Maja Cepanec
Papers
6
Total Citations
72
H-Index
5
About
Maja Cepanec is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of developmental robotics and clinical psychology, whose work is fundamentally reshaping how autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is diagnosed in children. Her primary research focus is the development of robot-assisted diagnostic protocols, aiming to transform the traditionally slow, subjective, and clinician-dependent process of ASD assessment into a faster, more objective, and reliable procedure. Cepanec’s major contributions include designing and validating a multi-task diagnostic framework that leverages social robots to elicit and measure critical behaviors, such as functional imitation and social attention. Her seminal 2014 paper, “Four tasks of a robot-assisted autism spectrum disorder diagnostic protocol,” with 31 citations, laid the groundwork for this approach by demonstrating the first clinical tests of a robotic system. She has further advanced the field by modeling diagnostic decision-making with Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) and by developing machine learning classifiers for child vocal behavior. Her cumulative work, including studies on imitation and social engagement, highlights how robotic platforms can reliably differentiate children with ASD from their neurotypical peers, offering a promising path toward scalable, technology-enhanced diagnostics that could significantly improve early intervention outcomes.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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