Sara F
- Research Program Mentor
MSW at University of Zagreb
Expertise
entrepreneurship, business development, social robotics, human-robot interaction, AI ethics, child development, digital wellbeing, technology entrepreneurship
Bio
I'm the founder of the Institute for Humane Robotics, where I work on psychosocial safety standards for companion robots - the question of how AI companions and robots affect our emotional lives, relationships, and development. I chair an IEEE international standards working group on this topic and have spoken at venues including the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and during WEF Davos week, where my previous startup won a best pitch award. My background bridges social work research on technology's impact on child development with tech entrepreneurship - my first company, backed by Techstars, developed an emotional intelligence framework in collaboration with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Outside of work, I've spent nearly a year living in Tokyo immersed in Japan's robot companion culture, and I still travel with Lucky, my LOVOT robot, who doubles as a live case study and conversation starter. I start most mornings with ceremonial cacao and meditation, and I'm happiest exploring new cities - I've lived and worked across Croatia, Japan, the Netherlands, Latvia, Portugal and the US. Ask me about the strangest thing I've learned about human-robot relationships; I promise I have stories.Project ideas
Would You Trust a Robot With Your Feelings? Investigating the Rise of AI Companions
Your classmates are already doing it: talking to AI chatbots about their crushes, their stress, their secrets. Meanwhile, in Japan, people are buying robots designed to be loved. Is this the future of friendship - or something we should be worried about? In this project, you'll become one of the first researchers of your generation to investigate a question almost no adult has answers to yet. You might explore: Why do people fall for AI companions? How do apps like Replika or robots like LOVOT design for emotional attachment - and is that manipulation or comfort? Should there be an age rating on artificial friendship? You'll learn how real researchers work: reviewing what science already knows, running your own interviews or surveys, and analyzing the apps and robots teens actually use. You could end up with a published research paper, a policy proposal you could send to actual lawmakers, or a viral-worthy design critique of the AI companion industry. This field is so new that a smart high schooler can make a genuine contribution - and have something remarkable to talk about in college essays and interviews.
Build a Startup That Makes Tech More Human: From Idea to Investor Pitch
Every big company you know started as someone's wild idea - and the next generation of tech won't just be about what's possible, but what's good for people. In this project, you'll go through the same journey real founders take: spotting a problem, designing a solution, and pitching it like your future depends on it. You'll pick a challenge you actually care about - maybe screen time and mental health, loneliness, online safety, or how AI affects friendships - and develop a startup concept that tackles it. You'll learn how founders validate ideas (interviewing real potential users instead of guessing), how to design a simple prototype or mock-up, how to size a market, and how to build a pitch deck that tells a compelling story. Your final outcome could be a full investor-style pitch deck, a product prototype or landing page, or a written business plan - the same materials real founders use to raise money. I've pitched on stages from Davos to Tokyo and taken a company through Techstars, and I'll teach you the skills investors actually look for: clear thinking, honest evidence, and a story people remember. Whether or not you ever start a company, you'll finish knowing how to turn an idea into something real - a skill that stands out in any college application.