University of Gothenburg
University of Gothenburg
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  4. Sofia Serholt

Sofia Serholt

Senior Lecturer

Dept. of Applied IT, Division of Learning, Communication &
IT
Telephone
+46 31-786 65 55
+46 766-18 65 55
Mail
sofia.serholt@ait.gu.se
Visiting address
Forskningsgången 6
41756 Göteborg
Postal address
41296 Göteborg

About Sofia Serholt

Sofia is Senior Lecturer in Applied IT with Specialization in Educational Sciences at the division of Learning, Communication and IT, Department of Applied IT. Sofia conducts research within Human–Robot Interaction, Educational Science, Ethics, Interaction and Participatory Design. Her research interest concerns the use of robot technology in education, especially humanoid robots featuring as pedagogical tools in different ways, e.g., as tutors or teachable agents. Specifically, her research focuses on children’s interactions with robots, e.g., social interaction and breakdown situations, but also ethical dilemmas concerning the use of robots in education from the perspective of teachers and students. The research has primarily been conducted as part of international research projects.

Sofia received her PhD in 2017 defending her dissertation titled Child–Robot Interaction in Education at the University of Gothenburg. She has also worked at University West as research assistant in Child–Robot Interaction, and as post doc in Interaction Design at Chalmers University of Technology, where she conducted research on the design of digital services for public libraries.

She recently served as guest editor for the Special Issue on Critical Robotics Research for the journal AI & Society, as well as the Special Issue on Intricacies of Child–Robot Interaction. In addition to peer review for journals and conferences, Sofia is review editor for the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

Sofia is currently on parental leave (back in office August 2024).

Teaching

At the Department of Applied IT, Sofia is program manager for the 1-year master’s program Learning, Communication and IT, and leads its thesis course. She also holds temporary shared course leadership for the course Applied Research Methods and Design for Information Technologies and Learning within the International Master’s Program in Information Technology and Learning. She has experience supervising students on doctoral and master’s levels in IT and Learning and Interaction Design at Chalmers and the University of Gothenburg. She holds a Master of Education in English and Learning and ICT, and has previously taught at upper secondary levels.

Research projects

Research groups

Media and outreach

Sofia’s research on robots has received coverage in different media outlets such as TV4, Swedish Radio (P1, P3, P4, UR and Radio Sweden), GP, Metro, NyTeknik, and ScienceNews. She has also appeared in different magazines, blogs, and podcasts, such as Skolvärlden, Skolporten, Meet the Education Researcher, Föräldrakraft, Skolsnack, the Swedish National Agency for Education’s blog and the IT faculty magazine, the GU Journal as well as been interviewed and authored research reports for the Swedish National Agency for Education. She has also participated in events such as Framtidens lärande, Almedalsveckan, SETT Syd, Internetdagarna, the BETT Show, Särskolans rikskonferens, Café å lär, and RobotWeek, and conducted guest lectures at universities in Sweden and Finland. In 2017, her research was named one of the year's best advances in research and technology by the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) – see video here. Video of Sofia’s PhD defense can be viewed here.

Management and other positions