Prof. Aleksandra Przegalińska-Skierkowska

Professor Aleksandra Przegalińska-Skierkowska is a philosopher and researcher of new technologies development, especially green and sustainable technology, humanoid artificial intelligence, social robots, and wearable technologies. She received Ph.D. in 2014 from the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw. She graduated from The New School for Social Research in New York, where she researched identities in virtual reality, with particular focus on Second Life.

Grants:

2019: Short research stays at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence to implement a research project on the ethical framework of online chatbots.

2016–2018: MIT Center for Collective Intelligence (Boston, US): Neurotracking and its impact on collaboration (Mobility Plus Grant/ Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education and MIT).

2015–2016: Human-chatbot interactions and organizational change (Kozminski University Grant).

2014–2015: Kosciuszko Foundation Grant: Quantified Self Movement and Self-Tracking technologies: combining reverse engineering with self-augmentation.

2011–2013: National Science Center, Poland - Ph.D. grant (Embodied Paradigms in Artificial Intelligence).

2013: Researcher, Relevance of extended cognition for social intelligence. Critical trends in wide cognition (SINTELNET, FP7- ICT-2009-C, Project No. 286370).

2009–2010: Researcher in Virtual Civility, Trust, and Avatars: Ethnology in Second Life, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of the grant Early-Concept Grants for Explanatory Research (EAGER 2009-2010) carried out under the direction of Professor Eiko Ikegami (The New School for Social Research).

Awards:

2020 – the Hortensja Award for the best speaker and popularizer of science.

2020 – the Award of Cyfrowa Rzeczpospolita.

2019 – honorable mention for Digital Personality at Digital Champions Contest.

2018 – Digital Shapers Award in Education from the DigitalPoland Foundation.

2014 – Kościuszko Foundation Scholarship.

2010 – START Scholarship from the Foundation for Polish Science.

2007 – Fulbright Program Scholarship.

 Other achievements:

2015 – Scholarship for Outstanding Young Scientists from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

2014 – Kościuszko Foundation Scholarship.

 Guest lectures and lecture series:

2019 – ESCP Business School in Berlin, Germany.

2018, 2019 – Harvard University, USA.

2017 – University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

2015, 2016 – Kazakh Leading Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Kazakhstan.

2014 – Columbia University, USA.

 Public trust positions:

2018–2019 – Consultant and expert to the European Parliament on future AI regulation, member of the European AI Alliance.

2019 – Opinion for the expert team of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for Strategies for the implementation of artificial intelligence in Poland.

Advisory and expert activities:

2020–ongoing – Supervisory Board of Millennium Bank Hipoteczny.

2019–ongoing – Supervisory Board of Inteliwise.

 Przegalińska-Skierkowska has on many occasions popularized her research and knowledge in international media such as The Atlantic, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, or Harvard Business Review. She was intervieewd by Polish opinion magazines such as Newsweek Polska (Newsweek Poland), Zwierciadło (Mirror), Wysokie Obcasy (High Heels), Gazeta Wyborcza (Electoral Gazette), or Polityka (Politics), and other press, TV, and radio channels such as Dwutygodnik.com (Biweekly.com), Przekrój (Cross-Section), Niezbędnik Inteligenta (Intellectual Digest), The Creativity Post, Rzeczpospolita (Commonwealth), Forum, The Australian, Forbes, or Harvard Business Review. Together with Paweł Oksanowicz, she published the popular science book Sztuczna Inteligencja – Nieludzka, Arcyludzka (Artificial Intelligence: Inhuman, All Too Human; Znak, 2020).