Aikaterini Fotopoulou
Papers
3
Total Citations
19
H-Index
2
About
Aikaterini Fotopoulou is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of affective neuroscience, social touch, and human-robot interaction. Her work explores how tactile experiences shape social-emotional well-being, with a particular focus on the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying affective touch. Fotopoulou has made significant strides in understanding how touch — both human and robotic — functions as a vehicle for emotional communication and therapeutic intervention. Among her most notable contributions is her experimental investigation into soft robotics as a means of simulating affective touch, a study that has already garnered 9 citations since its 2024 publication, signaling rapid uptake in a growing field. Her research on "tactile emoticons" (8 citations) is equally innovative, examining how manual and robotic tactile feedback can extend socioaffective communication into digital spaces — a timely intervention in an increasingly screen-mediated world. Her work on vicarious touch further addresses urgent questions raised by COVID-19-era touch deprivation, exploring alternative pathways to social connection. Collectively, Fotopoulou's research is reshaping how scientists and technologists conceptualize care, intimacy, and embodied communication, making her a compelling voice at the frontier of affective science and assistive technology.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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