I am a Ph.D. candidate at the RobotiCSS Lab. 

I have a background in Computer Science and Engineering. After an internship in robotics at the JRC - Ispra (VA), I worked in software engineering participating in EC-funded international research projects. I taught technology in school, where I coordinated the team for digital innovation. For several years I have designed and led training programs for teachers and students in educational robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). I contributed to research on AI in education, exploring its potential for enhancing teaching and learning practices. 

My research interests include the philosophy of AI and Cognitive Science, Human-Robot Interaction, AI in education, educational robotics, and how interaction with artificial systems shapes the perception of science. At the RobotiCSS Lab, I participate in empirical investigations on how people attribute mental states and cognitive capacities to robots, and on how robots can be used to study humans’ theory of mind.

Activity

My doctoral research investigates theoretically and empirically how humans understand and theorize about artificial agents. It integrates philosophy of AI, Cognitive Science and the accounts of explanation in philosophy of science with empirical research, outlining a taxonomy of modelling styles individuals may adopt interacting with robots and AI systems.  A particular focus is placed on mentalistic modelling strategies: interpretative approaches that attribute cognitive capacities and mental states to robots to make sense of their behaviour. One study specifically applies to the education domain, exploring the mentalistic modelling styles teachers adopt when interpreting robotic behaviour.

Within the RobotiCSS Lab:

I have been involved in

  • the PRIN 2022 project HERB - Human Explanation of Robotic Behaviour
  • the PRIN PNRR 2022 project Fostering STEM inclusion among girls with migrant background: the role of educational robots
  • the project Sviluppo e sperimentazione di un prototipo di assistente robotico destinato a persone nello spettro autistico - Development and trial of a robotic assistant prototype for people on the autistic spectrum, founded by Fondazione Cariplo

I am currently collaborating with the Research Unit on Theory of Mind (UniToM) of the Università Cattolica (Milano) on a study in human-robot interaction.

Publications

Phd Thesis

“How do teachers understand robots? A philosophical and empirical study of the attribution of mind to robots”
Supervisor: Prof. Edoardo Datteri (University of Milano-Bicocca)
Co-supervisor: Prof. Antonio Lieto (University of Salerno)
Scientific-Disciplinary Sector (SSD): PHIL-02/A – Logic and Philosophy of Science

Chapters and Journal Articles

  • Larghi, S., & Datteri, E. (forthcoming). Le scienze cognitive del senso comune. Sistemi Intelligenti, 3. Il Mulino.
  • Larghi, S., Caldiroli, C.L., Lapomarda, L., Datteri, E. (forthcoming). Exploring Mentalising Tendencies Toward a Non-Humanoid Robot in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study. In: M.Staffa et al. (Eds.): ICSR+AI 2025, LNAI 16131, pp.1–14, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-95-2379-5_27
  • Larghi, S., & Datteri, E. (2025). Programming errors and the attribution of intentionality to educational robots. In Book of Proceedings. ATEE (Association for Teacher Education in Europe) Spring Conference 2024. Teacher education research in Europe: trends, challenges, practices and perspectives. Università degli studi di Bergamo (p. 445).
  • Larghi, S., Datteri, E., Zanotti, G., Facchin, M., Alfieri, I., Raffa, M., & Bacaro, M. (2025). “Mind (and) the Robot: On the Epistemology and Ethics of the Attribution of Mental States to Robots.” in Social Robots with AI: Prospects, Risks, and Responsible Methods - Proceedings of Robophilosophy 2024, 19–23 August 2024, Aarhus University, Denmark, and online. https://ebooks.iospress.nl/doi/10.3233/FAIA241558
  • Larghi, S., & Datteri, E. (2024). Mentalistic Stances Towards AI Systems: Beyond the Intentional Stance. In Aldini A. (Ed.), Lect. Notes Comput. Sci.: Vol. 14568 LNCS (pp. 28–41). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH; Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66021-4_2
  • Mazzucato, A., Larghi, S. (2024) Introducing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in K12 education to foster 21st century skills: from theory to practice, in Proceedings of The 7th World Conference on Research in Education, https://doi.org/10.33422/worldcre.v1i1.227
  • Datteri, E., & Larghi, S. (2024). La psicologia dei robot. In M. Galletti, S. Zipoli Caiani (Eds.), Filosofia dell'Intelligenza Artificiale (pp. 147-167). Bologna : il Mulino.
  • S. Larghi, M. Villa, M. Tumminelli, M. Nogarino, A. Ottolia, M. Traversone: A distributed approach to File Management in IMA2G, SAE AeroTech Congress & Exhibition Toulouse, 2011, DOI: https://doi.org/10.4271/2011-01-2660

Book Editing

  • Larghi, S., Datteri, E. (eds.) (2025), Child-Robot Interaction - Methods, Epistemology, Applications. College Publications.

