It’s Only Common Sense: Customer Service Is Sales in Disguise
Dan’s Biz Bookshelf: ‘Dream First, Details Later
Happy’s Tech Talk #40: Factors in PTH Reliability—Hole Voids
Robot Learning Companion Offers Custom-tailored Tutoring
March 14, 2016 | NSFEstimated reading time: 4 minutes
Parents want the best for their children's education and often complain about large class sizes and the lack of individual attention.
Goren Gordon, an artificial intelligence researcher from Tel Aviv University who runs the Curiosity Lab there, is no different.
He and his wife spend as much time as they can with their children, but there are still times when their kids are alone or unsupervised. At those times, they'd like their children to have a companion to learn and play with, Gordon says.
That's the case, even if that companion is a robot.
Working in the Personal Robots Group at MIT, led by Cynthia Breazeal, Gordon was part of a team that developed a socially assistive robot called Tega that is designed to serve as a one-on-one peer learner in or outside of the classroom.
Socially assistive robots for education aren't new, but what makes Tega unique is the fact that it can interpret the emotional response of the student it is working with and, based on those cues, create a personalized motivational strategy.
Testing the setup in a preschool classroom, the researchers showed that the system can learn and improve itself in response to the unique characteristics of the students it worked with. It proved to be more effective at increasing students' positive attitude towards the robot and activity than a non-personalized robot assistant.
The team reported its results at the 30th Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, in February.
Tega is the latest in a line of smartphone-based, socially assistive robots developed in the MIT Media Lab. The work is supported by a five-year, $10 million Expeditions in Computing award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which support long-term, multi-institutional research in areas with the potential for disruptive impact.
The classroom pilot
The researchers piloted the system with 38 students aged three to five in a Boston-area school last year. Each student worked individually with Tega for 15 minutes per session over the course of eight weeks.
A furry, brightly colored robot, Tega was developed specifically to enable long-term interactions with children. It uses an Android device to process movement, perception and thinking and can respond appropriately to children's behaviors.
Unlike previous iterations, Tega is equipped with a second Android phone containing custom software developed by Affectiva Inc. -- an NSF-supported spin-off of Rosalind Picard of MIT -- that can interpret the emotional content of facial expressions, a method known as "affective computing."
The students in the trial learned Spanish vocabulary from a tablet computer loaded with a custom-made learning game. Tega served not as a teacher but as a peer learner, encouraging students, providing hints when necessary and even sharing in students' annoyance or boredom when appropriate.
The system began by mirroring the emotional response of students - getting excited when they were excited, and distracted when the students lost focus - which educational theory suggests is a successful approach. However, it went further and tracked the impact of each of these cues on the student.
Page 1 of 2
Share on:
Suggested Items
IPC Hall of Fame Spotlight Series: Highlighting Lionel Fullwood
07/15/2025 | Dan Feinberg, I-Connect007Many IPC members who have contributed significantly to IPC and our industry have been awarded the IPC Raymond E. Pritchard Hall of Fame (HOF) Award. Though many early HOF members have passed away and are unknown to today’s IPC membership, their contributions still resonate. This special series on IPC Hall of Fame members provides a reminder of who was honored and why. As a bonus, for those who are still around, we get to find out what these talented individuals are up to today.
Elementary, Mr. Watson: Rein in Your Design Constraints
07/10/2025 | John Watson -- Column: Elementary, Mr. WatsonI remember the long hours spent at the light table, carefully laying down black tape to shape each trace, cutting and aligning pads with surgical precision on sheets of Mylar. I often went home with nicks on my fingers from the X-Acto knives and bits of tape all over me. It was as much an art form as it was an engineering task—tactile and methodical, requiring the patience of a sculptor. A lot has changed in PCB design over the years.
The Knowledge Base: A Conference for Cleaning and Coating of Mission-critical Electronics
07/08/2025 | Mike Konrad -- Column: The Knowledge BaseIn electronics manufacturing, there’s a dangerous misconception that cleaning and coating are standalone options, that they operate in different lanes, and that one can compensate for the other. Let’s clear that up now. Cleaning and conformal coating are not separate decisions. They are two chapters in the same story—the story of reliability.
It’s Only Common Sense: The Importance of Setting Realistic Expectations
05/19/2025 | Dan Beaulieu -- Column: It's Only Common SenseWhether dealing with customers, employees, or stakeholders, setting and managing expectations can make or break relationships, trust, and long-term success. Below are the reasons it’s critical to set realistic expectations and how doing so can bolster your business's credibility.
Raymond E. Pritchard IPC Hall of Fame Award: Peter Bigelow
04/04/2025 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007IPC’s most prestigious award honors an individual’s long-term distinguished service and contributions to IPC and the electronics manufacturing industry. Peter Bigelow is president of FTG Circuits in Haverhill, Mass., focusing on the military, RF/microwave, and aerospace markets. He also has extensive experience in general management, marketing, operations, and sales with large publicly traded and privately held manufacturing companies in the printed circuit, electronics, and instrumentation industries.