Arvid Kappas is a Professor of Psychology and Dean at Jacobs University Bremen. He is an expert in the psychology of emotion, and his recent projects include research on collective emotions in e-communities, the psychological foundations of affective computing, as well as research on a new generation of empathic robotic tutors. He holds a PhD from Dartmouth college and had a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Geneva. Furthermore, Arvid was elected twice as the president-elect of the “International Society for Research on Emotions” (ISRE).

Catherine Pelachaud is a computer science Professor and a director of research for the French National Centre for Scientific Research at Institut des Systemes Intelligents et de ` Robotique. Catherine is an expert in human-machine interaction and multi-model interaction, known for her work with virtual agents. She completed a PhD in computer graphics and a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Pennsylvania, and a postdoctoral appointment at La Sapienza University of Rome. Catherine was the 2015 winner of the AC/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award.