Talks and Panel Organisation at National and International Conferences and Workshops

  • Larghi S., Datteri E., Exploring how school teachers understand robots: a philosophical and empirical study on the attribution of mind to artificial systems, AISC 2025 - 21th Annual Conference of the Italian Association for Cognitive Sciences, Lucca, September 17-19, 2025.
  • Larghi, S., Caldiroli, C., Lapomarda, L., Datteri, E., Exploring Mentalising Tendencies Toward a Non-Humanoid Robot in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study, ICSR 2025 International Conference on Social Robotics + AI, Naples, September 10-12, 2025.
  • Larghi, S., Bozzi, G., Merisio, C., Datteri, E., How children understand robots’ mind: A qualitative analysis of the theoretical vocabularies used by children in roboethology, International Conference on Child-Robot Interaction 2025 - CRI25, Milan, 18-20 June 2025.
  • Larghi, S., How do school teachers understand robots? A qualitative study of mentalistic HERBs, Meeting of the HERB project - Human Explanations of Robotic Behavior, Milan, June 17th, 2025.
  • Larghi, S., Styles of mentalistic HERBs, Meeting of the HERB project - Human Explanations of Robotic Behavior, Milan, June 17th, 2025.
  • Larghi, S., Rethinking the design stance: A cognitivist perspective on the attribution of mind to robots and AI systems, SILFS Postgraduate Conference 2025, Turin, June 11-13, 2025.
  • Larghi, S., Epistemology of the attribution of mental states to robots, kick-off event MI FIL /02, Milan Logic & Philosophy of Science Network, 12 March 2025.
  • Co-organizer (with M. Facchin, Universiteit Antwerpen, and G. Zanotti, Politecnico di Milano) of the symposium “On the Attribution of Cognitive and Emotional States to Autonomous and Intelligent Systems” at AISC 2024 – 20th Annual Conference of the Italian Association for Cognitive Sciences, Rome, September 18–20, 2024 and presenter of the contribution “How People Understand Robots’ Mind: Folk-Psychology vs. Folk-Cognitivism” (S. Larghi, E. Datteri).
  • S. Larghi, E. Datteri, The ‘superbug’: mental models and errors in computer programming, AISC 2024 - 20th Annual Conference of the Italian Association for Cognitive Sciences, Rome, September 18-20, 2024. [presented by E. Datteri]
  • Larghi, S., The psychology of robots: how people understand robots’ mind, ‘XXXIII Convegno nazionale dei dottorati di ricerca in filosofia’, Frascati, 10-11 September 2024.
  • Organizer of the panel “Mind (and) the Robot: On the Epistemology and Ethics of the Attribution of Mental States to Robots” at RP2024 - Robophilosophy Conference 2024, Social Robots With AI: Prospects, Risks, and Responsible Methods, Aarhus, Denmark, August 20–23, 2024 and presenter of the contribution “Mentalistic Stances Towards Robots” (S. Larghi, E. Datteri).
  • S. Larghi, E. Datteri, Programming errors and the attribution of intentionality to educational robots, ATEE Spring 2024 - Teacher education research in Europe: trends, challenges, practices and perspectives, Bergamo, 29 May - 1 June 2024.
  • S. Larghi, E. Datteri: Mentalistic stances towards AI systems, Philtech Workshop: Topics in the Philosophy of Science and Technology for the ML era, April 2024. [invited]
  • A. Mazzucato, S. Larghi: Introducing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in K12 education to foster 21st century skills: from theory to practice, WORLDCRE - 7th World Conference on Research in Education, Milan, February 2024.
  • S. Larghi and E. Datteri: Folk cognitivist stances towards AI systems, AISC2023 – 19th Annual Conference of the Italian Association of Cognitive Sciences, Genova, December 2023.
  • S. Larghi and E. Datteri: Mentalistic stances towards AI systems: beyond the Intentional stance, CIFMA 2023 - 5th International Workshop on Cognition: Interdisciplinary Foundations, Models and Applications, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, November 2023.
  • S. Larghi and E. Datteri: How people understand AI: from folk psychology to folk cognitive science, 9th Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Cognition 2023 - AIC 2023, Brema, Germany, September 2023.
  • S. Larghi, G. Bozzi, C. Merisio and E. Datteri, How children understand robots’ mind: folk-psychology vs. computational decomposition, International Conference on Child-Robot Interaction 2023 - CRI23, Milan, June 2023.
  • Workshop “Intelligenza Artificiale in classe” (“Artificial Intelligence in the classroom”), IBR21 – Interazione bambini-robot 2021 [organiser and trainer]
  • S. Larghi, “Avventure di un ecorobot” (experience report), Giocare a Pensare. Metodi e tecnologie per l’uso educativo e didattico dei robot 2017, published online through Essediquadro (INDIRE).
  • Workshop “Raccontiamo con i robot: come creare contenuti narrativi con la robotica educativa” Teniamoci per Mouse (TxM) 2017 “Dire, fare, progettare - oltre il coding” [organiser and trainer].

