Elizabeth Croft

Elizabeth Croft is the Vice-President Academic and Provost at the University of Victoria (UVic) and holds a Professorship in Mechanical, Electrical, and Computer Engineering. Her research focuses on Human Robot Interaction (HRI), trajectory generation, motion planning, and social robotics, with emphasis on designing safe, predictable, and helpful human-robot collaboration systems. She leads large-scale interdisciplinary projects involving industry partners in manufacturing, automotive, and aerospace sectors.

Education: BASc from UBC, MASc from Waterloo, and PhD from University of Toronto. She is affiliated with UVic's Faculty of Engineering and the PRIMED lab. Her work integrates augmented reality (AR), gesture recognition, and ethical considerations to improve human-robot interaction in shared workspaces. Notable contributions include AR-based interfaces for robot programming, nonverbal communication protocols, and participatory design methods.

Research trends in her articles emphasize: (1) Methodological rigor in HRI studies, (2) Explainable AI for robot learning from demonstrations, (3) Multimodal communication systems (AR/VR/gestures), and (4) Metrics for evaluating social conformity and system legibility. Her work addresses challenges in industrial collaboration safety, user experience optimization, and translational research from simulation to real-world applications.

Labs/Teams: Principal investigator at the PRIMED lab (Perception, Robotics, and Intelligent Manufacturing Engineering Design), leading teams in human-centered robotics. Collaborates with industry partners on manufacturing automation and assistive technologies.