research-article

Teaching social robotics to motivate women into engineering and robotics careers

Authors:

Alex Barco,

Rhea Montgomery Walsh,

Avram Block,

Kate Loveys,

Andrew McDaid,

Elizabeth BroadbentAuthors Info & Claims

HRI '19: Proceedings of the 14th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

Pages 518 - 519

Published: 10 January 2020 Publication History

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Abstract

Women are underrepresented in robotics, and this may be partly due to the educational emphasis on mechanical applications rather than social applications of robotics. This study aimed to investigate whether teaching robotics using social robots increased girls' engagement compared to using more mechanical vex robots. 20 girls were recruited from school robotics classes. They were taught 30 minutes of VEX robotics and 30 minutes of social robotics in a counter-balanced order. Engagement was measured using questionnaires and observations. Results showed that girls were significantly more engaged in the social robot classes than the vex robot classes. This pilot study suggests a possible way to encourage more girls to study robotics.

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Cited By

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Tarrés MDorado A(2021)Quí-Bot-H2O Challenge: Integration of computational thinking with chemical experimentation in early ages including gender, inclusive and diversity patternsNinth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (TEEM'21)10.1145/3486011.3486430(115-119)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3486011.3486430

Teaching social robotics to motivate women into engineering and robotics careers
1. Computer systems organization
  1. Embedded and cyber-physical systems
2. Computing methodologies
  1. Artificial intelligence
    1. Planning and scheduling

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Published In

HRI '19: Proceedings of the 14th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

March 2019

812 pages

ISBN:9781538685556

General Chairs:
Jung Kim
KAIST, Korea
,
Adriana Tapus
ENSTA ParisTech, France
,
Program Chairs:
David Sirkin
Stanford University
,
Malte Jung
Cornell University
,
Sonya S. Kwak
KIST, Korea

In-Cooperation

IEEE-RAS: Robotics and Automation

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IEEE Press

Publication History

Published: 10 January 2020

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HRI '19

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HRI '19: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

March 11 - 14, 2019

Daegu, Republic of Korea

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Overall Acceptance Rate 268 of 1,124 submissions, 24%

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Tarrés MDorado A(2021)Quí-Bot-H2O Challenge: Integration of computational thinking with chemical experimentation in early ages including gender, inclusive and diversity patternsNinth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (TEEM'21)10.1145/3486011.3486430(115-119)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3486011.3486430

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