BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Designing Social Robots with Older Adults: Context\, Adaptation\, 
 and Dignity
DTSTART:20261111T110000
DTEND:20261111T120000
DTSTAMP:20261002T025014Z
UID:a4030e56ff66c0eed3611e524ab64770355e21ecb05063d7108e35bc
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Chorong Park\nHow social robots look\, behave\, and offe
 r support should reflect the people and environments they encounter. Drawi
 ng 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 styl
 es of future social robots.\n\nThrough participatory design\, observations
 \, and interviews\, I center older adults’ perspectives on meaningful su
 pport\, acceptable interaction\, and personal boundaries. Encounters with 
 robot companions have brought moments of enjoyment\, surprise\, and suppor
 t\, while revealing challenges involving communication\, expectations\, pr
 ivacy\, and control. I explore how embodiment\, movement\, voice\, and int
 eraction pacing shape these experiences\, and how caregivers can support e
 ngagement while preserving older adults’ choices and dignity.\n\nThese f
 indings inform design requirements for robots that people can understand\,
  guide\, and adjust as their circumstances change. I connect them to oppor
 tunities 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 positio
 ns older adults as active contributors to robotics research\, whose lived 
 expertise can shape both future robot companions and the broader systems o
 f support surrounding them.\n\n\nBiography\nChorong Park\, Ph.D.\, is an A
 ssistant 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 re
 search connects human–robot interaction\, human-centered AI\, and partic
 ipatory design to develop social robots and supportive technologies with o
 lder adults and caregivers.\n\nDrawing on studies in rural Indiana and urb
 an Houston\, she investigates how robots’ physical forms and interaction
 s can fit older adults’ needs\, surroundings\, and everyday lives. Her w
 ork centers older adults’ perspectives on companionship\, support\, priv
 acy\, personal boundaries\, and dignity\, including how caregiver involvem
 ent can preserve individual choice and control.\n\nHer research is informe
 d by more than 500 hours of volunteer technology support with older adults
  and people with disabilities and has appeared at ACM CHI\, ACM ASSETS\, a
 nd IEEE robotics venues. She earned her Ph.D. in Technology\, with a gradu
 ate minor in Gerontology\, and her master’s degree in UX Design from Pur
 due University.\n\nFurther information:\nUniversity of Houston research fe
 ature\n(https://stories.uh.edu/2026-ai-robots-for-older-adults/index.html)
 \nELARA Lab website\n(https://elaralab.org/)\n 
LOCATION:ME A3 31 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==ME%20A3%2031 https://epfl.zo
 om.us/j/69492652047
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR