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SOCIABLE ROBOTS 129

in the Discover interview: “The ultimate milestone is a robot that
can be your friend.”
Breazeal likely misses one friend, though. Kismet first showed
her that a robot could become more than a tool or a helper—a true
companion. Kismet has since been “retired” and is in an exhibit at
the MIT museum.

Chronology

1968 Cynthia Breazeal born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but her
family soon moves to Livermore, California

1976 Breazeal sees Star Wars and is intrigued by R2D2 and C3PO

1989 Breazeal earns a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering
from the University of California at Santa Barbara
1992 Breazeal develops program routines for the walking robots
Attila and Hannibal

1993 Breazeal receives a master’s degree in electrical engineering
and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology

1997 Breazeal begins to design Kismet, the fi rst “sociable robot”

2000 Breazeal describes the operation of Kismet for her Ph.D. thesis
and receives her doctorate in electrical engineering and com-
puter science from MIT

2002 Breazeal publishes Designing Sociable Robots

2003 Breazeal installs a “cyberfloral installation” of interactive

flowers that respond to human presence in a New York art
museum

2006 Breazeal heads the Robotic Life Group at the MIT Media Lab
and continues development of the robot “Leonardo”