Dr. Elizabeth Broadbent, a member of CARES,  delivered an invited keynote presentation at the New Friends 2016 Conference held in Barcelona, Spain earlier this month, focusing on the benefits of healthcare robots for patients suffering from chronic illness. The presentation also included a synopsis of the research that the University of Auckland has conducted at a retirement home as well as to help patients who suffer from COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).

Mr.Chandan Datta, a Doctoral Student of Robotics at the University of Auckland, also presented at the Conference with a focus on the building of a software platform and programming tools for social robots for educational and therapeutic purposes.

The Conference featured a number of keynotes, oral presentations, poster sessions and working robot demonstrations.