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About

Aida Nazarikhorram is a leading researcher in socially assistive robotics, with a focus on developing human-robot interaction systems for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Her work centers on how robots can enhance social engagement, emotional learning, and behavioral outcomes in therapeutic settings. In her most-cited study (55 citations), she demonstrated that the QTrobot significantly improves attention and imitation while reducing repetitive and stereotyped behaviors in children with ASD, compared to human-led interventions. She further explored how robots can teach emotional abilities, and directly compared robot versus human facilitators, finding that robots often elicit stronger engagement and fewer behavioral challenges. Nazarikhorram also contributed to the technical infrastructure of the field through the ProCRob architecture, which enables personalized, autonomous social robot interactions. Her research has been instrumental in establishing evidence for the efficacy of socially assistive robots in special education and therapy, bridging engineering, psychology, and clinical practice. Her work continues to shape how robots are designed and deployed to support neurodiverse populations.