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- HackerNoon, the independent technology publishing platform, is pleased to announce the nominees for its annual “ ” award, featuring the most promising and innovative companies in the Seattle startup ecosystem. Seattle, WA - May 23,2023 Startups of the Year The list, compiled by the HackerNoon team, showcases that are making significant contributions to the Seattle economy and driving innovation in their respective industries. 200+ startups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqIW54yMsNc&t=2s&embedable=true Nominations are open. You can nominate your company as the . startup of the year in Seattle here The for Startups of the Year 2023 include: nominated Startups in Seattle Xealth Diagrid Twelve Labs XetData Coda Derisk pyq Logixboard Otto Robotics Protect AI Augment AI Proxi XetData Bungee Tech InsightStudios Pipe17 Coffee Meets Bagel Symbl.ai DefenseStorm Ozette Karat Kevala Moment Veeve Observa Cakework Forum3 Hal9 MotherDuck Read SBL Spiral “We are thrilled to recognize the top startups in Seattle and celebrate their achievements,” said . “Starting and sustaining a company is difficult. We’re honored to showcase their work and impact.” David Smooke, HackerNoon Founder & CEO is a community-driven voting platform that recognizes startups that are changing technology and the world for the better. Starting May 8th, 2023, the internet can nominate and vote for the best ventures in their city. The voting period will remain open until December 31, 2023, and winners will be announced in January 2024 after a comprehensive evaluation by the HackerNoon team. Startups of the Year 2023 In its , a total of 44,427 startups were nominated in 16 different regions, and the community cast 234,344 votes during a 6-month long campaign in favor of budding companies that were growing and trending across every major city in the world. The received perks from sponsors and a free from HackerNoon. previous iteration 1,382 winners tech company news page As a proponent of the open data movement, HackerNoon releases the unique social data gathered from Startups of the Year on GitHub as “ ” for valuable insights. /where-startups-trend Apart from validation from the world's greenest tech publication, all nominees relevant to their domain, region, and funding. They will also receive an and a free version of their very own on HackerNoon. These pages include business overviews (such as head count, founding year, bio, social links, and domain ranking) coupled with dynamic updates every time the company is mentioned in HackerNoon stories or relevant headlines around the web. get free interviews amazing discount package designed for their startup Tech Company News Page People can , and vote once per day per award for who they think should be Startup of the Year all the way up to December 31st. until June 8th nominate their favorite startups In addition to the award itself, winners receive exclusive interviews, an exclusive NFT from HackerNoon, and a .Tech Domain for life. About HackerNoon HackerNoon is a technology publication that aims to empower developers, entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts to share their knowledge and expertise with a global audience. With a readership of over 4M+ monthly visitors, HackerNoon provides a platform for startups and innovators to showcase their work and connect with a vibrant community of like-minded individuals. Did you know that companies that actively engage in blogging experience a whopping 67% increase in leads? Take advantage of HackerNoon's ' ' to kickstart your own company's blogging journey. Startups Package Startups Of The Year 2023 is sponsored by . .Tech Domains For more information about the “Startups of the Year 2023” list and the nominated companies, please visit our . FAQ page Nominations are open. You can nominate your company as the . startup of the year in Seattle here

