Profile

I’m American but I live by the sea in North Wales with my British husband and our cat. In my free time, I like walking in the mountains, kayaking in the sea, reading, building things, and trying to grow flowers and fruits/vegetables in my garden. Before moving to the UK, I lived in 8 US states (Michigan, Indiana, Connecticut, Minnesota, Colorado, Arizona, California, and Pennsylvania).  My pronouns are she/her.

The recipe for my work is: 1 part psychology, 1 part neuroscience, and 1 part social robotics. I am thrilled to work with a team of scientists with different specialties. I look at how our brains respond to humans and robots when we play games or learn with them. For example, do you think that robots can make their own decisions without someone telling them to do it? Do you feel bad for a robot if that robot gets bullied?

In one of my projects, children and adults get to play games with several robots while they are in a brain scanner so that I can see how their brains respond to those different robots. These projects are part of many studies that may hopefully help us design better social robots and tell us more about what the brain accepts as “social.” For the majority of us, robots can’t and won’t replace our need to interact with other humans. But cleverly designed, socially engaging robots will likely be able to offer supporting roles to help teachers and healthcare workers, for example.

My days vary quite a bit. Most of my time is spent on my computer working on programming, scientific writing, answering emails, or reading about science. Some days I am working with the robots in one lab while other days I am working with the brain scanner looking at people’s brains in another lab! I really love that my days are so different.