معرفی
Dr. Mary Ellen Foster is a Senior Lecturer in Human-Robot Interaction at the School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow. She joined in 2015 and has held prior roles at Heriot-Watt University (2009–2015), Technical University of Munich, and University of Edinburgh. Her PhD in Informatics (2007) from Edinburgh laid the foundation for her research.
Her research focuses on enabling natural, face-to-face interaction with robots through integrated social signals (speech, gestures, facial expressions). Key areas include modeling human social behaviors for robots, evaluating interaction performance, and applying robotics in healthcare and education. She leads projects like MuMMER (EU Horizon 2020) and collaborates on AI-enhanced robots for pediatric care (ESRC/SSHRC).
Publications span HRI conferences (ACM/IEEE HRI, RO-MAN) and journals, emphasizing socially assistive robotics, multi-user interaction, and robot embodiment. She supervises PhD students in HRI and holds leadership roles, including Director of Learning and Teaching at Glasgow.
Recent work explores accent bias in robot communication, cross-cultural robot hygiene promotion, and privacy-conscious HRI design. Grants include UK-Canada AI initiatives and EPSRC-funded autism support projects.
