International project on social robots and child mental health
Ginevra Castellano, Professor of Intelligent Interactive Systems and Director of the Uppsala Social Robotics Lab
One moment, Ginevra Castellano, Professor of Intelligent Interactive Systems and Director of the Uppsala Social Robotics Lab, who is coordinating a new international project, ‘Measuring children's well-being and mental health with social robots’ (MICRO).
The project has received just over SEK 17 million in the CHANSE-NORFACE Enhancing Well-being for the Future call, with Uppsala University's part funded with just over SEK 5.7 million by the Swedish Research Council and Forte.
What is this project about and what do you want to achieve?
“The aim of the project is to increase knowledge about how language abilities and the ability to successfully participate in social interactions affect children's well-being and mental health. To achieve this, we will explore the use of social robots as new tools to measure children's wellbeing and mental health in an educational setting. This will be done with a particular focus on vulnerable groups that are potential targets for preventive interventions, such as children with language development disorder and refugee children.”
How is it possible to measure children's well-being and mental health with social robots - can robots really do it?
“We will use already existing validated well-being and mental health questionnaires that will be administered by a social robot. Then we will also develop new methods to measure well-being by analysing behaviours that occur in interactions between children and robots.”
The project “Measuring children's well-being and mental health with social robots” (MICRO) will also analyse behaviours that occur in interactions between children and robots. Photo: Uppsala Social Robotics Lab
You are the scientific coordinator of this project, which also includes two other Uppsala researchers - how will you work together?
“I will oversee the collaboration between the consortium members at the University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich and Bielefeld University, as well as other stakeholders such as BRIS and UNESCO. Then my colleagues Georgina Warner at the Department of Public Health and Health Care Sciences and Gustaf Gredebäck at the Department of Psychology will co-supervise a PhD student I will hire for the project. We will also hire and jointly supervise a postdoc under Georgina Warner's supervision.”
What are you most looking forward to?
“I am most looking forward to the interdisciplinary collaborations with a great team with expertise in social robotics, child psychiatry, developmental psychology and public health. And working to create positive impacts for vulnerable children by addressing such an important societal challenge as mental health.”
Anneli Björkman
Facts: MICRO
The project ‘Measuring children's wellbeing and mental health with social robots’ (MICRO) has been awarded funding under the CHANSE-NORFACE call “Enhancing Well-being for the Future”. The international project includes the following partners: Uppsala University, ETH Zurich, Bielefeld University, and University of Cambridge. The total funding for the project is EUR 1,499,281, of which EUR 497,055 is a grant to Uppsala University from the Swedish Research Council and Forte.