Best Paper Award for Research on Conversational Companion Robots

At Digital Futures, we are thrilled to share that our former Digital Futures Postdoc Bahar Irfan has received a Best Paper Award from Frontiers in Robotics and AI for the journal paper titled “Recommendations for Designing Conversational Companion Robots with Older Adults through Foundation Models”. This prestigious recognition follows just a week after a Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) on her work on turn-taking in conversational HRI with Gabriel Skantze.

The paper, a collaborative effort with her supervisors Sanna Kuoppamäki and Gabriel Skantze, was selected as one of the 11 best papers out of 261 publications in the field of robotics from last year. It has also been included in the Editor’s Picks 2024 e-book, showcasing outstanding research across various domains including robotic rehabilitation, space robotics, and autonomous navigation.

We are very proud of Bahar’s achievements and the contributions she has made to advancing the understanding of human-robot interaction.

Text: Johanna Gavefalk

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