Dr Eike Schneiders is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton. His research focuses on Human-Computer/Robot Interaction (HCI/HRI) and Human-AI Interaction. He received his PhD in Computer Science (11/2022) from Aalborg University in Denmark, where he investigated, how the inclusion of robots influences interactions and collaborations within non-dyadic groups in the wild. Previous projects Eike has worked on include the investigation of personal assistant, domestic robots, as well as artist-led research. While he focuses on in-the-wild studies, he also conducts a variation of controlled studies (e.g., online or lab-based studies).
Most recently Eike has worked on several interdisciplinary projects as part of the TAS Hub and RAi UK. Examples include projects at the intersection between Medicine and ML, Law and AI, or Interactive art, AI, and animal welfare. Most prominently Eike is working on the Cat Royale project, and artist-led project that at first glance, might seem like a project about designing a robot to enrich the lives of a family of cats by playing with them. Under the surface, however, it explores the question of what it takes to trust a robot to look after our loved ones and potentially ourselves, and how we need to consider the wider “world” design when introducing robots into complex environments. The Cat Royale project has recently been awarded with the Webby award and has further resulted in a “Best Paper” (top 1%) and an “Honourable Mention” at the ACM CHI’24 conference.
His current research focuses on the impact of generative AI, including text-to-image models and large language models (LLMs), on the general public. In this regard he served as the PI on the TAS Hub funded REGALS project, which explores non-legal experts willingness to rely on LLM-generated legal advice. Additionally, he is a co-investigator on the ART-I project, which examines the effects of generative AI on creative communities.
Prizes
UKRI TAS Hub Early Career Researcher Award: Public Engagement (2023)
Best Paper Award (top 1%) at the ACM CHI 2024 Conference: Designing Multispecies Worlds for Robots, Cats, and Humans (2024)
Honourable Mention Award at the ACM CHI 2024 Conference: Charting Ethical Tensions in Multispecies Technology Research through Beneficiary-Epistemology Space (2024)
Honourable Mention Award at the TAS Symposium 2024: A Survey of Lay People's Willingness to Generate Legal Advice using Large Language Models (LLMs) (2024)
Honourable Mention Award at the TAS Symposium 2023: TAME Pain: Trustworthy AssessMEnt of Pain from speech and audio for the empowerment of patients (2023)
Webby Award: Cat Royale in the category "The Best of the Internet: AI, Metaverse & Virtual, Best Integrated Experience People's Voice Winner". (2024)
The Foundation for Science and Technology: Awarded membership of the prestigious "Foundation Future Leaders Programme" 2024, (30 people country wide). (2024)
