Matthijs Smakman
Matthijs Smakman has been working in information technology since 2012, first as a business consultant and later as a lecturer and researcher. He is the (co)founder and program coordinator of the Social Robotics program of the Institute for Information and Communication Technology, HU University of Applied Sciences
Utrecht in The Netherlands, where he is also a senior lecturer and researcher.
His research is focused on designing technology while keeping in mind the (moral)
values of stakeholders. Matthijs is an affiliate of the research group Digital Ethics,
and an active member of the Royal Dutch Association of Information Professionals
(KNVI). His research covers studying robots in healthcare, education and
hospitality, and has been published in numerous scientific journals and
conferences, such as Robotics, the International Encyclopedia of Media
Psychology, and the International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive
Communication (RO-MAN). His work has also been nominated for several awards,
such as the Computable award.
He is an external PhD candidate at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the VU
University Amsterdam, for which he has been awarded a personal research grant
by The Dutch Research Council (NWO) to study how social robots can be
implemented in primary education in a morally responsible way. He is interviewed
by AG Connect, Kennisnet, Dutch Research Agenda (NWA), and other national news media on ethics and technology, and is often invited as a keynote speaker at both business and academic conferences.
Expertises
Since 2014, Matthijs has been working as a lecturer in the Business IT and Management major for HU University of Applied Sciences’ Institute for IT. In addition, he is researching ethical issues relating to the deployment of robots in education for a PhD programme at VU Amsterdam.
Fields of expertise
- Ethics of Technology
- Human-Robot Interaction
- Privacy, Law and Security
Publications
- Design specifications for a social robot math tutor
- Do robotic tutors compromise the social-emotional development of children?
- Attitudes towards Social Robots in Education Enthusiast, Practical, Troubled, Sceptic, and Mindfully Positive
