In all professions including academic careers, satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment are not always at hand, leading sometimes to questioning professional choices. Have you experienced not being completely sure of what is professionally right for you? Have you wondered how you could find it out? Do you feel you might be not well equipped to decide on the next step in your career, or to lack orientation? In this workshop, you will be provided with tools and orientation models that will guide you in your career decisions, and implement them. These are based on an authenticity-oriented perspective aiming at a fulfilling work and self-realization experience.
","image_description":"","creation_date":"2026-07-14T11:21:21","last_modification_date":"2026-07-14T11:23:17","link_label":"Website","link_url":"https://foster-lead-promote.ch/our_services/coachinggroups/","canceled":"False","cancel_reason":"","place_and_room":"EPFL","url_place_and_room":"","url_online_room":"","spoken_languages":["https://memento.epfl.ch/api/v1/spoken_languages/2/?format=json"],"speaker":"Afi Sika KuzeawuThis workshop is for staff and researchers working in NGOs and non-profits who aim to bring AI into their workflows with an ethical, careful approach. Join us for a hands-on morning of using and deploying the flagship model of the Swiss AI Initiative, learn first hand from the engineers and scientists working on Apertus.
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\r\nThe workshop runs from 9:30 to 12:30 at the EPFL AI Center Lounge in Lausanne. Doors open at 9:00.
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\r\nBackground: Apertus is a fully open large language model built in Switzerland, which is fully reproducible and can run on your own infrastructure. As a Foundation Model, it has already been adapted to specific contexts through post-training and fine-tuning processes. In addition to open access at all Swiss academic institutions, a growing number of Swiss and international commercial providers support Apertus for production deployment.
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\r\nThis workshop is also designed as a two-way conversation: alongside learning how to use and deploy Apertus, we want to hear how your organization is already working with AI, and where today's tools still fall short for you. We would like to hear about the languages, legal contexts, and use cases you operate in. This input will give us the opportunity to prioritize improvements for non-profit organizations on the Apertus roadmap.
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\r\nAt this workshop, you will have the chance to:\r\n
Following the success of the Unil+EFPL Health Days on the Ecublens campus, the EPFL Valais Wallis campus will host its first Health Day in Sion, featuring health check-ups and tests, information booths, workshops, and an expert talk.
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\r\n11:00-14:30 – Health Check-ups & Tests, Innovation & Sports\r\n
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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