Other Conference Participations

  • A. Longo, C. L. Caldiroli, C. Panisi, S. Larghi, M. Zacchini, F. Cantrigliani, D. Arisi, M. U. Oriani, E. Datteri: Development and Experimental Monitoring of a Humanoid Robotic Assistant for Autism Spectrum Disorder Patients: a Pilot Study, Second European Conference Of Digital Psychology: Psychology and AI: New Horizons, 2024 [POSTER]
  • C. L. Caldiroli, S. Larghi, L. Lapomarda, E. Datteri: “Exploring Emotional Engagement and False Belief Attribution in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder through Interaction with a Non-Humanoid Robot”, accepted for presentation, XXV Congresso Nazionale della Sezione di Psicologia Clinica e Dinamica, 17-20 Settembre 2025, Perugia [POSTER]
  • C. Roselli, S. Larghi, N. Zagni, E. Datteri, L. Lapomarda: “Does culture matter? The role of individuals’ cultural profile in anthropomorphizing robots.” Accepted for presentation at AIP Sperimentale 2025, 31° annual conference.
  • C. Roselli, L. Lapomarda, N. Zagni, S. Larghi, E. Datteri: “The more I know you, the less you resemble me: Participation in a robotics program affects people’s anthropomorphism towards robots.” Accepted for presentation at AISC 2025 - 21th Annual Conference of the Italian Association for Cognitive Sciences, Lucca, September 17-19, 2025.

Editorial work and Scientific Review Activity

  • Guest Editor with Ilaria Alfieri and Maria Raffa of the Special Issue of the Journal The Reasoner dedicated to the Kick-off event of the Milan Philosophy of Science Network (in progress)
  • Reviewer for IEEE Transaction on Learning Technology
  • Reviewer for Scientific Reports (Springers Nature)
  • Reviewer for Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
  • Member of the Reviewer Community Frontiers in Psychology (cognitive Science)

Academic Service and Conference Organization

  • Co-organizer of the Workshop “How do people explain the behaviour of robots? Epistemology of XAI and social robotics” – SIMPAR 2025, IEEE International Conference on Simulation, Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots, Palermo, April 14–18, 2025
  • Program Committee Member of the Special Session on Emotions and Affective Agents, 17th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence – ICAART 2025, Porto, Portugal, February 23–25, 2025
  • Organizing and Scientific Committee Member, International Conference on Child-Robot Interaction – CRI25, University of Milano-Bicocca, June 2025
  • Organizing and Scientific Committee Member, International Conference on Child-Robot Interaction – CRI23, University of Milano-Bicocca, June 2023

Public engagement

  • Collaborazione al progetto "Alla scoperta degli Animali Robotici":  convegni di roboetologia del 20 Maggio 2023 (Magenta) e 22 Maggio 2023 (Museo della Scienza e della Tecnica Leonardo da Vinci, Milano - convegno ed evento finale)
  • Relatrice del seminario "I robot hanno una mente? Epistemologia e ontologia dell'interazione umani-robot" [Speaker at the seminar "Do robots have a mind? Epistemology and Ontology of Human-Robot Interaction"] organized by the RobotiCSS Lab, 3 Dec 2022, I robot hanno una mente? | Dipartimento di Scienze Umane per la Formazione "Riccardo Massa" (unimib.it)
  • Conduttrice dell'experience "In viaggio con i bambini. Dietro le quinte di un'IA" [Conductor of the experience “Traveling with Children. Behind the scenes of an AI”] organized by the RobotiCSS Lab for Milano Digital Week  2022, 12 Nov 2022, Milano Digital Week • In viaggio coi bambini. Dietro le quinte di un’IA