In a research project run by the Norwegian Computing Center (Norsk Regnesentral), we examined how to build a system that uses a socially assistive robot for helping children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) develop communication and social skills. Other partners in the project included Drammen Municipality, Cyberbook, Innocom, and the University of Southern Norway.
In 2025, we ran the final study in the project had pupils interact with the robot over eight sessions. We have collected the lesson plans, recorded up to four video sessions for each pupil, and interviewed the teachers after all the sessions were complete. We have all this data, but we have not had an opportunity to further analyze it. The videos have been tagged to the goals each pupil had, but there is much more that could be done.
We are looking for students that are willing to spend time with the data and analyze it. We have several ideas about potential things that could be examined, such as:
This project is open for multiple topics in the areas of understanding users, ethics, and prototyping. Some ideas include:
- How pupils interacted with the robot over time
- How does a robot in the classroom match up with expectations of the teachers
- How can lesson plans around the using the robot be better intergrated into further work.
One or more of the following courses will be useful: IN5000 Qualitative Research Methods, HCI competence matching IN2020, IN5010 Design, technology and Society would be useful for examining ethical issues.