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Researchers track the personalities of social robots to improve how they interact with humans

An interdisciplinary research team from the University of Waterloo's Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Lab (SIRRL) has found that people prefer interacting with robots they perceive to have social identities like their own.

This finding was made by a pair of Waterloo professors: Dr. Moojan Ghafurian, based in the Department of Systems Design Engineering and Dr. Kerstin Dautenhahn, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who worked together to conduct new research on human interactions with social robots. These robots possess social abilities and can interact with humans in interpersonal and social manners.

A research team from the University of Waterloo is using radar technology to monitor people’s health while at the wheel, turning the ordinary car or truck into a mobile, medical hub.

Dr. George Shaker, an adjunct professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, and Ali Gharamohammadi, the lead PhD student on the project, have integrated radar with evolving vehicle technology to make health checks easier—without the need for any type of wearable.

The radar, smaller than a USB thumb drive, is integrated into the vehicle cabin and sends out signals that detect human vibrations, which are then sent back to the radar. The technology can detect tiny movements like the rise and fall of a chest from breathing or heartbeats. 

Electrical and computer engineering professor, Xuemin (Sherman) Shen, has been elected an International Fellow of The Engineering Academy of Japan (EAJ). The EAJ is composed of leading experts from academia, industry, and government institutions who possess a wide range of knowledge and have made outstanding contributions in engineering and technological sciences, and closely related fields.