Startups of The Year 2023: 200+ Startups Nominated in Seattle

Hello everyone... I am here to briefly talk about the experiences and journeys the year 2017 had to offer me, and how some of you could achieve that too. Let me remind you that this is not some kind of inspirational story. I am here to share some of the experiences and opportunities that I got, and how you could easily get that too.. At the end of 2016 As the year 2016 ended, I was a regular 5th Semester Computer Science and Engineering student, studying at NSS College of Engineering, Palakkad, Kerala, India. I was being an active participant in the Entrepreneurship Development Cell (EDC) of our college, but nothing more. The year 2016 had passed by without much excitements.  The only news was our team of 5 getting selected for a startup training program by by selecting our self android product of an android game and then an interview roundA regular B.Tech kid... SV.CO Begining of 2017 At the start of 2017 itself, 5 of us registered our own private software startup, named " ". We signed legal agreements, and registered ourselves at Thiruvanthapuram. I co-founded the startup and was the . Our startup was digitally incubated under . Thus started our startup training and sessions. Karela Chief Technical Officer SV.CO Karela working in Men’s Hostel Alpha Launch at FreshWorks Office , Chennai On March 3rd, we had our first Alpha Product Launch at the office of FreshDesk (now FreshWorks) at Chennai. This was the 1st time that I see for live how a vibrant startup software company works. The entire office was fully vibrant and colorful. The entire setup and atmosphere made me wish I could join the company that day itself. On the Alpha Launch day, we presented our product in front of a jury of experts and received many good feedback. It was also an opportunity for me to meet up and network with many helpful and skillful persons. Product Pitching @ Freshworks This was actually the first time that I visited Chennai city. Smart India Hackathon 2017, Chandigarh I think this was one of the first unexpected and gifted journey of the year. Me and my team of 6, our team named “ ” got selected for solving a problem statement stated in (SIH) 2017 . SIH was an initiative undertaken by the and _AICTE t_o solve the problems faced by different ministries and government sectors by the students themselves. Techsols Smart India Hackathon Government of India Team Techsols at SIH 2017 @ CGC,Chandigarh The selection was an unexpected surprise to us. Moreover, our ministry’s program was scheduled at . All the expenses of the travel was covered and reimbursed by the government. This became an opportunity for us, and we undertook it. Even though the entire Hackathon was for just 2 days, our entire journey took 1 week. We had 4 entire days in train journey, 2 days in Delhi, and 1 days in Chandigarh apart from the event. . Chandigarh Group of Colleges (CGC), Chandigarh This was also the first time that I visit Delhi or Chandigarh You can still apply for SIH 2018, the deadline is Dec 31, 2017. Please do apply . here Customer insights Day at Bangalore Another 1 day trip was to Bangalore for the Customer Insights Day set up by SV.CO at the big office of [24]7 . We got to talk with many experts and get the feedbacks on our product. Customer Insights Day at [24]7 Bangalore This was not however my first visit to Bangalore :-p Visit to Silicon Valley 16–28 June This is one of the major explorations I had in 2017. As part of our training in we were sent to a one week visit to Silicon Valley funded by the Kerala Government and Kerala Startup Mission. This visit had been a life changing event for me.During our trip we visited headquarters of Facebook, Google and Intel . We visited many Investors, Google Launchpad, academic institutions like 42 Coding USA, and North Eastern University. SV.CO At Google HQ, Silicon Valley I also had the opportunity to visit Steve Jobs house, all thanks to Iqbal and Aravind, two random Indians we met on road and gave us a very good time.One entire day we walked through the city of San Fransisco, visited Golden Gate Bridge, etc. etc., the list goes on. The entire experience is more than one blog to explain, so I will shorten it up here. Golden Gate Bridge, San Fransisco IEDC Summit 2017 and NVIDIA GAMER CONNECT These two may not seem like a grand event, but both these events had given some great memories for me. Meeting many talented guys, seeing their good works , all of this came true at IEDC Summit. I also got to re-energise my old habit of gaming at the Gamer connect too... Nvidia Gamer Connect, Kochi Winning Digital Masala Challenge 2017, Kolkata When December had arrived, I thought maybe all the fun in this year was about to end. And somehow God laughed at me , and gave this surprise. Me and my team of 6 got selected for participating in the Digital Masala Challenge competition organised by and Facebook at Kolkata. The selection was a surprise to all of us in the team. Youth Ki Awaaz The entire travel was sponsored by Facebook and Youth Ki Awaaz. They booked us flight tickets, arranged our stay in a 5 star Hotel (The Lalit Great Eastern), and even booked the cabs for us. I personally was shocked by all these hospitality. Even though I have attended many hackathons and competitions, I had never received such a luxurious treatment. The competition was stretched for 2 days ( 17-18 Dec) with Idea Pitching at 18th evening. Among all the participating teams, ours was on the most youngest. But somehow when the results came, we won the prize money of $5000, which came as a shocker for all of us.Due to lack of timing , we could not roam much around the city, but we did visit the Tomb of Mother Theresa, Quest Mall, and Eden Gardens Stadium.This again was another first time trip of mine to Kolkata. My team for DMC, Kolkate Conclusion If you thought that all of these trips and explorations came because I was such a nerd, then let me tell you something, all of this can easily be achieved by you too. All you have to do is take up some necessary actions. All the opportunities that I got are still present. If you just look up your eyes and search for it, you can easily spot them. It seems there are many more present now. All the voyages that I undertook where not on my own. I had a team of friends besides me in all the journey that I had this year. Always have a team that you can depend upon, a team that you can call your own. I am not some super kid or genius. I am just an ordinary final year engineering student, who lived his year doing the work he loved, and do it wholeheartedly. Do the work you love, and enjoy doing it. Quoting Amir Khan from the film 3 idiots, “ Don’t run behind success, let the success run behind you” All these opportunities, does not mean that I have become some successful person. I am still a struggling engineering developer. But all I can say is that the explorations that I had last year, gave some amazing memories and experiences, which makes me look forward to another year. Happy New Year to all..

