Wired Magazine recently called for us to, post pandemic, "ditch our tech enabled tools of social distancing". But are our telepresence robots creating emotional distancing or are they actually improving our emotional lives. This week in our weekly "COVID-19, robots and us" discussion with experts, we're looking at the topic of virtual presence and emotional contact as well as many other practical ways that robotics can make a difference in pandemic times. Robin Murphy, Raytheon Professor at Texas A&M University and founder of the field of Rescue Robotics, was involved in the very first use of robots in a disaster scenario in 9/11. Since then she's been involved in multiple disaster responses worldwide, including the Ebola outbreak in 2014-2016.

Silicon Valley Robotics and the CITRIS People and Robots Initiative are hosting a weekly "COVID-19, robots and us" online discussion with experts from the robotics and health community on Tuesdays at 7pm (California time – PDT). Helpful Engineering is a rapidly growing global network created to design, source and execute projects that can help people suffering from the COVID-19 crisis worldwide. The Open Source COVID-19 Medical Supplies Group is a rapidly growing Facebook group formed to evaluate, design, validate, and source the fabrication of open source emergency medical supplies around the world, given a variety of local supply conditions. Andra Keay, Managing Director of Silicon Valley Robotics and Visiting Scholar at CITRIS People and Robots Initiative will act as moderator. Beau Ambur, Outreach, Design and Technology Lead for Kickstarter will be coordinating technology for us.