Keynote speakers
We will be announcing our lineup of keynote speakers very soon.
Stay tuned for updates as we finalize our list of invited experts who will be sharing their expertise and insights with you!
Prof. Maja Mataric´
University of Southern California (USC)
Prof. Maja Mataric´ is Professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics at the University of Southern California (USC), founding director of the USC Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center, and Interim Vice President of Research. She is now best known for founding the field of socially assistive robotics, where her research is developing human-robot interaction algorithms and methods for supporting behavior change in convalescence, rehabilitation, training, and education. Her research has developed robot-assisted therapies for children with autism spectrum disorders, stroke and traumatic brain injury survivors, and individuals with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, and has deployed robots in complex environments including homes, nursing homes, hospitals, and classrooms for weeks and months at a time, collecting unprecedented datasets that enabled novel models and personalization strategies .
Socially Assistive Robotics as a Path to Accessible Personalized Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Therapy Support
The last decade has seen a convergence of technologies that make it possible for users to interact with intelligent agents in therapeutic settings. Concurrently, much research has been done into socially assistive robotics, physically embodied systems (typically designed to be small and safe) aimed at delivering personalized interactions for children on the autism spectrum, demonstrating promising results in improving various behavioral outcomes. In the absence of large-scale clinical trials evaluating such methods, it is important to not overlook their promise or overstate their abilities. What can socially assistive robots do, what have they already done to date, why aren’t they in many homes yet, how soon will they be in our homes, and what may that mean for ASD therapy and for early childhood development more broadly? This talk will discuss the science and technology, as well as commercialization, accessibility, and privacy implications of socially assistive robotics for ASD.
Prof. Benjamin R. Cowan
University College Dublin
Benjamin Cowan is an associate professor at the University College Dublin’s School of Information & Communication Studies, Ireland. His research lies at the juncture between psychology, human-computer interaction, and communication systems in investigating how conversational technology design impacts aspects of user behavior in social, collaborative, and communicative interactions. Prof. Cowan is vice chair of the ACM Conversational User Interfaces conference.
Conversational Interfaces: Where we are and where we need to be
We now interact with conversational interfaces on a daily basis. My talk aims to uncover the main trends in human computer interaction based conversational agent research over the past 40 years, covering key methodological approaches, measures and topics that have taken hold in this body of work, reflecting on how these can act as a foundation to researching how conversational interfaces can support those with neurodevelopmental disorders.