Laura Aymerich-Franch visited our department

Laura Aymerich-Franch who is currently a senior research fellow at Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona) was a visiting scholar in the Department of Media and Communication between the dates of 9-13 May, 2022.

Aymerich-Franch has worked as a scholar at well-known institutes and universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; USA), Standford University (USA), Barcelona University (Spain), National Institute Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST; Japan).

Her research promotes the applied uses of emerging technologies for well-being and behavioral transformation. She works with social robots, virtual reality, and conversational agents.

During her visit, Dr. Aymerich Franch gave a seminar titled 'Avatar Embodiment in Virtual Reality and Robots' in one of our department professors, Assoc. Dr. Burak Doğu's NMC 204 Digital Media Cultures course. In this seminar, she touched on topics such as virtual reality experience, usage of avatars, virtual reality for good, and social robots.

Within the scope of 'EKOKENT Lectures', she gave a seminar titled 'Social Robots & The City' with the participation of university academic staff and students. Furthermore, in the Department of Psychology, she attended Prof. Dr. Burak Erdeniz's graduate course and shared her experiences on experimental psychology.