Julie Carpenter, Ph.D.

People+Technology+Culture

CV

As PDF: Academic CV.

Education

University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Ph.D., Learning Sciences, 2013

Dissertation: The Quiet Professional: An investigation of U.S. military Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel interactions with everyday field robots. (2013).

Research Summary: I use qualitative methods and a human-centered research approach to find ways of understanding the complex ecosystems of human behavior, actions, and cultural influences related to human-technology interactions. My work presents frameworks for understanding what behavioral phenomena are occurring, explain why these interactions are playing out the way they are, and predict future emerging patterns of human behavior based on these findings. 

University of Washington, Seattle, WA
M.S., Technical and Scientific Communication (Human-Centered Design and Engineering), 2007

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
M.S., Technical Communication, 2004
Area of Concentration: Human-Computer Interaction

University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
B.A., Communication Arts, 1999
Area of Concentration: Film, Radio, and Television Theory

Publications and presentations

(Name appears as both J. Carpenter and J. Hillan)

Books
Carpenter, J. (In progress, expected 2023). The Naked Android: Synthetic socialness and the human gaze. UK: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group.
Carpenter, J. (2016). Culture and human-robot interaction in militarized spaces: A war story. UK: Routledge/Taylor & Francis.

Book Chapters

Carpenter, J. Emotional intimacy and the idea of cheating in committed human-human relationships with a robot. [2023]. In Gender in AI and robotics: The gender challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective. Jordi Vallverdú, UAB, Ed. Switzerland: Springer.
Carpenter, J. (2021). Robots as solace and the valence of loneliness.; In A. Campbell, Ed, The Love Makers. Ed. UK: Goldsmiths Press.
Carpenter, J. Kill switch: The evolution of road rage in an increasingly AI car culture. (2020). Funded under Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group (California Polytechnic State University); National Science Foundation, Grant No. 1522240. In E. De Visser, R. Pak & E. Rovira [Eds.] Living with robots: Emerging issues on the pschological and social implications of robotics.. Amsterdam: Elsivier.
Carpenter, J. (2016). Deus Sex Machina: Loving robot sex workers, and the allure of an insincere kiss. In J. Danaher & N. McArthur (Eds.), Sex Robots: Social, Legal and Ethical Implications. (2017.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Carpenter, J. (2013). Just Doesn’t Look Right: Exploring the impact of humanoid robot integration into Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams. In R. Luppicini (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Technoself: Identity in a Technological Society (pp. 609-636). Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing. doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-2211-1.

Peer-reviewed journals
Carpenter, J., Davis, J., Erwin-Stewart, N., Lee. T., Bransford, J. & Vye, N. (2009). Gender representation in humanoid robots for domestic use. International Journal of Social Robotics (special issue). 1(3), 261-265. The Netherlands: Springer.
Reichenbach, J., Bartneck, C., & Carpenter, J. (2008). The Carrot and the stick - The role of praise and punishment in human-robot interaction. Interaction Studies: Social Behaviour and communication in biological and artificial systems; special issue of on "Human and robot interactive communication." 9 (2), 179-203. Oxford, UK: Ingenta.
Hillan, J. (October, 2003). Physician use of patient-centered Web logs and journals. Clinical Medicine and Research. 1(4), 333-334. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Libraries.
Hillan, J. (July, 2003). PatchWorx: Connecting ill and disabled children in an online community. Clinical Medicine and Research. 1(3), 259-260. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Libraries.

Peer-reviewed conference proceedings - Full papers
Carpenter, J. (2009). Why send the Terminator to do R2D2’s job?: Designing androids as rhetorical phenomena. Proceedings of HCI 2009: Beyond Gray Droids: Domestic Robot Design for the 21st Century. Cambridge, UK. Sept. 1.
Carpenter, J., Davis, J., Erwin-Stewart, N., Lee. T., Bransford, J. & Vye, N. (2008). Invisible machinery in function, not form: User expectations of a domestic humanoid robot. Proceedings of 6th conference on Design and Emotion. Hong Kong, China.
Carpenter, J., Eliot, M. & Schultheis, D. (2006). Machine or friend: understanding users’ preferences for and expectations of a humanoid robot companion. Proceedings of 5th conference on Design and Emotion. Göteburg, Sweden.
Reichenbach, J., Bartneck, C., & Carpenter, J. (2006). Well done robot! The importance of praise and presence in human-robot collaboration. Proceedings of RO-MAN 06: The 15th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 86-90. Hatfield, UK.
Bartneck, C., Reichenbach, J., Carpenter, J., & Hupfeld, F. (2006). Use of praise and punishment in human-robot collaborative teams. Proceedings of RO-MAN 06: The 15th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 177-182. Hatfield, UK.

Peer-reviewed conference Proceedings - Short papers and presentations
Carpenter, J., Davis, J. Erwin-Stewart, N. Lee. T., Bransford, J. & Vye, N. (2008). Gender representation in humanoid robots for domestic use. 1st International Conference on Human-Robot Personal Relationships. June 12-13. Maastrict, The Netherlands.
Carpenter, J., Eliot, M. & Schultheis, D. (2006). The Uncanny Valley: Making human-nonhuman distinctions. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Cognitive Science, 81-82. Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
Carpenter, J. (2006). Exploring Human-Centered Design in Human-Robot Interaction. Presented at HRI Young Researchers Workshop, in conjunction with HRI 2006. Salt Lake City, UT.
Hillan, J. (2005) The necessity of enforcing multidisciplinary research and development of embodied Socially Intelligent Agents. Proceedings of AISB 2005. British Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour, 133-140. Hertfordshire, UK.

