News

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.