Robotics lab students give presentation to KVCC faculty

The Communication and Social Robotics Lab at Western Michigan University is a research collaborative between faculty in the School of Communication at WMU and the University of Kentucky which examines human-robot interaction from a communication theory perspective. Students come to the CSR lab in a variety of capacities to delve deeper into the study of human-robot interaction.

Many students who are now a part of the lab began as Kalamazoo Valley Community College students who have transferred to WMU's program. Two of these students, Henry Goble and Adam Lozier, set up a recent meeting with KVCC communication faculty to present on recent projects and discuss collaborative opportunities. Goble and Lozier gave a presentation on the lab's current research activities and invited KVCC faculty to drive the robots. KVCC faculty in attendance included Steve Ott, Jenny Hubbell Ott, Jacob Arndt and Pat Conroy.  

The meeting resulted in further ideas for collaboration such as utilizing the robots in public speaking courses at KVCC. KVCC faculty plan to leverage a key component of their organizational structure by facilitating a StrengthsFinder assessment for all lab students in the spring 2016 semester.