F&M CARES

Jason ‘‘Willie’’ Wilson is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Franklin & Marshall College, a small liberal arts college in central Pennsylvania, where he leads the F&M CARES Lab. He completed a Joint-Ph.D. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from Tufts University and was a postdoctoral associate in the Computer Science Department at Northwestern University. His research goal is to ensure that robots behave in a manner that protects the humanity and dignity of individuals, particularly vulnerable populations who are most at risk of harm. Towards this goal, his interdisciplinary research focuses on how a robot’s social behavior and reasoning can foster a healthy and effective interaction. His recent publications include work on interpreting user social signals to understand how much help a user needs, recognizing the goals of a user, and generating a social robot’s assistive behaviors. He is also the recipient of the Best Paper Award at the 2023 AI-HRI Symposium. Willie was a HRI Pioneer in 2016 in Christchurch, New Zealand, and he is one of the lead organizers of the inaugural TAHRI symposium.