Dr. Cynthia Breazeal is an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she founded and directs the Personal Robots Group (formerly the Robotic Life Group) at the Media Lab. She is a pioneer of social robotics and Human Robot Interaction (HRI). She has authored the book "Designing Sociable Robots" and has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in journals and conferences in autonomous robotics, artificial intelligence, human robot interaction, and robot learning. She has been awarded an ONR Young Investigator Award, honored as finalist in the National Design Awards in Communication, and recognized as a prominent young innovator in Technology Review's TR35 (formerly the TR100) awards. She received her Sc.D in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 2000.
Her research program focuses on developing the principles, techniques, and technologies for personal robots. She has developed numerous robotic creatures ranging from small hexapod robots, to embedding robotic technologies into familiar everyday artifacts (e.g., clothing, lamps, desktop computers), to creating highly expressive humanoids --- including the well-known social robot, Kismet. Ongoing research ncludes the development of socially intelligent robot partners that interact with humans in human-centric terms, work with humans as peers, and learn from people as an apprentice. Other projects have explored how HRI can be applied to enhance human behavior as applied to motor learning and cognitive performance. The ability of these robot systems to naturally interact, learn from, and effectively cooperate with people has been evaluated in numerous human subjects experiments. More recent work investigates the impact of long term HRI applied to communication, quality of life, health, and educational goals.
Her research program focuses on developing the principles, techniques, and technologies for personal robots. She has developed numerous robotic creatures ranging from small hexapod robots, to embedding robotic technologies into familiar everyday artifacts (e.g., clothing, lamps, desktop computers), to creating highly expressive humanoids --- including the well-known social robot, Kismet. Ongoing research ncludes the development of socially intelligent robot partners that interact with humans in human-centric terms, work with humans as peers, and learn from people as an apprentice. Other projects have explored how HRI can be applied to enhance human behavior as applied to motor learning and cognitive performance. The ability of these robot systems to naturally interact, learn from, and effectively cooperate with people has been evaluated in numerous human subjects experiments. More recent work investigates the impact of long term HRI applied to communication, quality of life, health, and educational goals.
Dr. Cynthia Breazeal
Associate Professor of MAS
Associate Professor of MAS
