WORKSHOP: The Pioneers Workshop at the 2017 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

This is funding to support a Pioneers Workshop (doctoral consortium) of approximately 24 graduate students (12 of whom are from the United States and therefore eligible for funding), along with distinguished research faculty. The event will take place as part of the first day of activities at the 12th International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI 2017), to be held March 6-9 in Vienna, Austria, and which is jointly sponsored by ACM and IEEE. HRI is the premier conference for showcasing the very best interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research on human-robot interaction, with roots in diverse fields including robotics, artificial intelligence, social psychology, cognitive science, human-computer interaction, human factors, engineering, and many more. It is a single-track, highly selective annual international conference that invites broad participation. Building on the "Smart City Wien" initiative, the theme of HRI 2017 is "Smart Interaction." The conference seeks contributions from a broad set of perspectives, including technical, design, methodological, behavioral, and theoretical, that advance fundamental and applied knowledge and methods in human-robot interaction, with the goal of enabling human-robot interaction through new technical advances, novel robot designs, new guidelines for design, and advanced methods for understanding and evaluating interaction. More information about the conference is available online at http://humanrobotinteraction.org/2017. The Pioneers Workshop will afford a unique opportunity for the best of the next generation of researchers in human-robot interaction to be exposed to and discuss current and relevant topics as they are being studied in several different research communities. This is important for the field, because it has been recognized that transformative advances in research in this fledgling area can only come through the melding of cross-disciplinary knowledge and multinational perspectives. Participants will be encouraged to create a social network both among themselves and with senior researchers at a critical stage in their professional development, to form collaborative relationships, and to generate new research questions to be addressed during the coming years. Participants will also gain leadership and service experience, as the workshop is largely student organized and student led. The PI has expressed his strong commitment to recruiting women and members from under-represented groups. To further ensure diversity the event organizers will consider an applicant's potential to offer a fresh perspective and point of view with respect to HRI, will recruit students who are just beginning their graduate degree programs in addition to students who are further along in their degrees, and will strive to limit the number of participants accepted from a particular institution to at most two. As a new feature this year, the organizers will also invite 3 undergraduate students (all eligible for funding) to help increase diversity in the pipeline of students entering this field. The Pioneers Workshop is designed to complement the conference, by providing a forum for students and recent graduates in the field of HRI to share their current research with their peers and a panel of senior researchers in a setting that is less formal and more interactive than the main conference. During the workshop, participants will talk about the important upcoming research themes in the field, encouraging the formation of collaborative relationships across disciplines and geographic boundaries. To these ends, the workshop format will encompass a variety of activities including three keynotes, a distinguished panel session, and breakout sessions. To start the day, all workshop attendees will briefly introduce themselves and their interests. Following the opening keynote, approximately half of the participants will present 3-minute overviews of their work, leading into an interactive poster session. This will enable all participants to share their research and receive feedback from students and senior researchers in an informal setting. The workshop organizers will facilitate the post-presentation discussion and will encourage participants to ask questions of their peers during the interactive break and poster session. After lunch, the remaining workshop participants will give their 3-minute overviews, followed by presentation of their posters during a second interactive poster session. Senior researchers (in addition to those on the panel) will be invited to attend the student presentations and poster sessions in order to provide feedback to participants, and workshop participants will be invited to present their posters during the main poster session of the HRI conference as well. The conversations between the panel and participants will continue over lunch and during dinner.