معرفی
Joost Broekens is an Associate Professor of Affective Computing and Human-Robot Interaction at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) within Leiden University's Faculty of Science. He serves as President of the Association for the Advancement of Affective Computing (AAAC), the main international organization in his research field. Additionally, he is co-founder and former CTO of Interactive Robotics, which enables students of any age to learn with social robots, and co-founder and CTO of Daisys.
Dr. Broekens' research focuses on computational modeling of emotions in reinforcement learning, cognitive appraisal models, and human-robot interaction. His work bridges theoretical emotion models with practical applications in social robotics, educational technology, and healthcare. He leads the [a]social creatures lab, which investigates how robots can recognize human emotions and express their own emotions to facilitate human identification with them. His current research particularly emphasizes Reinforcement Learning as a formal model for emotional appraisal and human-robot interaction dynamics.
His publication record shows consistent contributions across multiple domains including emotion modeling in reinforcement learning (2018-2019), explainable AI for healthcare robotics (2017-2019), human-robot interaction studies (2016-2019), and practical implementations of emotion engines for games (2014-2016). The research demonstrates strong interdisciplinary connections between computer science, psychology, and robotics.
- Teacher of the academic year 2017-2018 Computer Science, Delft
- Most Promising Scientist Computer Science Leiden University (Trotsboekje), 2007
- Best integration of technical and user research award (ROMAN 2013)
Dr. Broekens has supervised numerous PhD students including Friso Selten, Danica Mast, Rifca Peters, Bernd Dudzik, and Elie Saad as current candidates, with former students Thomas Moerland, Frank Kaptein, and Junchao Xu. He has also mentored dozens of Master's students including Egon Janssen and Iris Ma. His research has been supported by multiple grants including the H2020 Personal Assistant for healthy Lifestyle (PAL) project as Co-PI and Lorentz Workshops on Emotions as Feedback Signals.
He leads several research initiatives including the development of tools like AffectButton for emotional self-report, GAMYGDALA for game emotion engines, and facial expression generation tools. His work spans academic research, practical tool development, and startup ventures, demonstrating strong translation of theoretical concepts into real-world applications.
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