Koen Hindriks

Prof. Koen Hindriks is a Full Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, affiliated with the Faculty of Science's Department of Artificial Intelligence. He holds additional roles at the Network Institute and Social AI research groups. His research focuses on social robotics, human-robot interaction, and multi-agent systems, with applications in healthcare, education, and retail. He leads projects like SOROCOVA (social robotics for educational support post-COVID) and Droomrobot (a robot companion for pediatric medical stress reduction).

Key research interests include dialogue management, empathy elicitation via robots, and long-term human-robot relationships. He teaches courses such as Multi-Agent Systems and Socially Intelligent Robotics. Recent work emphasizes ethical AI integration and practical deployment of social robots in real-world scenarios. His contributions span over 220 publications, addressing topics like robot learning from human demonstrations and automated speech processing in HRI contexts.

• Projects:
  • Principal Investigator for SOROCOVA (2021-2023)
  • Robot Companion for Childhood Cancer Patients (2019-2021)
  • Current Droomrobot project (2024-2026)
• Awards: None explicitly listed, but recognized through extensive peer-reviewed contributions.
• Advising: Supervised 4 PhD theses, focusing on child-robot interaction and healthcare robotics.

Prof. Hindriks also engages in ancillary roles, including Director at Ex Machina (Utrecht) and speaker at the Amsterdam Speakers Academy. His work aligns with UN SDGs, particularly in improving health and education through technology.