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KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Drs. Autumn and Chad Edwards grew up in West Texas. Chad in Midland, a smaller city that experienced a population boom in the early 2000s, and Autumn two hours north in Levelland, a small town named for its impressive flatness. 

“They have a saying that the town motto is ‘Levelland: Where you can watch your dog run away for two weeks,’” Autumn shares with a laugh. 

The two met in college when Autumn was a first-year student and Chad was a junior. Autumn had tried out for the debate team and remembers being immediately impressed with Chad’s skills as a seasoned team member. They began dating within a week and were married within six months. 

“From the first time we met, we haven’t been apart very long,” Autumn said. Daughter America was born soon after. 

Autumn attributes their love of competitive forensics in guiding them to a career in the communication field. “If you can make a career out of researching things, persuading people about important issues, putting together logical, rational argumentation, being a critical consumer of news and science and communicating to the public, then we’re in,” says Autumn.

Autumn completed her undergrad studies at Texas Tech while Chad worked on his master’s degree. Then it was on to the University of Kansas for Autumn’s master’s and Chad’s Ph.D. Finally, they ventured to Ohio University for Autumn’s Ph.D. They began applying for teaching positions around the country—Western Michigan University made the offer, and they’ve been here ever since, professors in the School of Communication. 

We should get a robot

The Drs. Edwards are perhaps best known on campus for their work with robots. In fact, Autumn was named “one of the 30 women in robotics you need to know about” by Women in Robotics in 2020. 

One might not immediately draw a connection between the communication field and robotics, but as Chad and Autumn have now demonstrated, it’s a logical fit. 

Chad tells the story of how they got into robotics: he, Autumn and their colleague Patric Spence (now at the University of Central Florida) were sitting in their office suite one day and saw an ad for a telepresence robot—“essentially like Skype on a stick.” 

“We should get a robot and just test it,” Chad said.  

So, they bought one with their own money and a whole new world of possibilities opened up for them. From that initial, relatively primitive robot, the was born at 51������. 

Over time, they’ve connected with faculty affiliates in other labs in Florida, North Dakota, Connecticut, Italy, Chile and Germany. 

“When we first got that telepresence robot, we were just kind of exploring students’ reactions to it,” says Autumn. They were navigating the robot remotely from their lab in Sprau Tower, sending it to different floors and observing people’s reactions to it. They discovered that students were treating the robot much as they treated other humans—particularly in the elevator where a certain etiquette is expected. When they turned the robot to “look” at others in the enclosed space, it made people incredibly uncomfortable.

“We’re learning about people!” Autumn realized. 

They found that Stanford University had done research in the ’90s that reached similar conclusions about the “computers as social actors paradigm.” Humans tend to anthropomorphize things that have a face. Certainly, we do this with our pets, but it was surprising to realize that we also do this with machines. This finding helped shape the focus of their research on the social psychology and communication theory of human beings. “When and to what degree does it explain what we do with Siri or Alexa or a social robot in the wild, and how will that matter?” Autumn asked. 

“I think what we study when we look at machine actors is really just people,” says Chad. “It always comes back to how do we interact, how do we relate, how do we communicate with others? And it’s nice because robots are simple at this point. Whereas people are complex and messy, robots tend not to be, as long as they’re working. And so, you can sort of understand the mechanisms and the perceptions of what people are doing.” 

Our tendency, as humans, is to want to “humanize anything we can,” Chad says. This extends to robots and internet bots as well—we form relationships with these interactive artificial intelligences. Their research on human/machine interaction raises important philosophical questions about what it means to be human and how human/machine interaction influences and shapes society in this modern world. 

Being Intentional

One is, of course, tempted to ask how the two make it work—living together and working so closely together, but Chad and Autumn have such a powerful connection with one another that it is easy to conclude that they wouldn’t work any other way. Their professional lives and their personal lives are so thoroughly intertwined, that the two have to be very intentional about making time for hobbies that have nothing to do with robots. 

“Even the art around our house is cyborg stuff, cyber-punk stuff,” Autumn says, grinning. “There are no firm lines anywhere.” 

Chad is an avid golfer and makes a point to get out on the course several times a week. He also enjoys woodworking, and his cutting boards and other items can sometimes be found for sale in downtown Kalamazoo. Autumn loves gardening. 

“I think growing up in a region where cotton was the main crop made me super appreciative of the amazing variety of fresh fruits, flowers and vegetables that thrive here! Having four gorgeous seasons is pretty magical,” she says. She cultivates a wide selection of berries as well as some apple and pear varieties. 

As a family, they enjoy hiking and exploring Michigan, spending as much time as possible in one of the state’s most beautiful areas, the Leelanau Peninsula, every summer. Whether by design or by coincidence, their hobbies are all activities that are notably unplugged. 

Their oldest daughter, America, is currently finishing her Ph.D. in communication at the University of California Santa Barbara. America completed her bachelor’s in communication studies at 51������ in 2018, graduating from the Lee Honors College. Their youngest daughter, Emerson, 15, is contemplating a degree in aviation 51������. Emerson enjoys raising a small flock of chickens in their backyard. Both America and Emerson also attended the Academically Talented Youth (ATYP) Program 51������. 

As for what’s ahead—the Edwards family will be spending the first month of the fall semester in Germany where both Autumn and Chad will be Fellows at RWTH Aachen University. They also plan to visit Denmark to attend a conference where they hope to make new international connections in robotics.  

Autumn is currently editing the DeGruyter Handbook of Robots in Society and Culture, alongside colleague and friend Leopoldina Fortunati, while Chad is the Chair of the Human-Machine Communication Interest Group for the International Communication Association.  

The pair are also finalizing a series of studies with colleagues in the UK and Italy on the uses and perceptions of Amazon’s Alexa. The studies exploring cross-cultural perceptions of Alexa’s gender will be published in Computers in Human Behavior and in Human-Machine Communication. 

This story is published as part of the College of Arts and Sciences Annual Magazine—view the 2022 Magazine online.