Mentors HRI'26

Dr. Adriana Tapus

Autnomous Systems and Robotics Lab, ENSTA, Institute Polytechnique de Paris (FR)

Assistive robotics, long-term human-robot interaction, robot adaptation to user profiles, integration of verbal and nonverbal behavior based on personality, and social and rehabilitation robotics.

Dr. Brian Scassellati

Computer Science, Yale University (USA)

Socially assistive robotics, cognitive systems, and the cognitive science of interaction, creative design to model human cognition, assistive technology studies in the home or clinic, and educational/tutoring systems projects.

Dr. Cindy Bethel

Computer Science & Engineering 

Mississippi State University (USA)

Robot therapy; data collection from children; law enforcement robots; search and rescue; military operations.

Dr. Filipa Correia

Computer Science & Engineering,

Interactive Technologies Institute

Affective interaction, social robotics, group interaction, human-robot collaboration, robotic teammates, human-robot trust.

Dr. Friederike Eyssel

Psychology, Bielefeld University (DE)

Social cognition, social robotics, anthropomorphisation, technology acceptance, ethical, legal and social implications in new technologies, gender prejudice, sexual violence, objectification.

Dr. Maartje de Graaf

Information & Computer Science

University of Utrecht (NL)

Robots for society, communication science, experimental studies, qualitative studies, complex data analysis, long-term field studies.

Dr. Malte Jung

Information Science, Cornell University (USA) 

Group and team human-robot interaction, trust in human-robot teams, power and vulnerability in social robotics, and the impact of robot behavior on human collaboration.

Dr. Sarah Sebo

Computer Science, University of Chicago (USA)

Rapport, social connection, social agency, personality, groups and teams, shaping human-human connections.

Dr. Tom Williams

Computer Science & Engineering 

Colorado School of Mines (USA)

Human-robot interaction, natural language dialogue for robots, moral and social reasoning in robotic systems, and context-sensitive communication in embodied AI.

Dr. Zhao Han

Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity & Computing, University of South Florida (USA)

Human-robot interaction (HRI), robotics, AI, and augmented reality (AR); designing robotic systems and interactions that are more capable and understandable; work on robot explanations, projector-based AR communication, mobile manipulation, cognitive status–aware references, and robustness to robot failures.