Ricky Ho Yin Chan

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, University of Hong Kong

Papers

Total Citations

108

H-Index

About

Ricky Ho Yin Chan is a leading researcher in empathetic human-robot interaction, affective computing, and conversational AI. His most notable contribution is the development of Zara, a virtual interactive dialogue system that integrates emotion, sentiment, and personality recognition. Zara—often called "Zara the Supergirl"—can engage users in 5–10 minute conversations, analyzing facial expressions, speech, and sentiment to provide a personality assessment while exhibiting empathy. This work, published in 2016, has garnered 47 citations and laid the foundation for his subsequent research on empathetic human-robot interactions, with two key papers from 2016 and 2018 accumulating 21 and 40 citations respectively. Chan’s research addresses the growing expectation that machines—from customer-service bots to gesture-controlled devices—should not only understand commands but also recognize and respond to human emotions. His work bridges natural language processing, emotion recognition, and robotics, pushing toward more socially aware and emotionally intelligent machines. Chan’s contributions are pivotal for students and researchers interested in building AI systems that can engage with humans on a deeper, more empathetic level.