Exploration of an Engineering student from Kerala in the year 2017

In an industry where time-to-market and verification quality directly impacts product success, Aparna Mohan has established herself as a prominent figure in the field of design verification. As a core member of the team at Cirrus Logic, Aparna Mohan spearheaded the development and implementation of a digital and mixed-signal verification framework that has become the standard across all of the company's audio product lines. The ambitious framework project tackled one of the semiconductor industry's most persistent challenges: creating a standardized, reusable verification environment that could effectively test the complex intersection of digital and analog domains in modern audio chips. With her extensive background in functional verification methodologies and system-level verification, Aparna brought a unique perspective to this critical initiative. Aparna's methodical approach to verification architecture and implementation stands at the center of this success story. By formalizing the verification methodology, she created a system that dramatically simplified the integration process for new projects. This standardization achieved a truly portable and reusable verification environment that maintains consistency while adapting to diverse product requirements. It also allowed early bug discovery and streamlined the verification process. The impact of Aparna's leadership extended far beyond immediate project success. The framework notably improved verification processes across multiple product lines, dramatically reducing the time required to establish robust verification environments for new designs. Perhaps most significantly, the framework significantly lowered the barrier to entry for engineers new to specific projects, enabling them to quickly become productive in verification activities without extensive ramp-up periods. It also reduced the overall verification timeline. Stakeholder reception to the framework was overwhelmingly positive, with verification teams across the organization adopting the methodology for end-to-end performance verification. The framework's success was formally recognized at the prestigious Cirrus Logic Innovation Conference 2017, where Aparna Mohan presented a poster highlighting the methodology's benefits and implementation details. For Aparna Mohan personally, the project represented a significant career milestone, showcasing her technical leadership and methodology development skills. The achievement directly contributed to her promotion to Senior Design Verification Engineer – a testament to the framework's organizational impact and her exceptional contributions to verification excellence. Further cementing her position as a verification thought leader, Aparna serves on the technical program committee of the prestigious DVCON 2025 Europe conference, where she helps shape industry discussions on verification methodologies and emerging technologies. Her expertise and judgment have also been recognized through her appointment as an industry expert judge for the Globee awards, evaluating excellence in technology innovation. As an SCRS fellow, Aparna continues to contribute to scholarly research and practical applications in chip verification methodologies. Beyond her technical contributions, she serves as a mentor at "Rewriting the Code," where she provides guidance, career advice, and industry insights to college students and early-career women in technology, helping to foster the next generation of diverse technical talent. As a published researcher with papers in international conferences and a regular presenter of innovative verification methodologies at industry events, Aparna Mohan continues to advance the field while solving complex verification challenges. About Aparna Mohan Aparna Mohan is a distinguished Design Verification Engineer with over 11 years of expertise in pre-silicon verification and methodology implementation. Her technical portfolio includes contributions to 14 successfully taped-out ASIC products across various applications. Aparna Mohan specializes in functional verification methodologies (UVM, System Verilog), SVA, and formal verification techniques, establishing her as a recognized expert in comprehensive verification approaches. She holds a Master's degree from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Kerala, providing a robust foundation for her technical achievements. Before her semiconductor career, Aparna worked at the Indian Space Research Organization, where she contributed to satellite technology development and the Indian Mars mission. Her commitment to advancing the field is evident through her published research papers in international conferences and regular presentations on innovative verification methodologies at industry events. Aparna Mohan continues to push the boundaries of verification excellence while mentoring the next generation of verification engineers. This story was distributed as a release by Echospire Media under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here. This story was distributed as a release by Echospire Media under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here. here here

Transforming Audio Product Verification: Aparna Mohan's Framework Revolution

Transforming Audio Product Verification: Aparna Mohan se raamwerkrevolusie

የኦዲዮ ምርት ማረጋገጫ ንድፍ: Aparna Mohan's Framework Revolution

Трансформацыя аўдыёверыфікацыі прадуктаў: рэвалюцыя рамкі Aparna Mohan

Transformando la verificación de productos de audio: la revolución del marco de Aparna Mohan

Audio-tuotteiden todentamisen muuttaminen: Aparna Mohanin kehysvallankumous

Audio termékellenőrzés átalakítása: Aparna Mohan keretrendszeri forradalma

Trasformare la verifica dei prodotti audio: la rivoluzione del framework di Aparna Mohan

オーディオ製品検証の変革:Aparna Mohanのフレームワーク革命

ການປ່ຽນແປງການຢັ້ງຢືນຜະລິດຕະພັນອຸປະກອນ: Revolution Framework ຂອງ Aparna Mohan

Audio Product Verification: Aparna Mohan’s Framework Revolution (ඇඩ්විඩ් නිෂ්පාදන තහවුරු කිරීම වෙනස් කිරීම: Aparna Mohan’s framework revolution)

Трансформація аудіо-продуктів: рамкова революція Aparna Mohan

Ukuguqulwa kwe-Audio Product Verification: I-Framework Revolution ye-Aparna Mohan

Startups of The Year 2024 Winners: Asia

الفوركس الفوركس 2024 الفائزين: آسيا

২০২৪ সালের বিজয়ী উদ্যোক্তা: এশিয়া

Startups des Jahres 2024 Gewinner: Asien

Startups del Año 2024 Ganadores: Asia

Startups nan ane a 2024 genyen: Azi

2024年のスタートアップ 優勝者:アジア

2024-ийн Startups Шагнагч: Ази

Startup Tahun 2024 Pemenang: Asia

Startups do Ano 2024 Vencedores: Ásia

Startups of The Year 2024 Waqtiga: Asia

Стартапи року 2024 Переможці: Азія

Startups of the Year 2024 laureatlar: Asia

This Robot Game Got Kids to Learn Proper Handwashing—But the Real Win Was How Much They Enjoyed It

Turns Out Kids Really Engage with Robots—Especially When They’re Chatty and Proactive

Authors:
(1) Devasena Pasupuleti, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (pdevasena835@gmail.com);
(2) Sreejith Sasidharan, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India ssreejith172@gmail.com);
(3) Rajesh Sharma, Spire Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California, 91403, United States of America (rajesh.k.sharma@gmail.com);
(4) Gayathri Manikutty, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org). Editor's note: This is Part of 5 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Table of Links Abstract and I. Introduction
II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification
III. Land of Hands: The Game
IV. Methods
V. User Study
VI. Results
VII. Discussion


