Meet the social robots ALUMNI!
PROJECT MANAGER
Dr. Lina Davitt
Originally from Bulgaria, Lina completed a BSc in Psychology, an MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience and a PhD all at Bangor University's School of Psychology. She has broad research interests encompassing areas such as attention, memory, visual perception and object expertise. Her interests extend to the role of object shadows (intrinsic and ground) in visual long-term memory, as well as how manipulations of object shape can influence consumer perception and shopping behaviour. As part of her part-time role at Bangor University's Confucius Institute, Lina also investigates issues in intercultural communication and one of her current projects explores the integrational difficulties experienced by Chinese students in the UK and Russia.
RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
Felix Hekele
Felix originally comes from the beautiful Chiemgau region in Bavaria but has spend the last five years completing his BSc and MSc studies in Psychology at the University of Salzburg in Salzburg, Austria. Trained in Social Psychology, much of his research was concerned with people's reaction to different threats and exploring the motivations underlying people's behaviour. His interest in artificial intelligence and robotics led him to the SoBA Lab where he worked as an RA as part of the Social Robots project between October 2016 - September 2017. His highest ambition is to somehow implement empathy into robotics to help in the creation of friendly neighborhood robots instead of bad matrix-style robots. More realistic research interests include expectations from and behavioural reactions to robots and the exploration of cognitions underlying an interaction with robots. In his free time, Felix enjoys cooking, absorbing everything technology and science-fiction related as well as exploring the real and all sorts of virtual worlds.
MASTER STUDENTS
Katerina Manoli
Katerina would describe herself as a figurative zombie in that she’s immensely interested in brains in a non-carnivorous fashion. Having a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Psychology, she’s fascinated by the overlap between the mind and the brain, and particularly the neural mechanisms behind the phenomenology of experience. Katerina is a proud member of the SoBA lab, as she believes that the study of artificial agents is catalytic for the study of human (and –hopefully in this lifetime- artificial) consciousness. As an MSc student at the University of Glasgow, she is exploring a core aspect of human-robot interaction by investigating the activation of the Person Perception Network and the Theory of Mind Network after interaction with a robot. She also collaborates with the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, researching the safe integration of robots in society. As a Greek living in Glasgow, Katerina compensates for the heart-wrenching lack of sun through performance art, painting and photography. When she’s not found asking “yeah, but why?” in a variety of social contexts, she also enjoys hiking and cult cinema.
Isabella Gould
Of Welsh and Brazilian origins, Isabella grew up in Oxford and studied Medicine before moving to bonnie Scotland to complete an MA in History of Art with Psychology at the University of Glasgow. Isabella has worked in healthcare research for the NHS and University of Oxford whilst pursuing vocational level ballet training. She recently completed her RAD Advanced 1 classical ballet qualification at the Conservatoire of Scotland and is working towards Cecchetti Advanced 2. Isabella has a long standing passion for the brain sciences and aesthetics, with interests including (but not limited to): social bonding and emotional responses in movement-making, creative interdisciplinary collaborations within dance, the mechanisms underpinning memory and motor learning in highly trained individuals and the health benefits of movement practices and interventions across the lifespan. She is very excited to be joining the SoBA lab to explore human-robot movement as part of her Psychology MSc. In her free time, she enjoys social latin dancing, cycling, making nature themed paper cut outs, reading and being outdoors, especially mountain hiking (including a volcano recently!)
SOBOTS INTERNS
Julia Fechner
After studying Mathematics and Philosophy-Neuroscinece-Cognition in Magdeburg, Germany, Julia tried to combine her academic interests in the study field of Neuroscience. She now studies Neural and Behavioural Sciences at the International Max Planck Research School, which is hosted by the Graduate Training School of Neuroscience at the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen.
Her research visit to Glasgow was funded by Erasmus+. Eager to work with imaging methods (may it be fNIRS or fMRI), Julia worked alongside Anna and Ruud on the BOLDlight project contributing to the understanding of human-robot interaction and how the brain is involved in this.
In her free time she enjoys reading, drawing and painting, preferably outdoors in Scottish nature during a sunny day or in a café during one of many rainy Scottish days.
