Saba Akhyani

Papers

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About

Saba Akhyani is a researcher advancing the field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) with a focus on fairness, equity, and inclusivity. Her key research areas include emotion expression recognition, sim-to-real transfer learning, and mitigating algorithmic bias in robotic perception systems. Akhyani’s most cited work, “Towards Inclusive HRI: Using Sim2Real to Address Underrepresentation in Emotion Expression Recognition” (2022), tackles a critical issue: facial perception systems often perform poorly for underrepresented groups, perpetuating inequity in human-robot interaction. By leveraging simulated environments to train more robust and unbiased models, she proposes a pathway toward artificial agents that perceive all humans equitably, regardless of demographic background. This contribution has garnered 4 citations and represents a foundational step in building socially just robotic systems. Her research not only highlights the technical challenges of bias in AI but also offers a practical, scalable solution through Sim2Real methodologies. Akhyani’s work is particularly notable for its ethical grounding, aiming to ensure that robots and artificial agents interact with humans without prejudice—a vital goal as these technologies become increasingly integrated into daily life. Her efforts position her as a rising voice in inclusive robotics, inspiring future work on fairness in autonomous systems.