Ana Paiva, professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (DEI/IST) and researcher at INESC-ID, was recently selected as Radcliffe Fellow by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
As the Katherine Hampson Bessell Fellow at The Radcliffe Institute, for the 2020-2021 biennium, the Técnico professor will dedicate herself to engineering pro-sociality with autonomous agents.
“I was incredulous and very excited to join this fantastic group of fellows”, says the INESC-ID researcher. “I think this is a great opportunity for me and my research group, because it will give us a lot of experience and will allow us to make important contacts”, she adds. According to the Técnico professor, being a Radcliffe Fellow is “a great responsibility”. “The goals I propose to achieve are innovative and clearly challenging, exploring the intersection of information technology, artificial intelligence and social sciences linked to human behaviour , in particular, altruism”.
According to the Técnico professor, this fellowship programme “is unique in the world”, bringing together people from different areas, such as literature, arts, physics, medicine, mathematics, informatics, etc. “This exchange of ideas and experiences will enhance creativity”.
The 2020–2021 fellowship year will be virtual, “with the possibility of a residential component, pending decisions on Harvard-wide policies by University leaders”, says professor Ana Paiva.
Although her Radcliffe project is not directly related to social robotics, it combines artificial intelligence with emotion modeling. “We envision hybrid societies, composed of humans and autonomous intelligent machines. These machines (agents) will be able to cooperate with the humans of that society and may even influence and change their behaviour”, explains professor Ana Paiva. The Técnico professor will study “how autonomous agents can be used to foster and support pro-social behaviour in a hybrid society of humans and machines”.
“This fellowship class, taking shape amid a devastating pandemic, reflects our conviction that the cross-disciplinary exchange and deep exploration that Radcliffe enables are critically important for Harvard and for the wider world—especially in times like these, when we must confront unprecedented challenges”, said Radcliffe Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin. “Our fellows will advance human understanding in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities”, she adds.
Among the fellows who make up the incoming class at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study: a cartoonist developing a health care–themed comic book; an astronomer interrogating the mysteries of cosmic acceleration; a professor of health policy determined to reduce gun violence; and a physician passionate about the potential of women as agents of peace.
“I strongly believe that this experience will be very enriching”, she stresses. “I think that we, engineers, sometimes forget that the social sciences or the arts can play a very important role. Learning about the diversity of thoughts, disciplines and methods will be a challenge for me next year, and I hope that this experience will improve the quality of my research”, she says.
