{"id":154345,"date":"2021-12-16T13:12:23","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T18:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/?p=154345"},"modified":"2021-12-16T13:12:23","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T18:12:23","slug":"phd-student-jessica-barfield-assistant-prof-jiangen-he-get-award-to-fund-diversity-in-robot-human-interaction-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2021\/12\/16\/phd-student-jessica-barfield-assistant-prof-jiangen-he-get-award-to-fund-diversity-in-robot-human-interaction-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Phd Student Jessica Barfield &amp; Assistant Prof. Jiangen He Get Award to Fund Diversity in Robot-Human Interaction Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright wp-image-139078 size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/web_Barfield.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-139078\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">PhD Student Jessica Barfield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CCI doctoral student Jessica Barfield\u2019s recent research with SIS Professor Dania Bilal looked at diversity and how that affected the way people interact with AI-powered voice digital assistants. Now, in collaboration with SIS Assistant Professor Jiangen He, she\u2019s building on that research by taking similar principles and applying it to human-robot interaction. The two will be able to buy a robot for this research with funding they were recently awarded through a University of Tennessee, Knoxville <a href=\"https:\/\/gradschool.utk.edu\/faculty-staff\/studentfaculty-research-awards\/\">Student\/Faculty Research Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The aim of this project, \u201cDiversity as a Factor in the Design of Human-Robot Interfaces,\u201d is to see how people will interact with a robot that mirrors their own gender, ethnic background, and\/or ethnicity; they will also study how people interact with a robot who does not mirror themselves. Half of the study participants will see a robot that looks and sounds like them, and the other half will see a robot who doesn\u2019t appear to be anything like them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are attracted to people who are similar to us, and racial mirroring is a theory that we tend to trust people who are in the same race as themselves versus other races. We want to validate this kind of theory,\u201d He said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright wp-image-11167 size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/WebJiangen-He.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11167\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">SIS Assistant Professor Jiangen He<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barfield\u2019s previous research with voice digital assistants confirmed that people like to imagine that assistants look like a version of themselves. The racial mirroring theory she used with Bilal for that project was inspired by He, and is one reason she is collaborating with him on this project. The other reason his expertise in designing interfaces will lend valuable insight to the research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barfield said the reason why research like this is important to conduct is because it can influence how people design robot interfaces\u2014especially as robots become a part of the societal landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cConscious effort and considerations need to be taken into account for the voice, the ethnicity, the appearance of these designs. They need to be accessible and trustworthy. Looking at it from an industry perspective, companies designing and selling robots, and people feeling they can trust these robots that they\u2019re interacting with many times a day, is important,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s already been issues in technology where the inherent racial, gender, or ethnic bias of designers influences the interfaces they create and can adversely affect people of other genders, races, or ethnic backgrounds. Barfield said she wants good data on how to prevent this type of discrimination before the design process even starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But robot research is expensive, so Barfield and He had to look for funding opportunities, and were thrilled when they were awarded the money to buy the robot they wanted, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mistyrobotics.com\/products\/misty-ii\/\" class=\"ek-link\">Misty II<\/a>. Barfield said it is a fairly advanced social robot that can be used in a variety of research scenarios. In fact, she pointed out that it could also be used by others for their research, so it\u2019s a beneficial purchase for others at UT who want to study robot-human interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her research for this project will consist of scenarios in which the study participants will be recorded having a conversation with the robot, and then they\u2019ll complete a survey about various aspects regarding that interaction. They\u2019ll rate things such as the level of trustworthiness, satisfaction, likeability, and other factors to gauge how positively or negatively they viewed the interaction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CCI doctoral student Jessica Barfield\u2019s recent research with SIS Professor Dania Bilal looked at diversity and how that affected the way people interact with AI-powered voice digital assistants. Now, in collaboration with SIS Assistant Professor Jiangen He, she\u2019s building on that research by taking similar principles and applying it to human-robot interaction. The two will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Phd Student Jessica Barfield &amp; Assistant Prof. Jiangen He Get Award to Fund Diversity in Robot-Human Interaction Research - School of Information Sciences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2021\/12\/16\/phd-student-jessica-barfield-assistant-prof-jiangen-he-get-award-to-fund-diversity-in-robot-human-interaction-research\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Phd Student Jessica Barfield &amp; Assistant Prof. Jiangen He Get Award to Fund Diversity in Robot-Human Interaction Research - School of Information Sciences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CCI doctoral student Jessica Barfield\u2019s recent research with SIS Professor Dania Bilal looked at diversity and how that affected the way people interact with AI-powered voice digital assistants. 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