Ana Paiva
University of Lisbon, Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores Investigação e Desenvolvimento, Instituto Superior Técnico, Institute for Systems Engineering and Computers, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Lusíada University of Lisbon, Instituto Superior de Tecnologias Avançadas, University of California, Santa Cruz, National Research Council, Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa
Papers
187
Total Citations
6,782
H-Index
41
About
Ana Paiva is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction, social robotics, and affective computing, whose work has profoundly shaped how artificial agents perceive, express, and inspire emotion. Based at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Paiva has built a distinguished career exploring the social and emotional dimensions of robots and virtual agents, with a particular focus on long-term interaction and computational empathy. Her highly cited survey on social robots for long-term interaction (836 citations) established a foundational framework for the field, while her extensive work on empathy — spanning virtual agents, robots, and human-robot relations — has collectively garnered over 1,000 citations, underscoring her authority in affective and empathic systems. Paiva's research demonstrates that emotionally expressive robots are not only more engaging but measurably more effective as companions, particularly for children, as shown through her innovative chess-playing iCat experiments. Beyond technical contributions, Paiva has addressed critical ethical dimensions of deploying robots in educational settings and pioneered affect recognition using naturalistic human-robot interaction data. Her application of Disney animation principles to robotic emotional expression reflects a rare and imaginative interdisciplinary approach, making her one of the most influential voices shaping the future of socially intelligent machines.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Social Robots for Long-Term Interaction: A Survey836 citations · 2013
- 2Empathy in Virtual Agents and Robots342 citations · 2017
- 3The influence of empathy in human–robot relations328 citations · 2012
- 4Empathic Robots for Long-term Interaction256 citations · 2014
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- 7The case of classroom robots: teachers’ deliberations on the ethical tensions156 citations · 2016
- 8Are emotional robots more fun to play with?123 citations · 2008
- 9The illusion of robotic life117 citations · 2012
- 10As Time goes by: Long-term evaluation of social presence in robotic companions109 citations · 2009