papers accepted to the IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2022):

• Physical Touch from a Robot Caregiver: Examining Factors that Shape Patient Experience by Alex Mazursky, Madeleine DeVoe, and Sarah Sebo
• Benefits of an Interactive Robot Character in Immersive Puzzle Games by Ting-Han Lin*, Spencer Ng*, and Sarah Sebo (*equal contribution)
• Parental Responses to Aggressive Child Behavior towards Robots, Smart Speakers, and Tablets by Keziah Naggita, Elsa Athiley, Beza Desta, and Sarah Sebo

HRI Lab Demos at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry's Robot Block Party

Our lab demoed our some current research projects at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry for their Robot Block Party event. It was incredibly fun to share our work and robots with so many interested children, adults, and robo-enthusiasts!

Lab Meetings for Spring 2022

HRI lab meetings will be held during the 2022 Spring quarter on Mondays from 3:00pm - 4:00pm CST in JCL 354 starting Monday, April 4. If you’re a current UChicago student and interested in learning more about our research and/or how to get involved with our research, please feel free to join our weekly lab meetings. Feel free to email sarahsebo@uchicago.edu if you have any questions.

HRI Lab at Chicago's Green River

Some of the HRI Lab members visited Chicago's Green River while in downtown Chicago. The city dyes the Chicago river green each year for St. Patrick's day.

Robot Demos for CS PhD Visit Day

We had our first in-person lab demo session for the admitted CS PhD students visit day!

Sarah on Parental Leave

Sarah delivered her baby in December of 2021 and is on parental leave during the Winter quarter of 2022.

Brainstorming at our HRI Lab Meeting

We brainstormed activities that might increase an interpersonal bond between a human and a robot during our weekly lab meeting.

Lab Meetings for Fall 2021

HRI lab meetings will be held during the 2021 Fall quarter on Mondays from 4:00pm - 5:00pm CST in JCL 354 starting Monday, October 4. If you’re a current UChicago student and interested in learning more about our research and/or how to get involved with our research, please feel free to join our weekly lab meetings. Feel free to email sarahsebo@uchicago.edu if you have any questions.

Topics in Human-Robot Interaction Class

For UChicago students interested in learning more about human-robot interaction research, in the fall quarter of 2021 PI Sarah Sebo is teaching CMSC 33281 Topics in Human-Robot Interaction. This course gives students a broad overview of current cutting-edge research in HRI and also provides students with the opportunity of conducting their very own HRI research project.

HRI Lab - Summer Research Team

This summer, 4 undergraduate UChiacgo students conducted summer internships in the HRI lab working on a variety of interesting projects - we had a great time!

Introduction to Robotics Class (Spring 2021)

For UChicago students interested in learning more about robotics, in the spring quarter of 2021 PI Sarah Sebo is teaching CMSC 20600 Introduction to Robotics . This course is a hands-on and project based course designed to give students familiarity programming physical robots and real-world environments. Check out the course website for more details.

HRI Lab First Meeting

We, the HRI lab at UChicago, had our first lab meeting! Lab meetings will occur every week from 3:00pm - 4:00pm on Thursdays. If you’re a current UChicago student and interested in learning more about our research and/or how to get involved with our research, please feel free to join our weekly lab meetings (email sarahsebo@uchicago.edu for the Zoom link).

Introduction to Robotics Class (Winter 2021)

For UChicago students interested in learning more about robotics, in the winter quarter of 2021 PI Sarah Sebo is teaching CMSC 20600 Introduction to Robotics . This course is a hands-on and project based course designed to give students familiarity programming physical robots and real-world environments. Check out the course website for more details.

Published Research

PI Sarah Sebo’s work The Influence of Robot Verbal Support on Human Team Members: Encouraging Outgroup Contributions and Suppressing Ingroup Supportive Behavior has been published in Frontiers in Psychology: Performance Science in their special issue Teamwork in Human-Machine Teaming.

Presentation of Work

PI Sarah Sebo presented her work Robots in Groups and Teams: A Literature Review at the virtual CSCW 2020 conference.