Human-Robot Interaction Course

Robots are increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives at home, at work, and even in public spaces. But do people want to interact with them? Are they addressing real human needs? In a new course on Human-Robot Interaction, Dr. Elin Björling led HCDE graduate students to discover new use cases for social robots that can address modern challenges.

Kate Starbird on 60 Minutes

HCDE Associate Professor Kate Starbird appeared in a segment of 60 minutes that aired on March 24, 2024, about the right of free speech on social media platforms—an issue currently under discussion by the US Supreme Court.

Smart agriculture for diasporic urban farming

HCDE and Allen School professors Sucheta Ghoshal, Daniela Rosner, and Vikram Iyer have been awarded a new $1.66 million grant from the National Science Foundation to explore community-based integration of smart technologies into black diasporic agriculture practices. Collaborating with diasporic farming communities in the Seattle area and beyond, the researchers will study how AI impacts diasporic urban farming and how the co-development of AI-based tools shapes diasporic knowledge.

Stereotypes in AI Images

UW researchers, including HCDE PhD Candidate Sourojit Ghosh, found that when prompted to create pictures of “a person,” the AI image generator over-represented light-skinned men, sexualized images of certain women of color and failed to equitably represent Indigenous peoples.