Event Location: NSH 1305
Bio: Bilge Mutlu is an assistant professor of computer science, psychology, and industrial engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He received his Ph.D. degree from Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute in 2009. His background combines training in interaction design, human-computer interaction, and robotics with industry experience in product design and development. Dr. Mutlu is a former Fulbright Scholar and the recipient of the NSF CAREER award and several paper awards and nominations, including HRI 2008, HRI 2009, HRI 2011, UbiComp 2013, IVA 2013, RSS 2013, and HRI 2014. His research has been covered by national and international press including the NewScientist, MIT Technology Review, Discovery News, Science Nation, and Voice of America. He has served in the Steering Committee of the HRI Conference and the Editorial Board of IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, co-chairing the Program Committees for HRI 2015 and ICSR 2011 and the Program Sub-committees on Design for CHI 2013 and CHI 2014.

Abstract: Robotic products constitute an emerging family of technologies that holds tremendous promise for everyday use. This promise also presents challenges for designers: the interactions they afford can be far more complex than those with conventional products, and designing for these interactions introduces many new questions. For instance, how can we design a product that follows human social norms? What is the design space for such a product? How can we empower designers to tackle such design problems? In this talk, I will present my group’s work on building human-centered tools, methods, and knowledge to enable the design of robotic products. In particular, I will describe the development of novel tools and methods that support complex design tasks across the key stages of the design process, including analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, and an exploration into the design space for robotic products across different platforms, including social, assistive, and telepresence robots.