Hey, Teacher, (Don't) Leave Those Kids Alone: Standardizing HRI Education

Many researchers offer graduate-level versions of the course, which may focus more on the specific researcher's focus area of HRI or be a seminar-style class with reading weekly scientific articles but often feature little to no lecturing on fundamental topics. At the end of an introductory human-robot interaction course, I believe every student should have the tools to: Read, understand, and discuss recent literature Have a comprehensive overview of the entire field of HRI (not just a subset) Design a user study with human participants Develop a hands-on interaction with a real robot Analyze and evaluate experimental data Communicate their findings This manuscript describes the importance of an introductory course containing theoretical and experimental components in Section 2, while Section 3 advocates for adopting or creating a universal robotic platform that all introductory students will gain experience with through a semester-long project, regardless of university funding or size. I also see significant value in some teaching technical papers at the undergraduate level, and I recommend a comprehensive way to do this in Section 4. Section 5 more explicitly outlines the proposed course content for such an introductory course based on my experience designing and teaching such a course in Fall 2023.