Registration open for Feb. 10 Westwood Lecture on developing socially interactive AI agents to enhance human flourishing

Registration is open for faculty to attend the Feb. 10 Westwood Lecture Series.

Sooyeon Jeong, assistant professor of computer science in the College of Science, will present “Designing Social Robots for Human Flourishing” from 4:30-5:30 p.m. at Westwood, the Purdue president’s residence.

The Westwood Lecture Series is an opportunity for Purdue faculty and staff members engaged in the research topic to interact with colleagues on scholarly work. The Westwood Lecture Series is a program aimed at enhancing the intellectual vibrancy of Purdue’s campus.

Space is limited to the first 50 faculty who register online.

“Designing Social Robots for Human Flourishing”
Sooyeon Jeong
Assistant professor of computer science
College of Science

Abstract: We are surrounded by interactive technologies that can listen, respond and adapt to us in everyday contexts as conversational and multimodal AI continues to advance. Realizing the full potential of these systems, however, requires careful design that considers both who these systems are intended to serve and how they interact with people. This talk will present a series of research projects that examine how robots can support human well-being through social and relational interaction. Jeong will begin by describing a long-term in-home deployment study examining how social robots can enhance psychological well-being. She will then discuss approaches to improving human-robot communication through sentiment-based backchanneling and active listening behaviors that elicit more meaningful interaction. While these projects aim to support the general population, it is also important to consider designing these robot technologies for vulnerable populations who may not equally benefit from recent technological advances. In describing this line of research, Jeong will present a codesign study on privacy-aware social robots that addresses older adults’ needs, concerns, and desired levels of control over data and interaction. She will also share ongoing work on robots designed to support digital health literacy among Chinese immigrant older adults in the Chicago area.

Bio: Jeong’s research focuses on designing and deploying interactive AI agents that can improve people’s lives by providing personalized support based on each user’s needs, traits and behaviors. She deploys these agents “in the wild” to evaluate how they build relationships/rapport with people over time and improve their well-being, health and learning. She aims to build relational technologies to be more than just tools and become helpful companions for people by continuously adapting themselves to help users achieve their health goals.

Jeong earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Engineering in electrical engineering and computer science, and a Master of Science and a PhD in media arts and sciences, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Purdue in 2023, she spent one year as a National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Upcoming spring 2026 Westwood Lecture Series events

April 14: Mark Suchman, professor of sociology in the College of Liberal Arts, will discuss the interrelationship of law, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Suchman’s research interests center on the impact of legal institutions on organizational and economic life, with a particular focus on how legal conditions create — or foreclose — opportunities for innovation, entrepreneurship and technological change. Perhaps best known for his theoretical work on organizational legitimacy, he has also conducted major empirical studies on the role of law firms in Silicon Valley, the governance challenges posed by new information technologies in health care and the sequential structure of the entrepreneurial start-up process.

May 5: Allie Gabriel, the Thomas J. Howatt Chair in Management in the Mitch Daniels School of Business, will discuss what research reveals about helping employees thrive across work and home.

Gabriel is the faculty director of the Center for Working Well. Her research examines how employees navigate the emotional, motivational and relational demands of modern work and how these experiences shape their well-being across work and nonwork domains. She is especially known for her scholarship on recovery, emotion regulation and women’s experiences in the workplace, including issues tied to women’s health and motherhood. Her work often leverages within-person and person-centered approaches to capture how experiences unfold in daily life.

This lecture will be open exclusively to members of the Purdue University Retirees Association and reflects Purdue’s commitment to offering meaningful educational and social opportunities for retirees who remain closely connected to the university.