In this joint colloquium, Guy Hoffman will present "Designing Robots and Designing with Robots" at 4 p.m., and Karen Levy will follow with "Privacy Dependencies" at 4:30 p.m.

Guy Hoffman is an Assistant Professor and the Mills Family Faculty Fellow in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. Prior to that he was an Assistant Professor at IDC Herzliya and co-director of the IDC Media Innovation Lab. Hoffman holds a Ph.D from MIT in the field of human-robot interaction. He heads the Human-Robot Collaboration and Companionship (HRC2) group, studying the algorithms, interaction schema, and designs enabling close interactions between people and personal robots in the workplace and at home. Among others, Hoffman developed the world’s first human-robot joint theater performance, and the first real-time improvising human-robot Jazz duet. His research papers won several top academic awards, including Best Paper awards at robotics conferences in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2018, and 2019. His TEDx talk is one of the most viewed online talks on robotics, watched more than 3 million times.

Title: Designing Robots and Designing with Robots

Abstract: Designing robots for human interaction is a multifaceted challenge involving the robot's intelligent behavior, physical form, mechanical structure, and interaction schema. Our lab therefore develops and studies human-centered robots using a combination of methods from AI, Design, and Human-Computer Interaction.  This talk focuses on three recent projects, two concerning the design of a new robot, and one that tackles designing robots that help human designers.

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Karen Levy is an assistant professor in Information Science at Cornell University, associated faculty at Cornell Law School, and field faculty in Cornell’s Department of Science and Technology Studies and Department of Sociology. She researches how rules and technologies interact to regulate behavior.

Title: Privacy Dependencies

Abstract: Our privacy depends on other people. We are always vulnerable to the risk that details about us will be revealed by others with whom we interact, wittingly or unwittingly. But even when a person reveals something exclusively about herself, her disclosure may communicate meaningful information about others or create incentives for others to disclose. This phenomenon, which we call a privacy dependency, can occur via a number of specific and variable social mechanisms. In this talk, we examine three different types of privacy dependencies, the formal social configurations that give rise to them, the normative values they implicate, and the technical, legal, and social interventions that respond to them. In so doing, we hope to provide a richer and more systematic account of the social nature of privacy, as well as a better guide to defending it. (joint work with Solon Barocas)