Gabriel Skantze

Professor Gabriel Skantze is a faculty member at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, affiliated with the Department of Speech Music and Hearing within the School of Computer Science and Communication. His research focuses on conversational systems, human-robot interaction (HRI), and multimodal dialogue technologies. He co-founded Furhat Robotics in 2014 and currently holds a part-time role as Chief Scientist there, while maintaining his full-time academic position. Skantze earned his MSc in Cognitive Science from Linköping University and his PhD in Speech Communication from KTH in 2007. His work integrates interdisciplinary approaches from linguistics, phonetics, and artificial intelligence to develop socially intelligent robots capable of natural face-to-face interaction with humans.

Research interests include turn-taking prediction, feedback modeling in HRI, and visual grounding in dialogue. He has supervised numerous PhD students, including ongoing advisees such as Nikita Torgashov and Bram Willemsen, and past students like Carol Figueroa and Chinmaya Mishra. His awards include Best Paper recognitions at HRI 2025 and SIGDIAL 2022. Skantze serves as President Emeritus of SIGdial (ACL) and on editorial boards for journals like Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction.

Key projects explore robots as hosts on autonomous buses, virtual patients for medical training, and language learning companions. Funded by grants, his work bridges theoretical research with practical applications in healthcare, education, and robotics. Collaborations with Furhat Robotics and academic institutions worldwide highlight his commitment to advancing socially aware AI systems.