Honorary doctorate 2021: Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro (Faculty of Arts)
Hiroshi Ishiguro (b. 1963) is a professor of robotics at Osaka University in Japan. He is particularly well-known for his work on androids, or humanoid robots. Professor Ishiguro is a leading figure in the interdisciplinary field of social robotics. He is not only a leading figure in the development of increasingly advanced humanoid robots; he also explores fundamental philosophical questions about the nature of humanity through his work.
By exploring how humans interact with the androids he builds, Ishiguro’s work seeks to understand the conditions for love, spirituality and other important dimensions of human life.
For about a decade, Ishiguro has been collaborating with researchers at the Robophilosophy and Integrative Social Robotics research unit under the Department of Philosophy and the History of Ideas at Aarhus University. Since 2012, the research unit has been using humanoid robots developed by Ishiguro in various research projects. The Faculty of Arts also recently began offering a new subsidiary subject, Humanistic Technology Development, in order to encourage humanities students and engineering and technology students to work together. Ishiguro’s visionary interdisciplinary perspective on the development of technology will provide inspiration for this form of cross-faculty collaboration.