Leigh Levinson
Postdoctoral research associate
PhD, Informatics and Cognitive Science, Indiana University
BA, Psychology and Data Science, UC Berkeley
Research focus
Children’s interactions and perceptions of emergent social technologies such as social robots and representations of robots in children’s media, such as books and movies.
Honors and Awards
- Indiana University 3M Dissertation Competition Winner, 2026
- Co-Recipient of Diverse IntelligenceSummerInstitute Research Grant for research on trust with Multi-Modal AI agents
- Indiana University Delegate of Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering Workshop by the American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Indiana University Cognitive Science Outstanding Research Award
- Best Narrative Award for the Science Fiction Prototyping Student Design Competition at the Human Robot Interaction Conference, 2022
Publications & Papers
N. I. Abbasi, L. Levinson, S. Šabanović, H. Gunes, “Social Robots as Active Safeguards for Children’s Welfare: Community Stakeholder Insights and Design Recommendations,” Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.
L. Levinson, G. lvarez-Benito, J. G. Amores, D. Szapiro, R. Gomez, S. Šabanović, “Haru in the Care Network: Stakeholder Perspectives on Privacy with Social Robots in Pediatrics,” Proceedings of ACM SIGCHI Computer-Supported CooperativeWork and Social Computing (CSCW),” 2025.
L. Levinson, E. McGraw, R. Gomez, S. Šabanović, “A Spectrum of Perceived Sociality: A Dynamical and Enactive Centering of Interactions between Children and Robots,” Proceedings of Robophilosophy,2024.
L. Levinson, C. Nippert-Eng, R. Gomez, S. Šabanović, “Snitches Get Unplugged: Adolescent’s Privacy Concerns about Robots in the Home are Relationally Situated,” 2024 IEEE/ACMInternational Conference of Human-Robot Interaction, (HRI24).
L. Levinson, N, Itrat-Abbasi, S. Šabanović, H. Gunes, “Expert Insights on Robots for Safeguarding Children: How (not) and Why (not)?” Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC 2024).
L. Levinson, J. McKinney, C. Nippert-Eng, R. Gomez, S. Šabanović, “Our Business, Not the Robot’s: Family Conversations about Privacy with Social Robots in the Home,” Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Special Topic on Child-Centered to Family-Centered Design for New Technology.
L. Levinson, G. Garcia, G. Perez, J. G. Amores, G. Alvarez-Benito, M., Casta.o-Oca.a, M. Castro-Malet, R. Gomez, S. Šabanović, “Living with Haru4Kids: Child and Parent Perceptions of a Co-Habitation Robot for Children,” International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR 2022).
L. Levinson, G. Garcia, L. Ivanchuk, G. Perez, G. Alvarez-Benito, J. G. Amores, M. Castro-Malet, R. Gomez, S. Šabanović, “Family Privacy Perceptions of Robots in the Home: A Multi-Site Convergence across USA, Spain, and Ukraine,” ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction.
L. Levinson, B. Cagiltay, S. Šabanović, B. Multu, “Towards a Roboticist’s Practical Guide to Working with Children,” Proceedings of the 24th Interaction Design and Children Conference (WiP IDC 2025).
L. Levinson, C. Zotos, V. Charisi R. Gomez, S. Šabanović. “Let’s Make Robots ‘Think in Child!’: How Children Conceptualize Fairness, Inclusion, and Privacy with Social Robots,” International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.
Presentations
Guest Lectures at: Butler University, Cambridge University, Colorado School of Mines.
Team Lead of "Safe Sociable AI" presenting a robot demonstration at the Congressional Exhibition on Advanced AI
Speaker at HaruFest "Estimation of Engagement During Child-Robot Interactions" organized by Honda Research Institute, Japan