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1. Cross-Cultural Design and Evaluation of Student Companion Robots with Varied Kawaii (Cute) Attributes

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05311-5_27  

   Berque, D. ; Chiba, H. ; Laohakangvalvit, T. ; Ohkura, M. ; Sripian, P. ; Sugaya, M. ; Guinee, L. ; Imura, S. ; Jadram, N. ; Martinez, R. ; et al ( June 2022 , Human-Computer Interaction. Theoretical Approaches and Design Methods. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

   Kurosu, Masaaki (Ed.)

   We report on an extension of a cross-cultural collaborative project between students and faculty at DePauw University in the United States and Shibaura Institute of Technology in Japan. The ongoing project uses cross-cultural teams to design and evaluate virtual companion robots for university students with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of the role that kawaii (Japanese cuteness) plays in fostering positive human response to, and acceptance of, robots across cultures. Members of two cross-cultural teams designed virtual companion robots with specific kawaii attributes. Using these robots, we conducted the first phase of a two-phase user study to understand perceptions of these companion robots. The findings demonstrate that participants judge round companion robots to be more kawaii than angular ones and they also judge colorful robots to be more kawaii than greyscale robots. The phase one study identified pairs of robots that are the most appropriate candidates for conducting further investigations. The appropriateness of these pairs holds across male and female participates as well as across participants whose primary culture is American and those whose primary culture is Japanese. This work prepares us to perform a more detailed study across genders and cultures using both survey results and biosensors. In turn, this will inform our long-term goal of designing robots that are appealing across gender and culture. 

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2. Fostering Cross-Cultural Research by Cross-Cultural Student Teams: A Case Study Related to Kawaii (Cute) Robot Design

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49788-0_42  

   Berque, D. ; Chiba, H. ; Ohkura, M. ; Sripian, P. ; Sugaya, M. ( July 2020 , International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction HCII 2020: Cross-Cultural Design. User Experience of Products, Services, and Intelligent Environments)

   As robotic gadgets, and eventually robots, become increasingly common in daily life, it is critical that roboticists design devices that are accepted across cultures. Previous studies have examined cross-cultural differences in robot acceptance based on various design characteristics. Similarly, prior studies have examined cross-cultural perceptions of kawaii (Japanese cuteness). Building on these two prior research strands, this paper reports on our developing approach, with support from a United States National Science Foundation (NSF) International Research Experiences for Undergraduates (IRES) grant, to use a cross-cultural, faculty-student design team to gain a deeper understanding of the role that kawaii (Japanese cuteness) plays in fostering positive human response to, and acceptance of, robotic gadgets across cultures. After explaining the motivation for the work, we outline our approach from both a technical and educational perspective. In doing so, we provide a case study that demonstrates how a cross-cultural design team involving students can simultaneously generate new knowledge and provide research training for future Human Computer Interaction professionals. 

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3. Affective Evaluation of Virtual Kawaii Robotic Gadgets Using Biological Signals in a Remote Collaboration of American and Japanese Students

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05311-5_33  

   Ohkura, M. ; Laohakangvalvit, T. ; Sripian, P. ; Sugaya, M. ; Chiba, H. ; Berque, D. ( June 2022 , Human-Computer Interaction. Theoretical Approaches and Design Methods. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

   Kurosu, M. (Ed.)

   This paper describes our remote collaboration project related to the design and implementation of virtual kawaii robots by Japanese and American university students, and affective evaluation of the robots. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to change our planned 7-week collaboration from in-person to virtual with a resultant change in the target product of our collaboration from real robots to virtual robots. Based on our new plan for 2021, students designed robots in virtual spaces aiming that each robot elicited a different Electroencephalogram (EEG) and/or Heart Rate (HR) reaction from humans. Based on the persona and scenario for the companion robot authored by each student team, each student designed four robots with the goal that one robot would be most kawaii, a Japanese adjective representing cute and adorable, and others would be less kawaii due to variations in shapes and colors. The affective evaluation of robots was performed both by biological signals (EEG and HR) and by kawaii rating. 

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4. Does It Translate? A Case Study of Conceptual Design Outcomes With U.S. and Moroccan Students

   https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2020-22623  

   Peng, Aoran ; Menold, Jessica ; Miller, Scarlett R. ( August 2020 , ASME 2020 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   High globalization in the world today results in the involvement of multi-discipline, multi-cultural teams, as well as the entrance of more economic powers in the market. Effective innovation strategies are critical if emerging markets plan to become economic players in this increasingly connected global market. The current work compares the design processes of designers from emerging and established markets to understand how design methods are applied across culture. Specifically, the design decisions of designers from Morocco, one of the four leading economic power in Africa, and the U.S. are investigated. Concept generation and selection are the focus of the current study as they are critical steps in the design process that can determine project outcomes. Previous studies have identified three factors, ownership bias, gender, and idea goodness as influential during concept selection. The effect of these three factors on designers in the United States is well established. The current study expands upon previous findings to examine the influence of these factors across two cultures — U.S. and Morocco. The results of this study, although preliminary, found that U.S. students had a higher idea fluency than Morocco students. It also found a significant difference in idea fluency between genders in the U.S. but not in Morocco. In addition, it was found that overall, participants exhibited ownership bias toward ideas with high goodness. 

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5. Reflections on a paradigm shift: An autoethnographic exploration of program implementation

   Hennessey, N. K. ( April 2023 , ASEE Pacific Southwest)

   Research and evidence-based practices that center sense of belonging and engineering identity development drive strong outcomes for undergraduate students in engineering—especially those who are first-generation college students, from low-income families, and identify as other underrepresented groups in engineering (Deil-Amen, 2011; Hurtado, Cabrera, Lin, & Arellano, 2009; Patrick & Prybutok, 2018). The process from ideation to organizational implementation is not well-documented in the literature on student success, leaving a gap in practitioners’ understanding of how to bring strong, research-informed practices to fruition in their institutions. Implementation is arguably as important as the design of a student intervention and knowing how to implement a good idea is an art and a science. This paper explores the various people and processes that take theory to practice for a National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education funded program. In this paper, I invoke an autoethnographic approach to reflect on the experience of designing a student-facing program while managing the organizational systems that empower or restrain transformative organizational change for students. Autoethnography as a methodology can be a helpful mode to understanding practice, as the researcher can move more fluidly between their lived experience and the organizational, sociological, or psychosocial theory that it mirrors (Berry & Hodges, 2015). The proposed paper discusses my team’s approaches to working with stakeholders and gatekeepers in our organization and in our community to execute a program designed to build sense of belonging and engineering identity while supporting academic attainment of underserved student populations using Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005) and Street-Level Bureaucracy (Lipsky, 1980) as theoretical lenses. A small, summer-intensive program required the cooperation and capital of gatekeepers across the campus of our large, research university in the southwestern United States. This program, which serves students from marginalized ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds in engineering disciplines, became the basis for an NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education award. Students spent part of their summer (six weeks during the pilot program, which evolved to ten weeks for the second cohort) taking summer classes that helped them advance into their sophomore year of an engineering degree. They also took a career development class, which featured regular field trips to various regional engineering employers. Outcomes from the pilot program and subsequent year are promising, and include high rates of persistence, strong academic performance, and increased sense of engineering identity, but this paper focuses on the structure of the program, the need for collaborators, and the way that the team implemented an initiative which challenges the assumptions of stakeholders from within and outside of the institution. Major themes discussed are personal reflections of the process of coalition-building, gaining buy-in from critical partners on-campus and in the community, and co-investing in programmatic improvement with early cohorts of participating students. 

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