Short Bio

Hi, I’m Jessica Wenninger! I grew up in Germany, completed my Master’s in Computer Vision and AI in Ireland, and am now doing my PhD with the SWEET programme. As you can see, one of my hobbies is travelling. I also love doing pretty much any kind of sport, and I like to read. One of my favourite books is Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. I’ve always been fascinated by how our brains work and how we make sense of the world. This curiosity has led me to this PhD, where I now explore situation awareness in social robots.

Topic

A system that can reliably generate social behaviours in adaptation to the social behaviour of a person. The system should exhibit the robustness, generalisability and utility that is expected of a commercially available robot platform with real end-users in the wild. The work is validated with user studies on the effectiveness of the adaptive behaviour on relevant interaction parameters, such as trust or likability. Additionally, the project is expected to live up to criteria for ethical and cultural sensitivity, not just technical advancements, by following guidelines for responsible design and deployment of socially intelligent robots as well as design principles to foster trust and acceptance in diverse contexts.

Host Institution:Furhat Robotics AB – Stockholm, Sweden

PhD Enrollment: Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

PI: Prof. Gabriel Skanze