March 14, 2025

A group of talented Georgia Tech Industrial Design students has earned top recognition at the prestigious ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI2025), held last week in Melbourne, Australia. The project, titled “Social Queue,” created by Yixiao Zhang, Jared Teiger, and Sadie Martin, received the highest reviewer ratings among all 14 finalists in the Student Design Challenge (SDC). Their exceptional work was celebrated at the HRI'25 award ceremony, where Yixiao Zhang accepted the “Exceptional SDC Paper Award” from SDC chair Audrey Balaska.

The Social Queue project focuses on enhancing the waiting-in-line experience by integrating socially interactive robots to improve perceived wait time and enjoyment. The team conducted a research-through-design experiment where Social Queue robots, powered by Arduino electronics and controlled via joysticks, interacted with people waiting in line through various behaviors such as waving, avoiding hands, and friendly interactions. The goal was to create a more engaging and enjoyable experience for participants, ultimately reducing their perceived wait times.

The project was developed as part of the HRI Student Design Challenge, which encourages interdisciplinary collaboration and creative design solutions for human-robot interactions. The theme for HRI2025, “Robots for a Sustainable World,” invites participants to consider the UN Sustainable Development Goals in their designs. While Social Queue focused on enhancing user experience, its approach offers valuable insights for creating user-centered interactions that could be applied to broader social and sustainability challenges.

See all the projects submitted by School of Industrial Design students below.