Perry Share PhD: A sociologist with interests that span technology, the social professions, higher education and food and eating. He is Head of Student Success at Atlantic Technological University, Sligo, Ireland. He is the co-author of A sociology of Ireland (4e, 2012) and co-editor of Applied Social Care: An introduction for Irish students (3e, 2013). With John Pender, he co-leads PRoSPEro – an Erasmus+ funded project that aims to develop pedagogic approaches to the use of social robotics across the social professions. He is a member and former Chair of the Social Work Registration Board of Ireland.
John Pender PhD is a political scientist with a particular interest in welfare state and social care futures. He is a Senior Lecturer in social policy and futures at the Atlantic Technological University, Sligo, Ireland. He has conducted research on a myriad of related areas including the experiences of the Irish in Britain, ICT and gender, the position of migrants in the Irish higher education system and supranational political entrepreneurship. In collaboration with Perry Share, his current research seeks to ensure the preparedness of health and social care professionals for a future world of work characterised as human-robot-interactions.
A simulated consultative exercise on behalf of the European Commission. The topic is regulation of social robots in care settings (eg dementia care), currently underdeveloped in Europe. There may be a need for targeted regulation at EU, national, local or industry level; conversely, existing regulation (eg health and safety, product liability, medical devices standards) may be sufficient to guide practice in this emergent care field. The simulation is based on a fictional scenario and participants will develop and present their views from a specific stakeholder viewpoint. The aim is to agree on the parameters of any such future regulatory framework.