VIII. Conclusion


IX. Acknowledgments and References V. USER STUDY Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted the entire study online through the video teleconferencing platform Zoom (refer to Figure 5). Children played the game and interacted with the robot individually. Researchers facilitated the video conferencing call to ensure that the data collected is truly a representation of the children’s views. The average time taken to conduct the study with each child was approximately 35 minutes. Since the children did not have prior interaction with a robot, at the beginning of the study, a short general interaction was facilitated between HakshE and the child to familiarize him/her with the robot and to see if he/she feels comfortable continuing with the study. One of the researchers explained the rules and instructions of the game to the child. A video on the six steps of handwashing as instructed by WHO was shown to the child before the game. Researchers did not intervene in-between the game unless a technical issue had to be resolved. This allowed children to interact with the robot and play the game on their own, eliminating any kind of bias. As an incentive for the children, we built a simple webbased Augmented Reality (AR) platform using UniteAR [31] where a 3D model of HakshE was projected onto their surroundings by scanning a custom QR code using their mobile phones. We conducted a session with the children after the study to explain this AR process. All the children were compensated with a photograph from their AR experience with HakshE (refer to Figure 6). This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. Authors: (1) Devasena Pasupuleti, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (pdevasena835@gmail.com); (2) Sreejith Sasidharan, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India ssreejith172@gmail.com); (3) Rajesh Sharma, Spire Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California, 91403, United States of America (rajesh.k.sharma@gmail.com); (4) Gayathri Manikutty, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org). Authors: Authors: (1) Devasena Pasupuleti, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (pdevasena835@gmail.com); (2) Sreejith Sasidharan, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India ssreejith172@gmail.com); (3) Rajesh Sharma, Spire Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California, 91403, United States of America (rajesh.k.sharma@gmail.com); (4) Gayathri Manikutty, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org). Editor's note: This is Part of 5 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Editor's note: This is Part of 5 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Editor's note: This is Part of 5 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Editor's note: This is Part of 5 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Table of Links Abstract and I. Introduction II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification III. Land of Hands: The Game IV. Methods V. User Study VI. Results VII. Discussion


VIII. Conclusion


IX. Acknowledgments and References Abstract and I. Introduction Abstract and I. Introduction II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification III. Land of Hands: The Game III. Land of Hands: The Game IV. Methods IV. Methods V. User Study V. User Study VI. Results VI. Results VII. Discussion VIII. Conclusion


IX. Acknowledgments and References VII. Discussion VIII. Conclusion IX. Acknowledgments and References VIII. Conclusion VIII. Conclusion IX. Acknowledgments and References IX. Acknowledgments and References V. USER STUDY Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted the entire study online through the video teleconferencing platform Zoom (refer to Figure 5). Children played the game and interacted with the robot individually. Researchers facilitated the video conferencing call to ensure that the data collected is truly a representation of the children’s views. The average time taken to conduct the study with each child was approximately 35 minutes. Since the children did not have prior interaction with a robot, at the beginning of the study, a short general interaction was facilitated between HakshE and the child to familiarize him/her with the robot and to see if he/she feels comfortable continuing with the study. One of the researchers explained the rules and instructions of the game to the child. A video on the six steps of handwashing as instructed by WHO was shown to the child before the game. Researchers did not intervene in-between the game unless a technical issue had to be resolved. This allowed children to interact with the robot and play the game on their own, eliminating any kind of bias. As an incentive for the children, we built a simple webbased Augmented Reality (AR) platform using UniteAR [31] where a 3D model of HakshE was projected onto their surroundings by scanning a custom QR code using their mobile phones. We conducted a session with the children after the study to explain this AR process. All the children were compensated with a photograph from their AR experience with HakshE (refer to Figure 6). This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. available on arxiv

Researchers Run a COVID-Era Robot Study to Teach Children to Wash Their Hands

Authors:
(1) Devasena Pasupuleti, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (pdevasena835@gmail.com);
(2) Sreejith Sasidharan, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India ssreejith172@gmail.com);
(3) Rajesh Sharma, Spire Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California, 91403, United States of America (rajesh.k.sharma@gmail.com);
(4) Gayathri Manikutty, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org). Editor's note: This is Part of 4 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Table of Links Abstract and I. Introduction
II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification
III. Land of Hands: The Game
IV. Methods
V. User Study
VI. Results
VII. Discussion


