Today at the Northwest Robotics Symposium 2025 at Simon Fraser University’s Downtown Vancouver campus, our team had the opportunity to share our ongoing work exploring the role of social robots in long-term care.
Parsa Shafiekhani, undergraduate research assistant, presented findings from our scoping review on the ethics of social robots, highlighting key considerations such as consent, equitable access, the prevention of infantilization, and the importance of mitigating fears around technological replacement.
In the afternoon, PhD student Joey Wong shared lessons from implementing the LOVOT companion robot in LTC, while Jeffrey Wong and Arwen Fong reflected on how people living with dementia and care partners perceive and experience these technologies. Yong Zhao closed with our work on telepresence robots supporting connection and engagement in care homes.
Thank you to the SFU School of Computing Science for hosting hashtag#NWRS2025 and to everyone who joined us in reimagining how robotics can support aging and care.