Three biggest gains from this conference. First, the conference gathered many of the most frontier research about human-robot interaction around the world, including US, Japan, and European countries. The diversity of the topics enlightened me to think more broadly, such as robotic furniture, robots in the museums, etc. Regarding my current research about human emotional responses to robots, I learned concepts structures and research designs and measurement from other researchers' work. This was also the most valuable part of going to the conference.
Third, this was a great networking opportunity. I got to meet many people working on this topic with similar or different backgrounds. I am in Human Factors in Psychology, and many of the researchers are from Computer Science and Engineering background. They are excellent researchers around the world that I would not have chance to meet them unless I went to this conference. They were not only knowledgeable but also very kind to talk to. Some of them may become good friends in the future as we all work in this same field.
There were many more great things about the conference. I was filled with joy, satisfaction, and hope being in that environment. I hope that I can do good research and present my work at the conference next year!