VIII. Conclusion


IX. Acknowledgments and References IV. METHODS A. Study Design To explore the influence of a pro-social robot’s behavior on learning and interactions between the robot and the child in a collaborative gameplay setting, we split our study into two conditions namely - “With-Nudges” and “Without-Nudges”. In the “With-Nudges” scenario, the children were provided two kinds of nudges — visual nudges and verbal nudges. Visual nudges were provided in the game in the form of a “Ask Robot for Help” button that glowed and shook at regular intervals. For the verbal nudge, HakshE acted as a pro-social robot exhibiting traits such as proactively offering help. HaKsh-E verbally asked the child “Do you need any help?”, when he/she got stuck even if the child did not explicitly ask for the robot’s help. HakshE also provided constant positive feedback to the child when he/she completed a task. In the “Without-Nudges” scenario, HakshE did not display pro-social traits. Unless children specifically called out to HakshE for help, the robot did not reach out to them. The levels still contained the “Ask Robot for Help” button, but it did not glow or shake and was activated only when a child clicked on it. B. Participants A total of 32 children (15 girls and 17 boys) between the ages of 6 to 10 years (M=8.22 years, SD=1.07) were recruited for the study. All the children are students in schools in two different regions of Kerala, India, namely Puthiyakavu and Kochi (Kochi=20 children, Puthiyakavu=12 children). The participants were chosen through convenience sampling to ensure that every child had access to a working laptop and a stable internet connection. As our study consisted of a two-way split, to maintain equality in the distribution of the 32 children, we recruited 16 children for the “WithNudges” condition and 16 children for the “Without-Nudges” condition. The study was undertaken only after the verbal and written consent of the participants’ parents, guardians, and the participants themselves was taken. We ensured that the confidentiality and anonymity of the data collected from the children were maintained throughout the study C. Materials 1) HakshE - The Robot: We custom-designed HakshE through a co-design study we conducted with children [2]. HakshE’s shell resembles the shape of a soap dispenser to meet its intended requirement of promoting good hand hygiene practises. HakshE’s face is an LCD screen that displays a wide range of emotions through its animated facial features. We designed the robot to appear very minimalistic to avoid any unmet expectations that children might have of social robots (refer to Figure 4). The robot is capable of handling verbal interactions with children on the topic of hand hygiene and essential day-to-day conversations. 2) The Wizard of Oz Platform: A common criticism against Wizard of Oz [26] studies in HRI is that such studies can potentially become a Human-Human Interaction scenario [27], [28]. This can be tackled by ensuring that the Wizard’s interactions are bound to the robot’s intended interaction capabilities. Moreover, the interactions of the Wizard should be streamlined to minimize variability across interactions and to reduce the cognitive load for the wizard [27]. With these two design requirements, we developed a custom Wizard of Oz dashboard for Haksh-E as shown in Figure 7. We developed the dashboard client to work in any modern web browser, making it platform agnostic. We used d3.js to generate an interactive dialog tree with collapsible branches to make it easier for the wizard to keep track of the dialogues. The client communicates with the server via web-socket protocol providing a full-duplex communication channel with minimum latency. The web-socket server, which runs onboard the robot, connects with the robot’s API to play the required animation on the LCD screen. To avoid inflicting biases on children’s behavior after the study, we revealed to them that HakshE was teleoperated after the study was conducted. Prior research also shows that in child-robot interaction studies, children’s interaction with social robots did not change in any manner when they were informed about the teleoperation post the study [29], [30]. D. Ethics Statement The study was approved by the Clinical Trials Registry (ICMR-NIMS) of India (CTRI/2022/01/039654) and the Institutional Ethics Committee of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India (IEC-AIMS-2021-AMC-306). The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (DOH). This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. Authors: (1) Devasena Pasupuleti, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (pdevasena835@gmail.com); (2) Sreejith Sasidharan, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India ssreejith172@gmail.com); (3) Rajesh Sharma, Spire Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California, 91403, United States of America (rajesh.k.sharma@gmail.com); (4) Gayathri Manikutty, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org). Authors: Authors: (1) Devasena Pasupuleti, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (pdevasena835@gmail.com); (2) Sreejith Sasidharan, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India ssreejith172@gmail.com); (3) Rajesh Sharma, Spire Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California, 91403, United States of America (rajesh.k.sharma@gmail.com); (4) Gayathri Manikutty, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org). Editor's note: This is Part of 4 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Editor's note: This is Part of 4 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Editor's note: This is Part of 4 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Editor's note: This is Part of 4 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Table of Links Abstract and I. Introduction II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification III. Land of Hands: The Game IV. Methods V. User Study VI. Results VII. Discussion


VIII. Conclusion


IX. Acknowledgments and References Abstract and I. Introduction Abstract and I. Introduction II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification III. Land of Hands: The Game III. Land of Hands: The Game IV. Methods IV. Methods V. User Study V. User Study VI. Results VI. Results VII. Discussion VIII. Conclusion


