Laura Stegner

I create robotic systems to help people.

My research is at the intersection of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Robotics, and Healthcare. Motivated by global challenges posed by increasing caregiver shortages, I seek to design, build, and evaluate robotic systems that support complex tasks in healthcare environments. A core aspect of my work lies in engaging with community partners to bring robots into the real world. Previously, I received my B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2019 and my M.S./Ph.D. in Computer Science from UW-Madison in 2022 and 2025, respectively. Please get in touch if you would like to chat or collaborate!

View my CV

LinkedIn Google Scholar ORCID GitHub

Recent News

Aug 2025 - Starting my new position as tenure-track Assistant Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the George Washington University!
Aug 2025 - Great visit to George Mason University, hosted by Dr. Xuesu Xiao.
May 2025 - Successfully defended my PhD Dissertation!
Apr 2025 - Wonderful visits to HRI labs near Denver! Dr. Brad Hayes at CU Boulder and Dr. Tom Williams at Mines.

Older News

Apr 2025 - Honored to attend the 2025 CRA-WP Grad Cohort for Women in Denver, CO and present my research!
Mar 2025 - Incredibly excited to accept a faculty position at GW MAE starting Fall 2025!
Nov 2024 - Wonderful visit to George Washington University, hosted by Dr. Chung Hyuk Park.
Nov 2024 - Co-organized the 2024 AAAI Fall Symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development.
Jul 2024 - Amazing week as a student volunteer at DIS '24 in Copenhagen: co-organized the RoboCare Design Workshop, co-presented our evaluation of Tabula, and cheered Yaxin Hu as she presented our work on designing for remote tele-experience for older adults.
Jun 2024 - Returning to the Naval Research Lab for another internship with Dr. Laura Hiatt!
May 2024 - Honored to be named a recipient of the Cisco Distinguished Graduate Fellowship for the 2024-25 academic year.
May 2024 - Extremely proud of undergraduate researchers Mary Kristjanson and Shanshan Li for presenting their work at the UW Undergraduate Research Symposium!
May 2024 - Virtual talk at National University of Singapore, hosted by Dr. Harold Soh.
Mar 2024 - Co-organized the End-User Development for Human-Robot Interaction workshop at HRI'24.
Nov 2023 - I passed my preliminary exam!
Oct 2023 - Visit to The Health, Aging, and Technology (THAT) Lab at University of Maryland.
Oct 2023 - Co-organized the 2023 AAAI Fall Symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development and presented my work.
Oct 2023 - Visit to Intuitive Computing Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.
Sep 2023 - Presented my research at the 10th Heidelberg Laureate Forum in Heidelberg, Germany.
Jun 2023 - Started my internship at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, working with Dr. Laura Hiatt.
May 2023 - Presented in the Summer Speaker Series at MIRRORLab (virtual).
Apr 2023 - Situated Participatory Design Paper presented at CHI'23.
Apr 2023 - Invited talk at the National Robotarium and Edinburgh Centre for Robotics in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Mar 2023 - Tabula Paper presented at HRI'23.
Jun 2022 - Designing for Caregiving Paper presented at DIS'22.
May 2021 - Figaro Paper presentation at CHI'21.
May 2020 - Excited to announce I was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.
Aug 2019 - Starting my graduate studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Research

For a list of my publications, please check out my Google Scholar profile.

Let's get in touch!

The best way to contact me is via email: laura {dot} stegner {at} gwu {dot} edu

Prospective students

If you are interested in joining my lab, please send me an email with [Prospective MS/PhD Student] in the subject line and include the items listed below. Due to a high volume of interest, I may not be able to respond to all inquiries (although I will try my best).

Your CV
Relevant past experience in robotics/HCI/engineering
Any previous research publications and your role in the research (note: this is not a requirement to join the lab)
A paragraph on why you wnat to join the lab