Griffith University researcher has been named among Australia’s leading young and innovative researchers becoming a recipient of a Universities Australia (UA) ‘Pitch it Clever’ award.
Dr Sommer, who holds a PhD in child development, was awarded the UA award for her research in to how robots can positively assist children’s learning and cognitive development.
Kristyn’s video submission was judged to be ‘a highly informative look into an extraordinarily complex concepts of how her research will look to the future of robots in classrooms’.
“It is so exciting to be able to highlight my research and be recognised by Universities Australia,” Dr Sommer said.
“I love teaching, and through my research, I want people to understand that robots in classrooms will never replace teachers. It’s just not possible.”
“Social robotics is a concept that is already being used now, in health care, aged care and numerous other settings around the world and we are not that far away from having a social robot in every classroom and home.
Griffith University’s Dr Kristyn Sommer receives her ‘Pitch it Clever’ award from federal Education Minister Jason Clare MP and Universities Australia Chair Professor John Dewar AO.
“But before we throw them into the classroom and see Terminator come to life in the playground, we need to do the research to investigate further how we can enhance how children learn with this technology.”
Kristyn, who holds a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Griffith University, is a proud mother to a wildly brilliant toddler and somehow finds time to be continually active and authentic on social media.
She uses her various social media platforms to give parents evidence based parenting content but communicated in a way that everyone can understand.
With nearly 20 million views on Tik Tok alone, Kristyn is breaking down barriers across the globe to give people accurate, evidence based content that they can easily digestible
In her own words, she will shout to anyone who will listen and wants to break down the ‘paywalls around parenting’ to give content to those who need it.
