Call for Abstracts
Self-coaching tools for conducting responsible research and innovation (RRI) with social robots
Workshop at the International Conference of Social Robotics (ICSR 2019)
Madrid, Spain
November 26th-29th, 2019
https://sites.google.com/view/sc-rri
Submission deadline: October 13th, 2019
We would like to invite you to submit your abstract proposal at the workshop on “self-coaching tools for conducting responsible research and innovation (RRI) with social robots” that we organize as part of the International Conference of Social Robotics in Madrid, Spain (ICSR 2019).
OVERVIEW
Responsible innovation
Innovating is about creating and transforming the future of society. However, to ensure a desirable future for humanity, innovation needs to be responsible. In this respect, there are frameworks such as the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) that guide all the societal actors involved in research and innovation (R&I) processes towards reflecting upon the consequences of their research for society.
In this sense, responsible innovation is “an approach that anticipates and assesses potential implications and societal expectations with regard to research and innovation, with the aim to foster the design of inclusive and sustainable research and innovation” (EC, 2019).
R&I processes conducted from the lens of RRI are guided by the principles or dimensions of inclusion, anticipation, reflection, responsiveness, and transparency. These five principles that define RRI provide a suitable framework for conducting research and innovating responsibly in any area of R&I, including social robots.
Main problem
However, one of the most challenging aspects of being able to put into practice these principles is HOW TO specifically implement them in everyday R&I practices.
What we do in this workshop
Lessons learned: First, we will hear the experience from the participants: How do you implement the RRI goals in your research project?
Self-Coaching techniques: Following the basic Coaching principle that finding the right answers is about asking the right questions, we provide a hands-on approach half-day workshop session in which participants will first learn a series of self-coaching techniques that can be used as self-guidance tools to lead R&I processes throughout all the stages, from the conception of the project to the final implementation or publication. These self-guidance tools that participants will learn and practice during the session have been designed by the organizers themselves.
Shared Guidelines: Next, participants and organizers will together produce a series of guidelines for conducting responsible research and innovation in the area of social robots based on the learnt techniques. We expect that the guidelines will be useful not only to participants but to the whole R&I community that work with social robots for conducting responsible R&I.
TARGET AUDIENCE
The workshop is aimed at all researchers and developers that work with social robots, especially, those that conduct research involving human volunteers or those that develop social robots or software agents that directly interact with humans. RRI has progressively become a top priority by the European Research Policies and it is a must for all researchers and innovators to know the basics of how to conduct ethical research based on this approach.
TOPICS
The SC-RRI workshop addresses mainly, but not exclusively, the following topics:
- Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)
- Ethics in social robots research
- Self-coaching practices in research with social robots
- Self-guidance tools for conducting research with social robots responsibly
- Guidelines and risk assessment for conducting responsible research with social robots
- Robots for coaching
STRUCTURE
Our workshop has an eminently practical structure. The main focus is to provide attendees with a series of tools based on auto-coaching techniques that will empower them to be able to conduct self-guided RRI in a very short period of time (half-day session). Also, we aim at developing together with the participants a series of guidelines useful to the social robots research community to conduct RRI. The workshop will also provide room for short paper presentations on the topic of conducting responsible research and innovation with social robots.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
Abstracts: 750-1200 words (excluding references)
Presentation: Authors will be given 5 to 10 minutes for presenting their work, depending on the number of presenters. Research shall be original and unpublished.
Submission: Send your abstracts in Word or LaTex at the following address before the deadline: laura.aymerich@upf.edu
Deadline is October 13th. More information here: https://sites.google.com/view/sc-rri/submissions/instructions-for-authors
ORGANIZERS
Laura Aymerich-Franch
Eduard Fosch-Villaronga
Amparo Grau Ruiz
(Details at https://sites.google.com/view/sc-rri/organizers)