Yasmine Arafa

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About

Dr. Yasmine Arafa is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction and assistive technologies for neurodevelopmental disorders. Her primary research areas focus on leveraging virtual reality (VR) and social robotics to enhance social cognition and communication in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Dr. Arafa’s most influential work, “Training Social Skills of Children with ASD Through Social Virtual Robot” (2021, 17 citations), introduces a novel hybrid approach that combines desktop VR environments with socially expressive virtual robots. This study, developed using Unity 3D, demonstrates how a non-immersive virtual platform can effectively scaffold social skill acquisition in children with ASD, offering a scalable and accessible intervention tool. Her follow-up study, “Jammo Virtual Robot Enhances the Social Skills of Children With HFA” (2021, 3 citations), extends this work to high-functioning autism (HFA), further validating the efficacy of virtual robot-mediated training. Dr. Arafa’s contributions are notable for bridging the gap between immersive technology and clinical practice, providing evidence-based frameworks for integrating social robots into therapeutic settings. Her research holds significant promise for developing low-cost, repeatable, and engaging interventions that empower children with ASD to practice real-world social interactions in a safe, controlled virtual space.