Elaheh Sanoubari
University of Waterloo, University of Manitoba, Google (United States)
Papers
8
Total Citations
100
H-Index
5
About
Elaheh Sanoubari is a human-robot interaction researcher whose work sits at the intersection of social robotics, child wellbeing, and inclusive design. She is perhaps best known for her sustained focus on leveraging social robots to combat school bullying, developing innovative frameworks such as Robot-Mediated Applied Drama — embodied in her RE-Mind project — that use theatrical role-play to help children safely explore sensitive peer dynamics and cultivate bystander intervention skills. Her co-design studies engage children directly, including those with special needs, ensuring that robot systems reflect the perspectives of their intended users. Beyond anti-bullying applications, Sanoubari has made notable contributions to culturally adaptive robot behavior, investigating how robots can read and respond to passersby's cultural cues with minimal prior knowledge, and examining how communication style — explicit, neutral, or implicit — shapes cross-cultural perceptions of robot interaction. Her research into non-verbal communication for appearance-constrained robots further demonstrates her commitment to expanding the expressive repertoire of socially situated machines. With her most cited work accumulating over 40 citations and a growing body of interdisciplinary publications spanning HRI conferences and serious game design, Sanoubari is establishing herself as a distinctive voice in child-centered, socially conscious robotics research.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Robots, Bullies and Stories: A Remote Co-design Study with Children40 citations · 2021
- 2
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- 4Explicit, Neutral, or Implicit7 citations · 2018
- 5
- 6Using Robot-Mediated Applied Drama to Foster Anti-Bullying Peer Support5 citations · 2023
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- 8