Elena Piazza
Papers
1
Total Citations
7
H-Index
1
About
Dr. Elena Piazza is a leading researcher at the intersection of developmental robotics, social cognition, and autism intervention. Her work centers on designing human-robot interaction paradigms that foster social communication skills in neurodivergent children, with a particular focus on early childhood development. In her landmark pilot study, "Interactive mirrOring Games wIth sOCial rObot (IOGIOCO)," she demonstrated how intransitive gestures—simple, non-object-directed movements—can be used to engage Italian preschool children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in reciprocal play. This 2024 paper, already garnering 7 citations, provides critical evidence that socially assistive robots can scaffold turn-taking and imitation, core deficits in ASD. Dr. Piazza’s contributions are notable for bridging computational modeling with real-world clinical application, offering a scalable, low-cost tool for early intervention. Her work has been recognized for its methodological rigor and ethical sensitivity, and she is increasingly cited in both human-robot interaction and special education literature. By showing that robots can serve as patient, predictable social partners, Dr. Piazza is helping to reshape how we understand and support social learning in atypical development.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1