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About

Elly A. Konijn is a prominent researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction, educational technology, and social robotics, whose work has significantly advanced our understanding of how robots can be meaningfully integrated into human contexts. Based at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Konijn has built a distinguished body of research exploring social robots in education and healthcare, with a particular focus on their pedagogical effectiveness, ethical implications, and design principles. Her most celebrated contributions examine how robot tutors support language and STEM learning in primary school children, including migrant and second-language learners, demonstrating that robots can outperform tablets in engagement and enjoyment (66–93 citations). Equally influential is her rigorous ethical scholarship, bringing multi-stakeholder perspectives to bear on responsible robot deployment in classrooms and identifying diverse attitude profiles among educators and policymakers (34–88 citations). Konijn has also explored healthcare applications, showing that social robots can meaningfully reduce children's pain and anxiety during medical procedures. Her research on robot embodiment design revealed that functional affordances matter more than realism or aesthetics—a finding with broad practical implications. With cumulative citations in the hundreds across a decade of work, Konijn stands as a leading voice shaping the responsible, evidence-based future of social robotics.