Cheerbot

Cheerbot is a project that investigates the capacity for robotic technologies to explore fostering wellbeing in the workplace. Funded by Horizon Digital Economy, the project grew from an ideas session in a Responsible Digital Futures workshop and is being led by Neelima Sailaja (Horizon and Computer Science) in collaboration with Helena Webb (Horizon and Computer Science), Karen Lancaster (Engineering), Dominic Thompson (English) and Dominic Price (Horizon, Cobot Maker Space and Computer Science). Knowing that low staff wellbeing is an issue at universities, we are interested in exploring whether robotic technologies can boost morale and are keen to open up discussion in this area. Engagement sessions with staff across the University have helped us to identify specific activities that a cheerbot robot might usefully undertake, such as giving good news and facilitating communal staff activities. They have also highlighted important concerns around data privacy and the limitations of a tech-led approach to addressing wellbeing.  Over summer 2024 we are hoping to pilot the cheerbot in the School of Computer Science to work out what kinds of wellbeing activities it can successfully support and how these activities can be achieved ethically and responsibly.