Luca Marie Leisten
Luca is originally from Hannover, Germany and is in the last year of her Bachelor of Science in Psychology at the Private University of Applied Sciences Göttingen. She came to Glasgow for a research internship as part of her DAAD Rise Scholarship and is spending the summer working on a fNIRS and fMRI study in the lab. During her Bachelor’s degree, Luca developed an interest in neuroscience and is looking forward to pursue her Master’s in cognitive neuroscience in the Netherlands. Luca is still figuring out what field of research she is interested in, but for now she’s just trying to learn as much as possible about the brain, behaviour and cognition. In her spare time Luca can be found outside (preferably at the ocean), going out, laying around in the sun or admiring dogs in the park.
Hanna Seelemeyer
After just having finished her Bachelor of Science in Psychology in beautiful Osnabrück, Germany, Hanna arrived at the SoBA lab eager to get some more hands-on research experiences before going back and starting her Masters. Gaining her first experiences as a research assistant in Social Psychology, Hanna is now eager to extend her knowledge and take a closer look at the brain (be it fMRI or fNIRS) and understand its mysterious ways. After her wanderlust and special interest in cross-cultural psychology brought Hanna to South Korea’s buzzing capital Seoul and to the dense jungles of Costa Rica for an internship on cross-cultural developmental psychology, she now got washed ashore in Scotland’s (unofficially) coolest city Glasgow to learn more about the social brain, neuroimaging and research life in general. When not in the lab or the library, Hanna enjoys being outdoors, hiking, exploring new places on her bike and getting a taste of the local cuisine or enjoying the precious moments of Scottish sun.
Martin Hoffmann
Born and raised in Berlin, Germany, Martin is currently attending Humboldt University as an undergraduate, majoring in computer science. Between 2018 and 2019, he already had the chance to attend UC Santa Cruz in sunny California through the UCEAP exchange program and learn about the differences in academic life around the world. For his time in Glasgow, he is eager to explore academic research in Psychology first-hand and to learn more about how humans and robots interact socially. In particular, he hopes to apply his computer science background to contribute to the research being conducted at the SoBA lab from a different perspective. In his spare time, Martin is passionate about music, enjoys playing the drums and the guitar, as well as discovering new artists and going to their shows. He also enjoys going on hikes, playing football and working on personal programming projects.
Elena Giacomazzi
Originally from Berlin, the capital of Germany, Elena moved to a more peaceful city in the north of Germany. After two years of studying Cognitive Science in Osnabrück she discovered interests in different fields like cognitive psychology and computer science. To figure out which field of research or science excites her the most she arrived for an internship at the SoBa Lab in Bangor in August 2017. She is excited about getting a great insight in the world of science, research and academic career. Connecting her originally fascination of psychology coupled with the newly discovered interest in computer science and especially robotics, she would like to learn even more about robots and how they can perform social tasks. In her free time Elena likes to spend time with her friends, to do sports and to watch movies. She spends her holidays mostly hiking with friends which is why she is really excited about discovering the Snowdonia Park near Bangor at the weekends.
Veronica Diveica
Veronica came all the way from Romania to study for a BSc in Psychology at Bangor University, where she will graduate in 2018. She applied for this internship as it would introduce her to the world of social robotics, which will be beneficial for her dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Cross. She finds gaining knowledge about how the universe works particularly rewarding. Therefore, she is interested in both the natural and social sciences, although psychology is her biggest passion. She has not been able to decide which area within Psychology interest her most as all of them have knowledge to offer about the complexity of human behavior. Veronica wants to use the power of knowledge to help others so she is planning to apply to graduate level medicine to eventually become a psychiatrist or neurologist. Her preferred ways of spending her free time are reading, solving puzzles, spending time with close friends, as well as meeting people with diverse backgrounds and interests who can give her an insight into how people with different life experiences perceive the world.
Malte Heyen
Originally from the wonderful city of Hamburg in the north of Germany, Malte started studying Cognitive Science at the University of Osnabrück in 2015. But it drew him back to the sea and in June he came to Bangor to do a DAAD internship at the SoBA Lab. He is very excited to learn about all the different interactions between social Psychology and social Robotics, and even more so to meet all the amazing people (and robots) at the laboratory. He is looking forward to gaining insights into the daily routine of research at the university and to learning more about methods involved in social robotics research. Apart from cognition and neuropsychology, Malte loves to go hiking to explore and discover new places. He enjoys the beautiful landscape of Gwynedd and Anglesey and the opportunity to travel around north Wales. Besides that, he likes good movies (and really trashy ones), books, comedy and weird music. He is not sure yet where the journey will take him, but the time at the SoBA-Lab is definitely a great experience, educationally and personally.