Meet Julienne Greer | Research Scientist & Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Julienne Greer and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Julienne, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
My work is focused at the emerging intersection of social robotics and human behavior. I “humanize” social robot’s programming for use in research and industry.

I do this because social awareness, emotional engagement, and empathetic response in robotics is key to their successful use by humans. The social impact of companion machines that help humans can’t be overstated. The loneliness and social isolation people feel is serious. The pandemic simply made it worse.

Humans are wired to connect. Supportive emotional robots could be very beneficial in many demographics. Older adults could utilize a social robot for companionship and young adults could benefit from the support of their personal robot during a stressful first year at college.

I have found that no one thinks they need a social robot until they learn about the comfort social robots can provide. In my work, I want to impact the present and definitely plan for a future for humans and robots.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art is entwined with my research, and my research is robotics. I am most proud of the Emotional Robotics Living Lab which houses the social robots I use in my collaborative research. I got to where I am professionally through analyzing how my strengths could evolve. I am fascinated by humans and human behavior.

So, in my early career I expressed that interest through performance. Now, I express it through the performance behaviors of robots. I use robots to help humans. The challenge was, and still is, that robotics and performance arts don’t always go hand in hand. I lead studies always asking questions. A lesson I would impart is, you don’t need to know how a story might end, you just need to keep evolving the story around a human need – for me, that human need is connection. Flexibility and empathy have been terrific traits to encourage in my life!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I spend time in Fort Worth, TX and Los Angeles. LA would need to be Pinks Hot Dogs for street-wise food, Musso and Franks for history, and Miceli’s for neighborhood atmosphere. Locations to visit would be Venice Beach, and the ride to the ocean on Sunset. In Texas, a must-experience is the Stockyards cattle drive, walking tour of cobblestone downtown Fort Worth, and fantastic theatre at Circle Theatre or Dallas Theatre Center. Food would be steaks and huge portions at multiple steakhouses.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My mentors along the way helped me to find authenticity in the human experience. Acting teachers, colleagues at my work where my social robotic’s lab is located, and very much my family. My husband and my kids deserve a lot of credit for being supportive of my work!

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/juliennegreer

Twitter: @Juliennegreer

Other: Juliennegreer@gmail.com

Image Credits
Nicholas Badeaux