Dr. Robby gets Interviewed About the Metaverse by Prof. Roxana Girju

SPARTIE-Cast with Dr. Robby Ratan

CROSSOVER EPISODE! When approached by Roxana Girju, professor of linguistics (and more, see below), requesting an interview for her podcast about the Metaverse, Robby thought, “Let’s kill two virtual birds with one grey oblong NFT!” In other words, the interview is being cross-posted and Robby finally gets to blah blah blah on his own podcast!

Seriously though, this was a great opportunity to synthesize some of the amazing lessons learned from the previous SPARTIE-Cast guests combined with some personal explorations into the Metaverse Robby has done recently with friend and colleague Dar Meshi (@darmeshi).

During this interview, Robby’s explains his understanding of what the Metaverse and Web 3.0 are, how they relate to virtual/augmented reality technologies, how the technological infrastructure is and will be governed, what societal benefits and concerns are on the horizon, how Facebook, Epic (Fortnite), and other major companies will operate in this space and how the SPARTIE-Lab’s research relates to this impending brave new world.

And huge thanks to Dr. Girju for conducting the interview!

About this week's guest:

Roxana Girju is a podcast host, professor of linguistics, computer science affiliate and part-time faculty member of the Beckman Institute of Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the co-founder and former director of the successful joint CS+Linguistics undergraduate​ program. Located at the intersection of language – technology – society, Dr. Girju’s research interests are in designing, building and testing artificial intelligence systems that use language in order to facilitate successful human–human and human–computer communication. She is a longstanding supporter of the integration of STEM with the broader fields of humanities, social sciences and the arts, integration that would benefit the next generation of human language technologies.

This episode is cross-posted with Dr. Girju's own podcast, Creative Language Technologies. You can check out her other episodes on any of the major podcast platforms but also here:

https://player.fm/series/creative-language-technologies

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About the SPARTIE Lab:

The Social and Psychological Approaches to Research on Technology-Interaction Effects (SPARTIE) Lab performs research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how the use of media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influences meaningful outcomes (e.g., education, health/safety, persuasion).

The SPARTIE Lab is part of the greater academic community at the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University. More information on the lab's research projects, staff, and work can be found on the SPARTIE Lab website.

About the host:

Dr. Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Ph. D., is an associate professor and AT&T Scholar at Michigan State University’s Department of Media and Information and is the director of the SPARTIE Lab.

He is also an affiliated faculty member of the MSU Department of Psychology, the MSU College of Education’s program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, and the MSU Center for Gender in a Global Context. Ratan received his Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, his M.A. in Communication from Stanford University, and his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society, also from Stanford University.

Dr. Ratan conducts research on the effects of human-technology interaction, examining how media technologies (e.g., avatars, agents, automobiles) influence meaningful outcomes (e.g., persuasion, education, health/safety). He is particularly interested in the Proteus effect, media-rich transportation contexts, perceptions of media as self-representations and/or social others, avatarification for health and education, and gender stereotypes in gaming contexts.

Dr. Ratan lives near Lansing with his family. More information on his work can be found on his website.