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About

Hawon Lee is a researcher specializing in educational robotics, human-robot interaction (HRI), and speech-language development in young children. Her work sits at a compelling intersection of special education, early childhood pedagogy, and intelligent systems, exploring how robots can serve as meaningful communicative partners for vulnerable populations. Lee's most influential contribution is her development of "Special Friend, iRobiQ," a language-intervention program designed for children with speech-language disorders. Published in 2015 and cited 29 times, this work demonstrated how play-based robot content could actively promote language interaction, positioning the robot as a conversational companion rather than a passive tool — a significant conceptual shift in assistive technology design. Her earlier investigations from 2012 examined how 5-year-old children perceive and socially categorize intelligent robots, applying Speech Register theory to understand whether children distinguish robots from humans and peers in naturalistic educational settings. These studies, conducted across multiple kindergarten centers with children experienced in HRI environments, provided foundational empirical insight into young children's social cognition around robots. Collectively, Lee's research advances our understanding of how intelligent robots can be thoughtfully integrated into both therapeutic and early childhood educational contexts, with meaningful implications for inclusive education and child-centered robot design.