Pourya Shahverdi šŸ§‘ā€šŸ’»ļø
Pourya Shahverdi

Robotics | AI/ML | Affective Computing | HRI/HCI

About Me

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Oakland University, Michigan. I work as a graduate Research Assistant under Prof. Geoffrey Louie in the IRLĀ²: In Real-Life Intelligent Robotics Laboratory.

I am currently working on the context-awareness and emotional intelligence in social human-robot interaction (HRI), integrating social science with robot learning and affective computing. I have over 10 years of experience in robotics, identifying myself as a generalist by accomplishing projects in humanoid whole-body imitation, manipulation, mobile robot navigation, and autonomous vehicles.

Outside of work, I enjoy playing basketball, hiking, helping my wife with her bakery, and playing the Piano/Keyboard as well as Tar/Setar (traditional Persian instruments).

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Interests
  • Social Robotics
  • Human-Agent Interaction
  • Affective Computing
  • Robot Learning from Demonstration
  • Humanoids
Education
  • Ph.D. Candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Oakland University (MI-USA)

  • M.Sc. Mechatronics Engineering

    Azad University of Qazvin (Iran)

  • B.Sc. Robotics Engineering

    Hamedan University of Technology (Iran)

šŸ“š My Mission

“Social Robots for Social Justice” is my slogan.

I strive to uncover the complexities of Social HRI to create reliable and transparent behavior models for robots and autonomous agents. I believe that true human connection with artificial agents is only possible when they possess a degree of human-like emotional intelligence. My dissertation focuses on developing emotionally context-aware verbal and nonverbal behavior models for social robots and autonomous agents to enhance empathy, engagement, and efficacy in human-agent interactions.

My research involves designing and conducting user studies to explore the nuances and dynamics of both group and one-on-one interactions, employing quantitative and qualitative analyses of objective and subjective measurements derived from behavioral observations and multimodal sensory signals. Grounded in affective and cognitive theories, I leverage multimodal AI approaches to model context, user affective states, and cognitive processes,enabling the generation of emotionally context-aware agent behaviors for real-world social HRI applications.

My work has been applied to social HRI applications in autism therapy, physical therapy, and education, leading to publications in top-tier venues such as ICRA, IROS, and RO-MAN. Ultimately, I hope my efforts advance social justice by making high-quality social services, like healthcare and education, more accessible to underrepresented communities.

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Featured Projects
Recent Publications
(2025). Robot-mediated Read-aloud Context of Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Development. Computers & Education-Under Review.
(2025). The Dynamics of Story Internalization: A Pathway to Deeper Interaction with Social Robots. 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)-Under Review.
(2024). ā€œIf a Robot was Teaching, Then Everybody Would Definitely Like School Betterā€: An Analysis of Grade 3-5 Childrenā€™s Perceptions of Learning STEM Vocabulary with an Educational Social Robot. 2024 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN).
(2024). Exploring Task-Level Contingent Mediations for Vocabulary Instruction across Robot, Virtual, and Human Teachers. 2024 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN).
(2024). Exploring the Impact of Narrator Type on Response Latency and Utterance Length During Interactive Storytelling. 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).