Ekaterina Torubarova

Ekaterina Torubarova is a doctoral student at KTH Royal Institute of Technology's Division of Speech, Music and Hearing. Under the supervision of André Pereira, her research focuses on conversational engagement in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), combining neuroimaging and machine learning to study brain processes during human-robot interactions. She holds a joint master's degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from CIMeC (Trento, Italy) and SISSA (Trieste, Italy).

Education:

• PhD Candidate in Speech, Music and Hearing (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2022–present)
• Joint Master's in Cognitive Neuroscience (CIMeC & SISSA, 2020–2022)

Research Interests: Cognitive-inspired approaches to HRI, fMRI analysis of conversational dynamics, neural correlates of interaction, and multimodal datasets for understanding human-robot communication.

Publications Overview: Her work explores brain activity patterns during conversation, HRI dynamics, and the application of neuroimaging techniques to study social interactions. Recent studies include the NeuroEngage dataset integrating multimodal fMRI for analyzing engagement metrics in human-robot interactions.

Advising/Grants: Currently advised by Prof. André Pereira. No grant details provided in text.

Labs/Teams: Active member of the Speech, Music and Hearing division at KTH, contributing to interdisciplinary research on cognitive science and robotics.