“As a child, I wished for a robot that would explain others’ emotions to me” says Sharifa Alghowinem, a analysis scientist within the Media Lab’s Personal Robots Group (PRG). Growing up in Saudi Arabia, Alghowinem says she dreamed of coming to MIT in the future to develop Arabic-based applied sciences, and of making a robotic that would assist herself and others navigate a posh world.
In her early life, Alghowinem confronted difficulties with understanding social cues and by no means scored nicely on standardized assessments, however her desires carried her via. She earned an undergraduate diploma in computing earlier than leaving residence to pursue graduate training in Australia. At the Australian National University, she found affective computing for the primary time and commenced working to assist AI detect human feelings and moods, but it surely wasn’t till she got here to MIT as a postdoc with the Ibn Khaldun Fellowship for Saudi Arabian Women, which is housed within the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, that she was lastly capable of work on a know-how with the potential to elucidate others’ feelings in English and Arabic. Today, she says her work is so enjoyable that she calls the lab “my playground.”
Alghowinem can’t say no to an thrilling venture. She discovered one with nice potential to make robots extra useful to folks by working with Jibo, a pleasant robotic companion developed by the founding father of the Personal Robots Group (PRG) and the social robotic startup Jibo Inc., MIT Professor and Dean for Digital Learning Cynthia Breazeal. Breazeal’s analysis explores the potential for companion robots to go far past assistants who obey transactional instructions, like requests for the day by day climate, including objects to buying lists, or controlling lighting. At the MIT Media Lab, the PRG staff designs Jibo to make him an insightful coach and companion to advance social robotics applied sciences and analysis. Visitors to the MIT Museum can expertise Jibo’s charming persona.
Alghowinem’s analysis has targeted on psychological well being care and training, usually working with different graduate college students and Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program college students within the group. In one research, Jibo coached younger and older adults by way of constructive psychology. He tailored his interventions based mostly on the verbal and non-verbal responses he noticed within the members. For instance, Jibo takes within the verbal content material of a participant’s speech and combines it with non-verbal data like extended pauses and self-hugs. If he concludes that deep feelings have been disclosed, Jibo responds with empathy. When the participant doesn’t disclose, Jibo asks a delicate comply with up query like, “Can you tell me more?”
Another venture studied how a robotic can successfully assist high-quality father or mother and youngster interactions whereas studying a storybook collectively. Multiple PRG research work collectively to be taught what kinds of knowledge are wanted for a robotic to grasp folks’s social and emotional states.
“I would like to see Jibo become a companion for the whole household,” says Alghowinem. Jibo can tackle completely different roles with completely different members of the family equivalent to a companion, reminding elders to take remedy, or as a playmate for kids. Alghowinem is very motivated by the distinctive function Jibo may play in emotional wellness, and taking part in a preventative function in despair and even suicide. Integrating Jibo into day by day life gives the chance for Jibo to detect rising considerations and intervene, appearing as a confidential useful resource or psychological well being coach.
Alghowinem can be keen about instructing and mentoring others, and never solely by way of robots. She makes certain to satisfy individually with the scholars she mentors each week and he or she was instrumental earlier this yr in bringing two visiting undergraduate college students from Prince Sultan University in Saudi Arabia. Mindful of their social-emotional expertise, she labored laborious to create the chance for the 2 college students, collectively, to go to MIT so they might assist one another. One of the visiting college students, Tasneem Burghleh, says she was curious to satisfy the one that went out of her option to make alternatives for strangers and found in her an “endless passion that makes her want to pass it on and share it with everyone else.”
Next, Alghowinem is working to create alternatives for kids who’re refugees from Syria. Still within the fundraising stage, the plan is to equip social robots to show the youngsters English language and social-emotional abilities and supply actions to protect cultural heritage and Arabic skills.
“We’ve laid the groundwork by making sure Jibo can speak Arabic as well as several other languages,” says Alghowinem. “Now I hope we can learn how to make Jibo really useful to kids like me who need some support as they learn how to interact with the world around them.”