Professor Cynthia Breazeal, head of the Personal Robots research group, and PhD student Daniella DiPaola (Personal Robots) are among the recipients of seed grants established by the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC), an initiative of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.

These grants aim to inspire MIT researchers to make a meaningful contribution to responsible technology development and deployment. The second round of these grants received over 65 submissions, with eight projects selected. These projects are led by MIT researchers from seven departments across all five schools and the college, and have been selected to receive up to $75,000 in funding.

One of the eight selected projects, titled, “Toward Responsible, Virtue-Based AI Policies in Schools,” is led by Professor Breazeal and Daniella DiPaola. The project proposes a virtue-based approach to AI governance and usage in K-12 schools with educational tools that enable communities to make decisions based on shared values.