Personal information

child-robot interaction, human-robot interaction, AI and society, trandisciplinary research, responsible futuring, social justice and DEI in AI, co-creation and co-speculation, co-design and participatory design, interaction design, responsible design of AI
Netherlands, Italy

Biography

Cristina Zaga is an Assistant Professor (Human-Centered Design Group), speaker, and transdisciplinary researcher. Cristina's research bridges engineering, design, and social science to develop technology transdisciplinary and responsibly. Her research's main field of application is robotics in the smart industry, fem AI tech (women's health), and AI technologies for children. Together with the DesignLab of the University of Twente, co-develops Responsible Futuring, a transdisciplinary approach to co-shape the future we want to live in.
Cristina has worked at the Human-Media Interaction Group (University of Twente) and the Robots in Groups Lab (Cornell University, USA) on her doctoral dissertation about "robothings", everyday robotic objects, and toys, to promote children's prosocial behaviors in collaborative play. Recently, she has co-led a 4TU consortium on co-designing embodied AI (from robots to smart objects, from e-health agents to chatbots) that takes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into account.
Cristina is regularly invited as a keynote speaker at international and national events (e.g., TEDx, LaserTalks, DDW, Waag). She has organized workshops and special sessions at top-tier international conferences (CHI, CSCW, HRI, DIS, DRS). Her award-winning research has received many academic and societal accolades. For instance, the Google Women TechMaker Scholarship 2018 for her research quality and efforts to make STEM more inclusive for women and children.

Activities

Employment (3)

University of Twente: Enschede, Overijssel, NL

2019-06-01 to present | Assistant Professor (Design Production and Management)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga

University of Twente: Enschede, NY, NL

2014-10-15 to 2019-05-15 | Research Associate (Human Media Inteaction )
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga

Cornell University: Ithaca, New York, US

2018-05-01 to 2018-12-01 | Visiting Scolar (Information Science)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga

Works (21)

Caring for Reproductive Justice: Design in Response to Adversity

2024-11-11 | Conference paper
Contributors: Benedetta Lusi; Adrian K. Petterson; Kamala Payyapilly Thiruvenkatanathan; Michaela Krawczyk; Emily Tseng; Lara Reime; Madeline Balaam; Katie A. Siek; Cristina Zaga
Source: check_circle
Crossref

Designing Interactions with Robots

2024-10-09 | Book
Contributors: Maria Luce Lupetti; Cristina Zaga; Nazli Cila; Selma Šabanović; Malte F. Jung
Source: check_circle
Crossref

Designing Robotic Imaginaries

2024-10-09 | Book chapter
Contributors: Cristina Zaga
Source: check_circle
Crossref

Toward a Future Beyond Disciplinary Divides

2024-10-09 | Book chapter
Contributors: Cristina Zaga
Source: check_circle
Crossref

First International Workshop on Worker-Robot Relationships: Exploring Transdisciplinarity for the Future of Work with Robots

2024-03-11 | Conference paper
Contributors: Cristina Zaga; Maria Luce Lupetti; Deborah Forster; Dave Murray-Rust; Micah Prendergast; David Abbink
Source: check_circle
Crossref

Diversity Equity and Inclusion in Embodied AI: Reflecting on and Re-imagining our Future with Embodied AI

2022-09 | Book
Contributors: Cristina Zaga; Maria Luce Lupetti; Nazli Cila; Minha Lee; Gijs Huisman; Eduard Fosch Villaronga
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Crossref Metadata Search

Designerly ways of knowing in HRI: Broadening the scope of design-oriented HRI through the concept of intermediate-level knowledge

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2021 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-85102737624

Part of ISSN: 21672148
Contributors: Lupetti, M.L.; Zaga, C.; Cila, N.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

Design for Serendipitous Interaction: BubbleBot - Bringing People Together with Bubbles

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2019 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-85064002628

Part of ISSN: 21672148
Contributors: Lee, W.-Y.; Hou, Y.T.-Y.; Zaga, C.; Jung, M.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

Robots for Social Good: Exploring Critical Design for HRI

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2019 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-85063999210

Part of ISSN: 21672148
Contributors: Lee, H.R.; Cheon, E.; De Graaf, M.; Alves-Oliveira, P.; Zaga, C.; Young, J.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

A word of advice: how to tailor motivational text messages based on behavior change theory to personality and gender

Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
2017 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-85020515454

Part of ISSN: 16174909
Contributors: de Vries, R.A.J.; Truong, K.P.; Zaga, C.; Li, J.; Evers, V.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

Experts get me started, peers keep me going: Comparing crowd-versus expert-designed motivational text messages for exercise behavior change

PervasiveHealth: Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare
2017 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-85116349840

Part of ISSN: 21531633
Contributors: de Vries, R.A.J.; Zaga, C.; Bayer, F.; Drossaert, C.H.C.; Truong, K.P.; Evers, V.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

Growing-up hand in hand with robots: Designing and evaluating child-robot interaction from a developmental perspective

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2017 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-85016444667

Part of ISSN: 21672148
Contributors: Zaga, C.; Charisi, V.; Schadenberg, B.; Reidsma, D.; Neerincx, M.; Prescott, T.; Zillich, M.; Verschure, P.; Evers, V.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

Snoozle - A robotic pillow that helps you go to sleep: HRI 2017 student design competition

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2017 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-85016397160

Part of ISSN: 21672148
Contributors: Vroon, J.; Zaga, C.; Davison, D.; Kolkmeier, J.; Linssen, J.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

Something in the way it moves and beeps: Exploring minimal nonverbal robot behavior for child-robot interaction

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2017 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-85016398364

Part of ISSN: 21672148
Contributors: Zaga, C.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

2nd workshop on evaluating child-robot interaction

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2016 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-84964908370

Part of ISSN: 21672148
Contributors: Zaga, C.; Lohse, M.; Charisi, V.; Evers, V.; Neerincx, M.; Kanda, T.; Leite, I.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

Help-giving robot behaviors in child-robot games: Exploring semantic free utterances

ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2016 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-84964806661

Part of ISSN: 21672148
Contributors: Zaga, C.; De Vries, R.A.J.; Spenkelink, S.J.; Truong, K.P.; Evers, V.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

Multimodal detection of engagement in groups of children using rank learning

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
2016 | Book
EID:

2-s2.0-84992515810

Part of ISSN: 16113349 03029743
Contributors: Kim, J.; Truong, K.P.; Charisi, V.; Zaga, C.; Evers, V.; Chetouani, M.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

The effect of a robot’s social character on children’s task engagement: Peer versus tutor

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
2015 | Book
EID:

2-s2.0-84983605274

Part of ISSN: 16113349 03029743
Contributors: Zaga, C.; Lohse, M.; Truong, K.P.; Evers, V.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

Vocal turn-taking patterns in groups of children performing collaborative tasks: An exploratory study

Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH
2015 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-84959157617

Part of ISSN: 19909772 2308457X
Contributors: Kim, J.; Truong, K.P.; Charisi, V.; Zaga, C.; Lohse, M.; Heylen, D.; Evers, V.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

Be conscientious, express your sentiment!

CEUR Workshop Proceedings
2013 | Conference paper
EID:

2-s2.0-84923036795

Part of ISSN: 16130073
Contributors: Celli, F.; Zaga, C.
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Scopus - Elsevier

The Design of Robothings : Non-Anthropomorphic and Non-Verbal Robots to Promote Children’s Collaboration Through Play

Dissertation or Thesis
Contributors: Cristina Zaga
Source: Self-asserted source
Cristina Zaga via Crossref Metadata Search