Welcome to the Social Robots in Research Conference
‘Social Robots in Research’ – the theme of June 8th 2021 that marked the launch of the very first international Furhat conference. Held virtually, we became inspired during the half-day session by industry experts using the Furhat platform for ground-breaking research studies.Each of the keynotes were recorded, which you can watch below. And as an added bonus, you can access our Research Resources Zone, a collection of the best material for social robots in research and innovation. Happy viewing!
What is the conference?
Who should attend it?
What will the content look like?
Is there a cost?
A Magical Welcome
Our Interactions Developer, who also happens to be a renowned international magician, made an appearance during the conference opening along with his trusty sidekick Furhat! Or was he Furhat’s sidekick? Nobody really knows…
Speakers
Be inspired by the leading experts within the quickly evolving world of AI and Social Robotics
Samer Al Moubayed
CEO, Furhat Robotics
Samer Al Moubayed, Co-founder & CEO of Furhat Robotics, is an Affiliate Faculty at Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), where he earned a PhD in Speech Technology and a Master's in AI and Language. He co-founded Furhat Robotics with colleagues from KTH.
Roger K. Moore
Professor of Spoken Language Processing
Prof. Roger K. Moore has over 40 years of experience in Speech Technology R&D. Former Head of the UK Government’s Speech Research Unit (1985–1999), he developed the Aurix products and co-founded 20/20 Speech Ltd. He is a past President of the International Speech Communication Association.
Sarah Gillet
Ph.D. student, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Sarah, a Ph.D. student at KTH Royal Institute of Technology's Robotics, Perception, and Learning division, researches using social robots to reduce in-group favoritism and enhance social interactions in everyday groups.
Ronald Cumbal
Ph.D. student, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Ronald is a researcher in social robots for educational purposes, particularly second language learning. He holds a Master’s in Mechanical and Control Engineering from Delft University of Technology and studies collaborative learner interactions in robot-mediated activities.
Jonas Beskow
Co-founder and Senior R&D Engineer, Furhat Robotics
Jonas is the co-founder of Furhat Robotics and Senior R&D Engineer, and a professor at KTH specializing in multimodal embodied systems. His work focuses on modeling and synthesizing human communicative behaviors, including speech, facial expressions, and gaze, to make machines interact more human-like.
Helen Hastie
Professor in Computer Science
Helen Hastie is a Professor of Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University, specializing in multimodal dialogue systems, human-robot interaction, and trustworthy autonomous systems. She directs the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Robotics, is Academic Lead for the National Robotarium, and PI for the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Node on Trust. She has held roles on key scientific committees, including advising the Scottish Government on AI Strategy.
