Science Magazine Podcast

Teaching robots to smile, and the effects of a rare mandolin on a scientist’s career

Mar 28, 2024

Roboticist Hod Lipson discusses teaching robots to predict human smiles through mirror learning for improved communication. Professor Margaret Handley shares a personal letter connecting her family, a rare mandolin, and her career in public health and homelessness. The episode highlights the challenges of robots learning nonverbal cues, the emotional influences on career choices in science, and the connections between personal experiences, music, and public health.

30:06

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Episode guests

Hod Lipson

Margaret Handley

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Robots learning to anticipate and mimic human smiles enhance nonverbal communication with humans.

Personal history and cherished objects can shape a scientist's research focus and career trajectory.

Deep dives

Robot Learning Nonverbal Communication

Roboticist Hod Lipson discusses the challenges and importance of robots engaging in nonverbal communication, like smiling, to enhance human-robot interactions. Lipson's research focuses on using machine learning to teach robots to anticipate and time expressions correctly, akin to human nonverbal cues. By observing people's facial expressions, robots can learn to mirror these expressions, creating a more relatable and engaging interaction for humans.

Introduction

3min

Robots and Nonverbal Communication

7min

Teaching a Robot to Smile

8min

Influences on Career Choices in Science

10min

Reflections on Personal Experiences, Music, and Public Health

3min

Robots that can smile in synchrony with people, and what ends up in the letters section

First on this week’s show, a robot that can predict your smile. Hod Lipson, a roboticist and professor at Columbia University, joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how mirrors can help robots learn to make facial expressions and eventually improve robot nonverbal communication.

Next, we have Margaret Handley, a professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics and medicine at the University of California San Francisco. She shares a letter she wrote to Science about how her past, her family, and a rare instrument relate to her current career focus on public health and homelessness. Letters Editor Jennifer Sills also weighs in with the kinds of letters people write into the magazine.

Other Past as Prologue letters:

A new frontier for mi familia by Raven Delfina Otero-Symphony

A uranium miner’s daughter by Tanya J. Gallegos

Embracing questions after my father’s murder by Jacquelyn J. Cragg

A family’s pride in educated daughters by Qura Tul Ain

One person’s trash: Another’s treasured education by Xiangkun Elvis Cao

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

About the Science Podcast

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Jennifer Sills

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.zy9w2u0

About the Science Podcast: https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast