Julie Torpegaard

Julie Torpegaard is a Part-Time Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at Aalborg University, under The Technical Faculty of IT and Design. Her work lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction and child development, focusing on innovative technologies for early childhood education and play.

Research Interests: Julie's research explores how young children engage socially and playfully with physical computing systems, robots, and programmable matter. Her work emphasizes tangible, embodied, and socially interactive designs that support learning and development in preschool settings. She investigates how low-cost, accessible materials like cardboard robots or flying LEGO bricks can facilitate playful learning experiences.

Her recent publications demonstrate a consistent focus on child-centered design, social interaction with technology, and physical-digital integration. These works appear in high-quality venues in the field of tangible and embedded interaction, showing strong empirical and observational methodology.

Scientific Contributions:

• Investigating social and playful interactions between preschoolers and cardboard robots
• Exploring children's construction and play behaviors with programmable matter (e.g., flying LEGO bricks)
• Contributing to the design of accessible, scalable interactive systems for early education

Julie collaborates with researchers across institutions and has contributed to peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings. Her work has been cited over 25 times collectively (Scopus), indicating impact in the child-computer interaction community.

Labs and Research Context: Her research is situated within human-centered computing and tangible interaction labs, likely involving interdisciplinary teams focused on educational technology, interaction design, and developmental psychology.