Thanks to TU/e’s central position in the Brainport region, this track – and the Human-Technology Interaction master’s program as a whole – features unique opportunities to interact with a world-renowned high-tech and deep-tech innovation ecosystem. TU/e Innovation Space, for instance, provides a community for students to practice challenge-based learning and entrepreneurship via complex societal and industrial challenges with researchers, businesses and over 40 student teams. In fact, TU/e is globally renowned for scoring the best on collaborations with the top 500 most innovative companies in the world. By the time you graduate, you will have therefore built up a strong network through which to seek out career options.
Social and collaborative robots are catalysts of profound change within society and industry. Applications range from robots that provide instrumental support to robots that offer social companionship. Social robots exert their influence across a diverse spectrum of our daily existence, from hospitality robots in theme parks and museums to assistive and therapeutic robots that empower individuals with disabilities to lead more independent lives. In industry, we are moving towards robots that work with people as a team, requiring ever more cognitive skills and social intelligence. In this new and fast-moving area, many interesting jobs and roles are available and emerging, depending in part on the choices you make in your free electives. Job prospects include:
- User experience (UX) designer. UX designers in the field of social robotics work on creating user-friendly and emotionally engaging interfaces and interactions for social robots.
- Human-robot interaction (HRI) specialist. HRI specialists focus on designing the interface and interaction between humans and robots. They aim to create natural, intuitive and socially acceptable interactions. Here, knowledge of natural language processing and/or mechatronic design might be useful.
- Robot behavior designer. These professionals are responsible for defining the behavior and personality of social robots, ensuring that they respond appropriately to different social and emotional cues.
- Robotics engineer. Robotics engineers design, build and maintain social robots. They work on hardware and software development, sensor integration and the overall functionality of social robots. In this case, a solid set of technical courses in programming, sensors, actuators and AI/ML is recommended.
- Robot ethicist. With the increasing integration of robots into society, a growing need exists for experts who can address ethical concerns related to social robotics. This includes issues like privacy, consent and responsible AI.
- Research scientist. Academic and industrial research institutions hire scientists to conduct cutting-edge research in social robotics, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the field.
And much more!