Creativity Matters

🚀 Exciting News! 🚀

We are thrilled to announce the publication of our latest research paper: “A Systematic Literature Review on Applicability of Robot Assistants in Higher Education”.

📚 Authors: Fuad Budagov, Janika Leoste, Mohammad Tariq Meeran & Tarmo Robal

This systematic literature review, conducted using the Kitchenham approach, examines the period from January 2019 to February 2024, analyzing 30 key studies that showcase the potential of robots in:

• Supporting lectures

• Enhancing teaching practices

• Improving learning outcomes

Our findings highlight the transformative potential of robot assistants to deliver personalized support and redefine learning experiences. However, for this potential to be realized, we must address:

• Technical limitations of robots

• Policy clarity

• Teacher training for effective integration

👉 Check out the paper here: A Systematic Literature Review on Applicability of Robot Assistants in Higher Education

On December 17th, 2024 an inspiring brainstorming session took place at Voldemar Restaurant, bringing together IT College faculty members, students, and IT didactics research group to map out the challenges of the IT College thesis process and sketch out potential solutions. The seminar was organized as part of the TILK (Scientific Innovative Approaches and Meetings) project. Participants highlighted several key issues related to student preparation, supervision quality, and the thesis evaluation process.

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An event cosily named “LLM retreat for doctoral students and their supervisors” or more of a winter school (because what kind of retreat can you expect with supervisors next to you) was dedicated to large language models and their use in research and gather students from three major universities of Estonia: Tallinn University of Technology, Tartu University and Tallinn University.
The event offered both opportunities and challenges. The students were not only given a half-hour “Flash Presentation training”, but also required to make a flash presentation next morning.

Thanks to Assistant Professor Slavko Rakic

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🚀 Just Published! 📖

📄 Read the full article here: Nonverbal Behavior of Service Robots in Social Interactions
👩💻 Authors: Janika Leoste, Kristel Marmor, Mati Heidmets

Our study dives deep into the fascinating world of nonverbal communication in human-robot interactions (HRI), specifically focusing on socially capable service robots. Here’s what we uncovered:
✅ Types of service robots studied in HRI research
✅ Key nonverbal cues in interactions between humans and robots
✅ Research objectives, participant profiles, and data collection methods
✅ Insights shaping trust, self-efficacy, and overcoming cultural differences in HRI\

🔍 Key Takeaways: From our review of 39 academic papers (2006–2023), it’s evident that nonverbal communication plays a crucial role in fostering trust and improving the quality of interaction. However, there is significant room to further explore and enhance how service robots adapt to human expectations and cultural dynamics.
Let’s strengthen the bond between humans and robots through more meaningful and intuitive interactions!

Tiia Rüütmann, Head of the Centre for Teaching Excellence of School of Engineering at TalTech wrote a post in Linkedin about introducing telepresence robots into her course. During her classes Prof. Rüütmann uses active learning methods therefore teleconferencing falls short of expectations and teaching happens only in person, however telepresence robots seem to have bridged the gap and in her post Tiia expressed satisfaction with the results.

TalTech AI is the Centre of Excellence sees its mission in harnessing and empowering AI research, development, education and application at TalTech. In collaboration with AI & Robotics Estonia project arranged a seminar in Rakvere to exchange ideas and share expertise. Janika Leoste participated in the seminar using an assistant robot Temi. Unlike other telepresence robots Temi’s use cases are slightly different and communication with it has its specifics.

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