IX. Acknowledgments and References VII. Discussion VIII. Conclusion IX. Acknowledgments and References VIII. Conclusion VIII. Conclusion IX. Acknowledgments and References IX. Acknowledgments and References IV. METHODS A. Study Design A. Study Design To explore the influence of a pro-social robot’s behavior on learning and interactions between the robot and the child in a collaborative gameplay setting, we split our study into two conditions namely - “With-Nudges” and “Without-Nudges”. In the “With-Nudges” scenario, the children were provided two kinds of nudges — visual nudges and verbal nudges. Visual nudges were provided in the game in the form of a “Ask Robot for Help” button that glowed and shook at regular intervals. For the verbal nudge, HakshE acted as a pro-social robot exhibiting traits such as proactively offering help. HaKsh-E verbally asked the child “Do you need any help?”, when he/she got stuck even if the child did not explicitly ask for the robot’s help. HakshE also provided constant positive feedback to the child when he/she completed a task. In the “Without-Nudges” scenario, HakshE did not display pro-social traits. Unless children specifically called out to HakshE for help, the robot did not reach out to them. The levels still contained the “Ask Robot for Help” button, but it did not glow or shake and was activated only when a child clicked on it. B. Participants B. Participants A total of 32 children (15 girls and 17 boys) between the ages of 6 to 10 years (M=8.22 years, SD=1.07) were recruited for the study. All the children are students in schools in two different regions of Kerala, India, namely Puthiyakavu and Kochi (Kochi=20 children, Puthiyakavu=12 children). The participants were chosen through convenience sampling to ensure that every child had access to a working laptop and a stable internet connection. As our study consisted of a two-way split, to maintain equality in the distribution of the 32 children, we recruited 16 children for the “WithNudges” condition and 16 children for the “Without-Nudges” condition. The study was undertaken only after the verbal and written consent of the participants’ parents, guardians, and the participants themselves was taken. We ensured that the confidentiality and anonymity of the data collected from the children were maintained throughout the study C. Materials C. Materials 1) HakshE - The Robot: We custom-designed HakshE through a co-design study we conducted with children [2]. HakshE’s shell resembles the shape of a soap dispenser to meet its intended requirement of promoting good hand hygiene practises. HakshE’s face is an LCD screen that displays a wide range of emotions through its animated facial features. We designed the robot to appear very minimalistic to avoid any unmet expectations that children might have of social robots (refer to Figure 4). The robot is capable of handling verbal interactions with children on the topic of hand hygiene and essential day-to-day conversations. 1) HakshE - The Robot: 2) The Wizard of Oz Platform: A common criticism against Wizard of Oz [26] studies in HRI is that such studies can potentially become a Human-Human Interaction scenario [27], [28]. This can be tackled by ensuring that the Wizard’s interactions are bound to the robot’s intended interaction capabilities. Moreover, the interactions of the Wizard should be streamlined to minimize variability across interactions and to reduce the cognitive load for the wizard [27]. With these two design requirements, we developed a custom Wizard of Oz dashboard for Haksh-E as shown in Figure 7. 2) The Wizard of Oz Platform: We developed the dashboard client to work in any modern web browser, making it platform agnostic. We used d3.js to generate an interactive dialog tree with collapsible branches to make it easier for the wizard to keep track of the dialogues. The client communicates with the server via web-socket protocol providing a full-duplex communication channel with minimum latency. The web-socket server, which runs onboard the robot, connects with the robot’s API to play the required animation on the LCD screen. d3.js To avoid inflicting biases on children’s behavior after the study, we revealed to them that HakshE was teleoperated after the study was conducted. Prior research also shows that in child-robot interaction studies, children’s interaction with social robots did not change in any manner when they were informed about the teleoperation post the study [29], [30]. D. Ethics Statement D. Ethics Statement The study was approved by the Clinical Trials Registry (ICMR-NIMS) of India (CTRI/2022/01/039654) and the Institutional Ethics Committee of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India (IEC-AIMS-2021-AMC-306). The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (DOH). This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. available on arxiv

This Soap-Dispenser Robot Wants to Help Your Kids Learn—But Only If It Feels Like It

Authors:
(1) Devasena Pasupuleti, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (pdevasena835@gmail.com);
(2) Sreejith Sasidharan, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India ssreejith172@gmail.com);
(3) Rajesh Sharma, Spire Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California, 91403, United States of America (rajesh.k.sharma@gmail.com);
(4) Gayathri Manikutty, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org). Editor's note: This is Part of 3 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Table of Links Abstract and I. Introduction
II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification
III. Land of Hands: The Game
IV. Methods
V. User Study
VI. Results
VII. Discussion


VIII. Conclusion


IX. Acknowledgments and References III. LAND OF HANDS: THE GAME Land of Hands is a two-player collaborative educational game, based on the theme of hand hygiene. The child and the robot have to play together to rescue a princess who has been captured by germs and locked inside a faraway castle because she did not maintain proper hand hygiene. The game starts with a video narrative that sets the background for the players. The game consists of three levels - A matching level that assesses a child’s understanding and recognition of various parts of the hand that are involved in the handwashing process; A word puzzle level that highlights important vocabulary words related to the topic of hand hygiene; and a picture ordering level that helps children remember the correct order of World Health Organisation’s (WHO) six steps of handwashing (refer to Figure 1). Throughout the game, children interact with HakshE to progress to the next level, receive help during the levels, and try to win the game before the allotted time runs out. Upon completing all three levels, the princess gets freed and asks the children to explain to her what they learnt about hand hygiene from their interactions with HakshE. The gameplay consists of several elements (refer to Figure 2) that have the potential to facilitate a unique engagement in the context of social robotics as a function of people treating robots as social actors [15]. They are: • Keys - There are six golden keys in the game which act as rewards for the player. A key can be won by the child after completing each level and HakshE has the other three keys. • Scrolls - There are three glowing scrolls in the game. Each scroll appears before a level begins and allows HakshE to ask questions on hand hygiene to the children. If the children answer the question correctly, HakshE gives them a key that unlocks the next level. • Help Button - Each of the three levels in the game has an “Ask Robot For Help” button that allows children to ask HakshE for answers or any kind of help while playing. • Points - Each level has a set of points (gold coins) that the child can earn upon completion of that level. As this is a collaborative game, no points are deducted if the child asks HakshE for help. • Timer - Each level has a timer that starts a countdown as soon as the child enters the level. If the level is not completed before the allotted time runs out, the player loses points. To encourage social interactions between HakshE and children, the timer is paused whenever they seek HakshE’s help. Land of Hands is a 2D game that we developed using Godot’s game engine (V3.3) [25]. As shown in Figure 3, we used Alice 3 to animate the video narrative that is played at the beginning of the game [23], [24]. The only mode of control required from the player’s end is a simple left mouse button click which selects/deselects various elements in the game. The movement of the characters in the game is pre-coded. As this game is meant for young children, we significantly simplified its design to reduce the cognitive load on children*. Land of Hands* can be played in an offline mode with the physical prototype of HakshE and in an online mode where both the game and HakshE are hosted on Zoom video conferencing platform. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. Authors: (1) Devasena Pasupuleti, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (pdevasena835@gmail.com); (2) Sreejith Sasidharan, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India ssreejith172@gmail.com); (3) Rajesh Sharma, Spire Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California, 91403, United States of America (rajesh.k.sharma@gmail.com); (4) Gayathri Manikutty, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org). Authors: Authors: (1) Devasena Pasupuleti, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (pdevasena835@gmail.com); (2) Sreejith Sasidharan, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India ssreejith172@gmail.com); (3) Rajesh Sharma, Spire Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California, 91403, United States of America (rajesh.k.sharma@gmail.com); (4) Gayathri Manikutty, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org). Editor's note: This is Part of 3 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Editor's note: This is Part of 3 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Editor's note: This is Part of 3 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Editor's note: This is Part of 3 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Table of Links Abstract and I. Introduction II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification III. Land of Hands: The Game IV. Methods V. User Study VI. Results VII. Discussion


