Katie Winkle

I'm a Digital Futures Postdoctoral Research fellow here at KTH since September 2020. I'm based at the division of Robotics, Perception and Learning, specifically within the area of Social Robotics. Previous to this, I completed my PhD at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the U.K.

I'm interested in using social robots to positively influence human behaviour in the 'real world' - this could be anything from e.g. robots that motivate you to do your exercises to robots that reduce bullying in schools. Clearly, these situations are very human-centered and socially complex, so I'm interested in design and automation methodologies that look to leverage and utilise human domain expertise.

As an example, my most recent work utilised human-in-the-loop, interactive machine learning to have a human fitness instructor 'teach' a robot fitness coach how to encourage people through a long-term exercise programme. Here at KTH, I'll be working on these concepts within the contexts of (i) robots designed with children for children and (ii) the feminist design of social robots. 

My work pulls a lot from social psychology regarding e.g. persuasion and social influence, and also looks to consider the ethical implications of designing compelling social agents. I'm always interested in collaborating on projects exploring how robot behaviour can affect human behaviour, or that aim to get social robots working, usefully, with humans in the real world.