Alexandru Litoiu
Papers
7
Total Citations
244
H-Index
5
About
Alexandru Litoiu’s research sits at the intersection of human-robot interaction, child development, and education, with a focus on designing socially assistive robots that teach, coach, and engage. His most influential work, “How to train your DragonBot” (124 citations), demonstrates how a social robot can sustain children’s enjoyment and learning over multiple sessions, using playful interaction to teach nutrition to a diverse group of first-graders. Litoiu also made a striking contribution to our understanding of human perception of robots: his co-authored study “Evidence that Robots Trigger a Cheating Detector in Humans” (43 citations) shows that people attribute greater agency and intentionality to a robot that cheats, revealing deep-seated social-cognitive responses to machine behavior. In tutoring contexts, he investigated how robots can shape productive help-seeking behavior in children, addressing a classic problem in intelligent tutoring systems where students either overuse or avoid help. Beyond symbolic learning, Litoiu explored robotic coaching of complex physical skills—from swinging a bat to rehabilitation—arguing that robots are uniquely suited to observe, diagnose, and personalize instruction of motor tasks. His work is notable for bridging developmental psychology, machine learning, and robotics, with a clear commitment to creating robots that are not just functional, but socially intelligent partners in learning.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2Evidence that Robots Trigger a Cheating Detector in Humans43 citations · 2015
- 3
- 4
- 5Robotic Coaching of Complex Physical Skills14 citations · 2015
- 6Personalized Instruction of Physical Skills with a Social Robot5 citations · 2014
- 7