Dina Utami
PhD Student
Education
- MS in Computer Science, Northeastern University
- BEng in Electrical Engineering, Gadjah Mada University - Indonesia
About Me
- Hometown: Yogyakarta, Indonesia
- Field of Study: Human Computer Interaction
- PhD Advisor: Timothy Bickmore
Biography
Dina Utami is a PhD student in the Computer Science program at Northeastern University’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences, advised by Professor Timothy Bickmore. Dina is a native of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She earned her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia, and earned her Masters of Science degree in Computer Science, from Northeastern University.
Dina’s research interests include human-centered computing, and she is a part of the Relational Agents Group at Northeastern. Dina’s current research is focused on the development of multi-party-agents, animated virtual agents or a robots that interact with at least two people. Dina is using these multi-party-agents to facilitate a session where a couple will learn to improve the quality of their relationship. Dina aspires to become a UX (user experience) researcher and/or practitioner.
What are your research interests?
I'm interested in the development and study of multi-party agents, which are animated virtual agents or robots that interact with at least two people. My research focuses on using this agent, or robot, to facilitate a session in which a couple will learn how to improve the quality of their relationship.
What’s one problem you’d like to solve with your research/work?
Build an agent that can interact with multiple users in a natural and meaningful way.
What aspect of what you do is most interesting?
My research requires an interdisciplinary approach. In order to design such an agent, I need to do a lot of readings in a wide area of studies, such as to how humans communicate, how they build relationships, what are the things that matter to build a happy and satisfying relationship.
What are your research or career goals, going forward?
I'm aspiring to become a UX (user experience researcher and/or practitioner).
Recent Publications
-
Increasing engagement with virtual agents using automatic camera motion
Citation: L Ring, D Utami, S Olafsson, T Bickmore International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, 29-39 -
A Robotic Couples Counselor for Promoting Positive Communication
Citation: D. Utami, T. W. Bickmore and L. J. Kruger. "A robotic couples counselor for promoting positive communication". 2017 26th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), 2017, pp. 248-255, DOI: 10.1109/ROMAN.2017.8172310 -
Talk About Death: End of Life Planning with a Virtual Agent
Citation: Utami, D., Bickmore, T., Nikolopoulou, A., and Paasche-Orlow, M. (2017) "Talk About Death: End of Life Planning with a Virtual Agent" International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA)