Course Schedule

The following table contains the course and lab meeting schedule with links to the readings. For course meetings where there is a required reading assignment, the following items are due by 12:30pm the day of class:

Deadlines for the course project can be found on the project page.



The links I've provided for the readings will direct you to the official online proceedings or journal sites. If you're not able to view the entire paper or cannot download the PDF, I'd recommend searching for the paper on Google Scholar, where you can find an available PDF.


Date Meeting Type Meeting Lead(s) Peer-Reviewers Topic Reading(s) or Tasks to Complete Beforehand
Mon, Mar 23 Lecture Sarah Sebo Introduction to HRI & the course
Wed, Mar 25 Lab Lab 1: HRI Study Design Hoffman and Zhao (2020)
Fri, Mar 27 Discussion Sarah Sebo Robot Embodiment Bainbridge et al. (2011)
Mon, Mar 30 Discussion Verbal Behavior: Feedback Wang et al. (2026)
Wed, Apr 1 Lab Lab 2: Project Team Formation Submit 1-3 project pitches in this Google Doc
Fri, Apr 3 Discussion Verbal Behavior: Supportive Speech Gillet et al. (2026)
Mon, Apr 6 Discussion Nonverbal Behavior: Responsive Gestures Rifinski et al. (2021)
Wed, Apr 8 Lab Lab 3: Robot Programming 1 - Hello Misty
Fri, Apr 10 Discussion Nonverbal Behavior: Object Relationship Gestures Pan et al. (2026)
Mon, Apr 13 Guest Presentation Social Dynamics: Trust
Guest Presenter: Adi Manor
Manor et al. (2026)
Wed, Apr 15 Lab Lab 4: Robot Programming 2 - Wizard of Oz
Fri, Apr 17 Discussion Social Dynamics: Attachment Zhao (2026)
Mon, Apr 20 Discussion Design: Robot-Assisted Feeding Nanavati et al. (2023)
Optional: Nanavati et al. (2025)
Wed, Apr 22 Lab Lab 5: Robot Programming 3 - LLM-Based Human-Robot Dialogue
Fri, Apr 24 Guest Presentation Design: Engaging Strangers
Guest Presenter: Serena Guo
Guo et al. (2026)
Mon, Apr 27 Discussion Robot Learning: Motion Legibility Dragan et al. (2013)
Wed, Apr 29 Lab Lab 6: Quantitative Data Analysis
Fri, May 1 Discussion Robot Learning: Expressive Motion Generation Hielscher et al. (2026)
Mon, May 4 Discussion Ethics & Morality: Children's Perceptions of Robots Kahn et al. (2012)
Wed, May 6 Lab Lab 7: Qualitative Data Analysis
Fri, May 8 Discussion Ethics & Morality: Blame Judgments for Robots Komatsu et al. (2021)
Mon, May 11 Discussion Robots in the "Wild": Autonomous Hat Shop Worker Edirisinghe et al. (2026)
Wed, May 13 Lab Lab 8: Project Work Time
Fri, May 15 Discussion Robots in the "Wild": Robots in Eldercare Facilities Hu & Šabanović (2026)
Mon, May 18 Presentation Final Project Presentations
Wed, May 20 Lab Lab 9: Project Work Time
Fri, May 22 Presentation Final Project Presentations


Reading References

The following table includes the links to the course readings as well as their full bibliographic references.

Short Reference Bibliographic Reference
Bainbridge et al. (2011) Bainbridge, W. A., Hart, J. W., Kim, E. S., & Scassellati, B. (2011). The benefits of interactions with physically present robots over video-displayed agents. International Journal of Social Robotics, 3(1), 41-52.
Dragan et al. (2013) Dragan, A. D., Lee, K. C., & Srinivasa, S. S. (2013). Legibility and predictability of robot motion. In Proceedings of the 2013 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) (pp. 301-308). IEEE.
Edirisinghe et al. (2026) Edirisinghe, S., Satake, S., & Kanda, T. (2026). Welcome to the Shop! Field Trial of a VLM-Powered Autonomous Shop Worker Robot. In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 934-942).
Gillet et al. (2026) Gillet, S., Zhang, Y., McMillan, D., Salomons, N., & Leite, I. (2026). Opportunities to Talk, Negotiate, and Laugh: Robot Behaviors That Shape Repeated Interactions in Groups of Older Adults. In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 1171-1181).
Guo et al. (2026) Guo, S. G., Yu, J. J., Niu, W., Gao, Y., Hoffman, G., Leshed, G., & Green, K. E. (2026). Robot-Mediated Mutual Gaze: How a Mobile Robot with Actuated Mirrors Facilitates Encounters between Strangers. In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 275-284).
Hielscher et al. (2026) Hielscher, T., Scaparro, F., & Arras, K. O. (2026). Context-Aware Generation and Modulation of Expressive Motion Behavior using Multimodal Foundation Models. In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 438-446).
Hoffman and Zhao (2020) Hoffman, G., & Zhao, X. (2020). A primer for conducting experiments in human-robot interaction. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (THRI), 10(1), 1-31.
Hu & Šabanović (2026) Hu, N., & Šabanović, S. (2026). Generative Encounters with Robin: Design through Adaptation and Appropriation of a Social Robot in Four Eldercare Facilities. In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 306-315).
Kahn et al. (2012) Kahn Jr, P. H., Kanda, T., Ishiguro, H., Freier, N. G., Severson, R. L., Gill, B. T., ... & Shen, S. (2012). “Robovie, you'll have to go into the closet now”: Children's social and moral relationships with a humanoid robot. Developmental psychology, 48(2), 303.
Komatsu et al. (2021) Komatsu, T., Malle, B. F., & Scheutz, M. (2021). Blaming the reluctant robot: Parallel blame judgments for robots in moral dilemmas across US and Japan. In Proceedings of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 63-72).
Manor et al. (2026) Manor, A., Cohen, D., Keidar, Z., Parush, A., & Erel, H. (2025). Cognitive Trust in HRI: "Pay Attention to Me and I'll Trust You Even if You are Wrong". In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 776-784).
Nanavati et al. (2023) Nanavati, A., Alves-Oliveira, P., Schrenk, T., Gordon, E. K., Cakmak, M., & Srinivasa, S. S. (2023). Design Principles for Robot-Assisted Feeding in Social Contexts. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 24-33).
Nanavati et al. (2025) Nanavati, A., Gordon, E. K., Kessler Faulkner, T. A., Song, Y., Ko, J., Schrenk, T., ... & Srinivasa, S. S. (2025). Lessons Learned from Designing and Evaluating a Robot-Assisted Feeding System for Out-of-Lab Use. In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 696-707).
Pan et al. (2026) Pan, X., Doering, M., & Kanda, T. (2026). Communicating Object Relations through Robot Gestures. In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 854-863).
Rifinski et al. (2021) Rifinski, D., Erel, H., Feiner, A., Hoffman, G., & Zuckerman, O. (2021). Human-human-robot interaction: robotic object's responsive gestures improve interpersonal evaluation in human interaction. Human-Computer Interaction, 36(4), 333-359.
Wang et al. (2026) Wang, J., Wang, C., Zarrin, R. S., & Erickson, Z. (2026). Bidirectional Human-Robot Communication for Physical Human-Robot Interaction. In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 572-580).
Zhao (2026) Zhao, Z. (2026). Expensive, Limited, and Still Here: The Paradox of Weak Robots in Family Homes. In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 844-853).