MARCS Monday Meeting - 14 September 2020 - Dr Christopher Stanton and A/Professor Jorge Serrador on Affinity Bias in Human-Robot Interaction and obtaining US Department of Defense Funding

Please join us for talks by Dr Christopher Stanton on Affinity Bias in Human-Robot Interaction, followed by A/Professor Jorge Serrador on obtaining funding from the US Department of Defense.

Zoom ID: 986 9057 6845

Topic: Choosing the Best Robot for the Job: Affinity Bias in Human-Robot Interaction 
Speaker: Dr Christopher Stanton

Abstract: Dr Stanton will present a summary of a paper that has been recently accepted into the 2020 International Conference on Social Robotics. The study, a 2019 psychology honours project, investigated whether people have an unconscious preference for avatars that differ in skin tone and gender. We asked 61 participants to order the resumés of 24 different avatars that varied in gender, skin tone, and competency under the pretext of choosing the “best” avatars to be the participant’s teammate. Results showed that while avatars were predominantly chosen based upon competency, avatar appearance generated an affinity bias in resumé sorting.

Topic: Obtaining United States Department of Defense Funding
Speaker: A/Professor Jorge Serrador

Abstract: The Department of Defense (DoD) has a budget of $134 billion USD ($184 billion AUD) that is appropriated for research. This is 5.6x the entire Australian Governments R&D budget. Unlike other funding bodies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), requests for DoD funding must be targeted and responsive to the specific calls. A/Professor Serrador will provide an overview of finding funding opportunities and key points when applying for funding with specific emphasis on the common mistakes investigators make as well as the common pitfalls.

The zoom ID is: 986 9057 6845. Link to zoom https://uws.zoom.us/j/98690576845