VIII. Conclusion


IX. Acknowledgments and References Abstract and I. Introduction Abstract and I. Introduction II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification III. Land of Hands: The Game III. Land of Hands: The Game IV. Methods IV. Methods V. User Study V. User Study VI. Results VI. Results VII. Discussion VIII. Conclusion


IX. Acknowledgments and References VII. Discussion VIII. Conclusion IX. Acknowledgments and References VIII. Conclusion VIII. Conclusion IX. Acknowledgments and References IX. Acknowledgments and References III. LAND OF HANDS: THE GAME Land of Hands is a two-player collaborative educational game, based on the theme of hand hygiene. The child and the robot have to play together to rescue a princess who has been captured by germs and locked inside a faraway castle because she did not maintain proper hand hygiene. The game starts with a video narrative that sets the background for the players. The game consists of three levels - A matching level that assesses a child’s understanding and recognition of various parts of the hand that are involved in the handwashing process; A word puzzle level that highlights important vocabulary words related to the topic of hand hygiene; and a picture ordering level that helps children remember the correct order of World Health Organisation’s (WHO) six steps of handwashing (refer to Figure 1). Throughout the game, children interact with HakshE to progress to the next level, receive help during the levels, and try to win the game before the allotted time runs out. Upon completing all three levels, the princess gets freed and asks the children to explain to her what they learnt about hand hygiene from their interactions with HakshE . Land of Hands matching level word puzzle level a picture ordering HakshE HakshE The gameplay consists of several elements (refer to Figure 2) that have the potential to facilitate a unique engagement in the context of social robotics as a function of people treating robots as social actors [15]. They are: • Keys - There are six golden keys in the game which act as rewards for the player. A key can be won by the child after completing each level and HakshE has the other three keys. Keys • Scrolls - There are three glowing scrolls in the game. Each scroll appears before a level begins and allows HakshE to ask questions on hand hygiene to the children. If the children answer the question correctly, HakshE gives them a key that unlocks the next level. Scrolls • Help Button - Each of the three levels in the game has an “Ask Robot For Help” button that allows children to ask HakshE for answers or any kind of help while playing. Help Button • Points - Each level has a set of points (gold coins) that the child can earn upon completion of that level. As this is a collaborative game, no points are deducted if the child asks HakshE for help. Points • Timer - Each level has a timer that starts a countdown as soon as the child enters the level. If the level is not completed before the allotted time runs out, the player loses points. To encourage social interactions between HakshE and children, the timer is paused whenever they seek HakshE’s help. Timer Land of Hands is a 2D game that we developed using Godot’s game engine (V3.3) [25]. As shown in Figure 3, we used Alice 3 to animate the video narrative that is played at the beginning of the game [23], [24]. The only mode of control required from the player’s end is a simple left mouse button click which selects/deselects various elements in the game. The movement of the characters in the game is pre-coded. As this game is meant for young children, we significantly simplified its design to reduce the cognitive load on children*. Land of Hands* can be played in an offline mode with the physical prototype of HakshE and in an online mode where both the game and HakshE are hosted on Zoom video conferencing platform. Land of Hands HakshE HakshE Zoom This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. available on arxiv

How Likely Are Children to Take Instructions from a Robot?

