Thesis Directors: Dr. S. Joost, Dr A. M. Jaksic
\r\nCivil and Environmental Engineering doctoral program
\r\nThesis Nr. 11653
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\r\nTo take part in the public defense, please contact directly the speaker
Thesis Director: Prof. P. Scarlino,
\r\nPhysics doctoral program
\r\nThesis Nr. 11553
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\r\nTo take part in the public defense, please contact directly the speaker
What does it take to build an AI scientist in chemistry that can carry out research and improve through experience? In this talk, I will explore scientific autonomy as a process of hill climbing: identifying the capabilities that limit autonomous research, addressing those gaps, and evaluating progress on increasingly demanding chemistry tasks.
\r\nDrawing on the El Agente family of systems, I will discuss how hierarchical teams of agents coordinate quantum chemistry workflows and how molecular structure generation addresses a critical gap between chemical reasoning and computational execution. I will consider how these capabilities could contribute to longer-term research goals, such as automated reaction pathway exploration. These examples illustrate how a single missing capability can interrupt an otherwise sophisticated research workflow.
\r\nI will also discuss the open challenge of enabling agents to learn continually from scientific literature, computational results, and failed attempts, and to acquire capabilities as new problems demand them. By examining current capabilities and remaining bottlenecks, I will outline a path toward AI systems that formulate and test chemical hypotheses with increasing independence.
How social robots look, behave, and offer support should reflect the people and environments they encounter. Drawing on studies with older adults in rural Indiana and urban Houston, this talk examines how individual needs, preferences, everyday surroundings, and care relationships can inform the physical forms and interaction styles of future social robots.
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\r\nThrough participatory design, observations, and interviews, I center older adults’ perspectives on meaningful support, acceptable interaction, and personal boundaries. Encounters with robot companions have brought moments of enjoyment, surprise, and support, while revealing challenges involving communication, expectations, privacy, and control. I explore how embodiment, movement, voice, and interaction pacing shape these experiences, and how caregivers can support engagement while preserving older adults’ choices and dignity.
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\r\nThese findings inform design requirements for robots that people can understand, guide, and adjust as their circumstances change. I connect them to opportunities for adaptive robot behavior, accessible interaction, and shared control, including how robots might recognize when assistance is welcome and make their actions easier to interpret or interrupt. The talk positions older adults as active contributors to robotics research, whose lived expertise can shape both future robot companions and the broader systems of support surrounding them.
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\r\nBiography
\r\nChorong Park, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor and Presidential Frontier Faculty at the University of Houston’s Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design, where she leads the Empathetic Lifespan AI & Robotics for Aging (ELARA) Lab. Her research connects human–robot interaction, human-centered AI, and participatory design to develop social robots and supportive technologies with older adults and caregivers.
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\r\nDrawing on studies in rural Indiana and urban Houston, she investigates how robots’ physical forms and interactions can fit older adults’ needs, surroundings, and everyday lives. Her work centers older adults’ perspectives on companionship, support, privacy, personal boundaries, and dignity, including how caregiver involvement can preserve individual choice and control.
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\r\nHer research is informed by more than 500 hours of volunteer technology support with older adults and people with disabilities and has appeared at ACM CHI, ACM ASSETS, and IEEE robotics venues. She earned her Ph.D. in Technology, with a graduate minor in Gerontology, and her master’s degree in UX Design from Purdue University.
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\r\nFurther information:
\r\nUniversity of Houston research feature
\r\n(https://stories.uh.edu/2026-ai-robots-for-older-adults/index.html)
\r\nELARA Lab website
\r\n(https://elaralab.org/)
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