Beste Özcan is the designer of “Transitional Wearable Companions (TWCs)” concept, brand, and its first applied prototype called “+me (PlusMe)”, which is a particular type of wearable social companion for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This project is financed from the Region of Lazio for two years. She is the author of the book “H+ design: time, space, human, machine”. Currently, she is a postdoc research fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council of Italy (ISTC-CNR) working on the development of interactive wearables to augment social-emotional interaction skills of children with ASD (project: "+me: motivating children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to communicate and socially interact through soft interactive devices” ). She has her PhD in design and innovation at the Vanvitelli University (Second University of Naples). During her international PhD program, she worked as a visiting researcher at the University of Malaga and the University of Lisbon for one year. After finishing her PhD, she also collaborated with the University of Ramon LLull La Salle and The University of Rome “Sapienza” for one year. Her main research interests are social robotics, social-emotional interaction, children, wearable computing, social innovation through human and machine hybridity.