Authors:
(1) Devasena Pasupuleti, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (pdevasena835@gmail.com);
(2) Sreejith Sasidharan, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India ssreejith172@gmail.com);
(3) Rajesh Sharma, Spire Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California, 91403, United States of America (rajesh.k.sharma@gmail.com);
(4) Gayathri Manikutty, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org). Editor's note: This is Part of 2 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Table of Links Abstract and I. Introduction
II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification
III. Land of Hands: The Game
IV. Methods
V. User Study
VI. Results
VII. Discussion


VIII. Conclusion


IX. Acknowledgments and References II. THE CASA PARADIGM AND GAMIFICATION The CASA Paradigm which stands for “Computers As Social Actors” [12] along with the Media Equation theory [13] refer to humans treating computers or any software interfaces as fellow humans by displaying characteristic traits such as politeness, assigning gender, etc [13], [14]. This behavior is similar to humans’ anthropomorphic interpretations of social robots [15]. Evidence from prior research supports that the CASA/media equation theory has been increasingly relevant to the domain of HRI [16], [17]. To facilitate long-term interactions with social robots and improve engagement and retention, elements from the CASA paradigm can be applied to certain gamification principles. This can help in eliminating challenges that the domain of HRI faces such as predictability, lack of excitement and repetitive design of robots [15]. Blending gamification principles and the CASA paradigm together can lead to a more enhanced and positive learning outcome for children. Certain gamification elements such as a rich story narrative, a relevant theme, desirable end-goal, point rewards, and social interaction between the robot and the player set the ground for players to treat social robots as fellow players (social actors) and create continuous engagement opportunities for players [18], [19], [20], [21]. By playing with one another on the same team to complete a particular task within a given period, players might feel more motivated and encouraged to interact with robots. Including relevant narratives and a storyline that players can relate to, can help increase the player’s immersion and engagement in the game [22]. Having a theme-relevant multi-level game where the robot delivers frequent positive feedback whenever the player successfully progresses to the next task enjoyably promotes further content learning for the players. Keeping this in mind we applied certain game elements to the CASA paradigm as discussed above to create a unique educational gaming platform on hand hygiene that helps facilitate learning in children and encourages engagement with a social robot during play. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. Authors: (1) Devasena Pasupuleti, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (pdevasena835@gmail.com); (2) Sreejith Sasidharan, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India ssreejith172@gmail.com); (3) Rajesh Sharma, Spire Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California, 91403, United States of America (rajesh.k.sharma@gmail.com); (4) Gayathri Manikutty, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org). Authors: Authors: (1) Devasena Pasupuleti, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (pdevasena835@gmail.com); (2) Sreejith Sasidharan, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India ssreejith172@gmail.com); (3) Rajesh Sharma, Spire Animation Studios, Los Angeles, California, 91403, United States of America (rajesh.k.sharma@gmail.com); (4) Gayathri Manikutty, AMMACHI Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala, 690525, India (gayathri.manikutty@ammachilabs.org). Editor's note: This is Part of 2 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Editor's note: This is Part of 2 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Editor's note: This is Part of 2 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Editor's note: This is Part of 2 of 7 a study detailing the development of a gaming platform to teach proper hand hygiene practises to children. Read the rest below. Table of Links Abstract and I. Introduction II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification III. Land of Hands: The Game IV. Methods V. User Study VI. Results VII. Discussion


VIII. Conclusion


IX. Acknowledgments and References Abstract and I. Introduction Abstract and I. Introduction II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification II. The Casa Paradigm and Gamification III. Land of Hands: The Game III. Land of Hands: The Game IV. Methods IV. Methods V. User Study V. User Study VI. Results VI. Results VII. Discussion VIII. Conclusion


IX. Acknowledgments and References VII. Discussion VIII. Conclusion IX. Acknowledgments and References VIII. Conclusion VIII. Conclusion IX. Acknowledgments and References IX. Acknowledgments and References II. THE CASA PARADIGM AND GAMIFICATION The CASA Paradigm which stands for “Computers As Social Actors” [12] along with the Media Equation theory [13] refer to humans treating computers or any software interfaces as fellow humans by displaying characteristic traits such as politeness, assigning gender, etc [13], [14]. This behavior is similar to humans’ anthropomorphic interpretations of social robots [15]. Evidence from prior research supports that the CASA/media equation theory has been increasingly relevant to the domain of HRI [16], [17]. To facilitate long-term interactions with social robots and improve engagement and retention, elements from the CASA paradigm can be applied to certain gamification principles. This can help in eliminating challenges that the domain of HRI faces such as predictability, lack of excitement and repetitive design of robots [15]. Blending gamification principles and the CASA paradigm together can lead to a more enhanced and positive learning outcome for children. Certain gamification elements such as a rich story narrative, a relevant theme, desirable end-goal, point rewards, and social interaction between the robot and the player set the ground for players to treat social robots as fellow players (social actors) and create continuous engagement opportunities for players [18], [19], [20], [21]. By playing with one another on the same team to complete a particular task within a given period, players might feel more motivated and encouraged to interact with robots. Including relevant narratives and a storyline that players can relate to, can help increase the player’s immersion and engagement in the game [22]. Having a theme-relevant multi-level game where the robot delivers frequent positive feedback whenever the player successfully progresses to the next task enjoyably promotes further content learning for the players. Keeping this in mind we applied certain game elements to the CASA paradigm as discussed above to create a unique educational gaming platform on hand hygiene that helps facilitate learning in children and encourages engagement with a social robot during play. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED license. available on arxiv

New Gamification Method Involving Robots Suggests Treating Them as Humans for Maximum Effect

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