Ella Velner
Papers
8
Total Citations
68
H-Index
4
About
Ella Velner is a leading researcher in human-robot interaction (HRI), with a focus on how people—especially children—perceive, trust, and communicate with social robots. Her work bridges robotics, psychology, and linguistics to design more natural and responsible interactions. Velner’s most cited paper, “Uncanny, Sexy, and Threatening Robots” (2021, 21 citations), analyzes online commentary to reveal how humanlikeness and gender shape public responses to robots. In “The Robot That Showed Remorse” (2022, 19 citations), she demonstrates that a genuine apology can effectively repair trust after a robot’s error—a critical insight for real-world deployment. Her research on intonation in robot speech (2020, 10 citations) pioneers the study of prosody as a social signal in HRI. Velner also leads the CHATTERS project, designing conversational robots that responsibly support children’s digital information search. Her methodological contributions include interdisciplinary frameworks for studying child-robot relationships and real-time trust indicators from children’s speech. With over 68 total citations across her published work, Velner is shaping how robots earn and maintain trust, particularly with young users, making her a key voice in the future of child-robot interaction.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Uncanny, Sexy, and Threatening Robots21 citations · 2021
- 2The Robot That Showed Remorse: Repairing Trust with a Genuine Apology19 citations · 2022
- 3Intonation in Robot Speech10 citations · 2020
- 4Children’s Trust in Robots and the Information They Provide7 citations · 2023
- 5Designing Conversational Robots with Children during the Pandemic4 citations · 2022
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