I have an interdisciplinary background in culture and media studies and cognitive science. Before joining the HCI group, I worked as a research assistant at the Austrian Institute of Artificial Intelligence (OFAI) and in the FWF-PEEK Neuromatic GameArt project which was a multidisciplinary collaboration between Vienna University of Applied Arts and University of Vienna. While my current research field is Human-Robot interaction (HRI), I also take inspiration from Science and Technology Studies (STS). I believe, STS can enrich HRI conceptually, methodologically and in terms of promoting more wider recognition of robots as always embedded socially, culturally and politically. The research questions I address in my thesis concern HRI in naturalistic settings, socio-affective processes in HRI, interactions beyond utility, multi-stakeholders perspectives on HRI and impacts of robotization on labor practices.
My doctoral thesis research at the intersection of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) and Science Technology Society (STS) studies. I focus on two cases of existing commercial robots in public and private spaces (autonomous delivery robots by Starship and social companion robot Vector) to explore using a mix-methods approach how different stakeholders construe and engage with these robots in ways that exceed primary functionality, which implications such engagements may have for robot design, and broader effect(s) that these technologies may have for different people involved in sharing spaces with these robots.
This semester I am teaching two units on Other Methods of the User Research Methods course(s).
Topics for students:
- HRI, social aspects of HRI
- Ethnographic and qualitative studies of technologies
- Technology and labor
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