Papers
114
Total Citations
5,021
H-Index
36
About
Andrea L. Thomaz is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction (HRI) and robot learning, whose work has fundamentally shaped how robots can acquire new skills through natural interaction with everyday people. Her research sits at the intersection of machine learning, social robotics, and human-computer interaction, with a particular focus on making robots accessible and teachable by non-expert users. Thomaz's most influential contributions center on understanding how humans naturally teach and communicate, then translating those insights into more effective robot learning algorithms. Her early work on nonverbal communication in human-robot teamwork (548 citations) demonstrated that social cues profoundly affect collaborative task performance. She subsequently pioneered the study of human teaching behavior to inform robot design (401 citations), and investigated how people provide reinforcement signals — revealing that human feedback goes far beyond simple reward, incorporating guidance and demonstration. Her highly cited investigations into kinesthetic teaching and keyframe-based learning from demonstration (collectively hundreds of citations) advanced practical robot programming techniques, while her work on active learning explored how robots can strategically ask good questions to accelerate skill acquisition. Her 2016 survey on computational HRI further cemented her role as a field-defining scholar. Across more than a decade of research, Thomaz has accumulated thousands of citations, establishing her as one of the foremost authorities on socially intelligent robot learners.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 4Trajectories and keyframes for kinesthetic teaching239 citations · 2012
- 5Designing robot learners that ask good questions217 citations · 2012
- 6Keyframe-based Learning from Demonstration207 citations · 2012
- 7Robot Learning from Human Teachers177 citations · 2014
- 8Designing Interactions for Robot Active Learners148 citations · 2010
- 9Computational Human-Robot Interaction132 citations · 2016
- 10Robot Learning from Human Teachers121 citations · 2014