Other publications
Carpenter, J. (2014, September). The existential robot: Living with robots may teach us to be better humans. Issues, 108, 39-42.
Carpenter, J. (2016, May). Shaping the future of war: The important questions. Los Angeles Review of Books Digital Edition, pp. 84-89. The digital revolution: Debating the promise and perils of the Internet in the last years of the Obama administration. (Eds. M. Pridmore-Brown & J. Crockett).
Carpenter, J.Why Project Q is more than the world's first nonbinary voice for technology. (2019, November-December). ACM Interactions.Vol. XXVI.6., p. 56.

Invited presentations
Carpenter, J. (2023, August 18). Finding your career North star in AI and ethics. Females in AI Ethics: Safeguarding Humanity. (Remote). Steam Bloom.
Asmussen, E. & Carpenter, J. (2019, June). Jury co-presentor for Project Q. Cannes-Lions International Festival for Creativity. Cannes: France.
Carpenter, J. (2021, May 20). I, AI. [keynote]. Augmented Authorship – Digital Strategies for Artistic Collaboration. Haus der Elektronischen Künste (HEK). Basel, Switzerland.
Carpenter, J. (November, 2019). Flipping the script: Q and nonbinary voice. "Why is AI a woman? ": Design for Different Futures. [Panel]. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, PA.
Carpenter, J. (2018, August 21). UX Week. Dark patterns and the ethics of robot design. San Francisco, CA.
Carpenter, J. (2016, November 4). The robot is the medium: Our ethical responsibilities as makers. 6th Digital Ethics Symposium. Loyola University. Chicago, IL.
Carpenter, J. (2016, March 3). Humans + Robots: Dream Machines. TEDxEAL. Odense, Denmark.
Carpenter, J. (2014, May 14). DroneU: The emotional consequences of operating a military drone. Future Tense/SLATE.
Carpenter, J. (2014). The Robot Accommodation Dilemma: Human-field robot interactions, attachment, and operator decision-making. IDGA Counter-IED Training Forum. Arlington, VA.
Sherman, R. & Carpenter, J. (2019, June). Jury co-presentor for Project Q. Cannes-Lions International Festival for Creativity. Cannes: France.

Awards and Nominations

Lighthouse3 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics to Follow in 2019 and Beyond
Lighthouse3 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics to Follow in 2020 and Beyond.
Project Q. (2019). As research consultant with VICE/VIRTUE-Copenhagen and Copenhagen Pride: Bronze Glass Lion for Change. Cannes: France.

Research experience

External Research Fellow, Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group
California Polytechnic State University (CalPoly), 2015-Present
Ethics, risk, and social concern assessment. Publishing projects. Engage policymakers, business, academia, as well as the broader public on key issues in science and society.

Qualitative Researcher
Meta, Contract, Menlo Park (remote), February 2023-January 2024
Thought partner and research expert to cross-function partners (content & product designers, product managers, data scientists, engineers, product marketing managers). Scope and design research approach by gaining alignment on research plans from cross-function partners/product team. Assess each research pillar and use appropriate methods of inquiry to gain user data; execute research. Analyze results and develop product recommendations. Develop reporting materials and share-out/socialize findings and recommendations.

Qualitative Researcher
Meta, Contract, Menlo Park/Sunnyvale (remote), October 2021-July 2022; July-January 8, 2024
Owned multiple user experience research (UXR) projects on internal tools in the Central Integrity pillar that human reviewers and SMEs who assess potential harmful violations use to enforce social media policy at scale. Responsibilities included stakeholder alignment (i.e., engineering, design, product managers), human-centered research planning, conducting, analyses, synthesis of findings, providing actionable recommendations, and communicating user insights to cross-functional (XFN) teams in a fast-paced environment.

Advisor, Human-Machine Teaming (HUM–T) in Trusted Autonomous Systems (TAS) Operations (Australian Defence Group)
March 2022-2023
HUM–T must be safe, trusted in military deployment, and enable flexible operations without undue operational restrictions. This project explores the development of appropriate safety requirements and frameworks, including appropriate methods to manage and communicate these, for HUM–T operations. Under the direction of Research Fellow Dr. Zena Assad.

Research Consultant, VICE/VIRTUE/Copenhagen Pride, Copenhagen, DK, March 2018–March 2020 Co-developed Q (1.0), the world’s first gender-neutral voice for use with technology. Ongoing ethics, risk, and social concern assessment. Science communication at an international level. Engage policymakers, business, academia, as well as the broader public on gender, technology, ethics, and innovative thought leadership.

Research Scientist, Associate Research and Development Principal
Accenture Labs (San Jose/San Francisco), 2018-2021
Generative and evaluative human-technology interaction research and development projects (e.g., human-robot teaming; autonomous vehicle interiors; retail shopping). Designed, led, and conducted original user-centered research with consideration for multiple project timelines and resources in an agile environment.

 

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