Dina Utami

Northeastern University, National Institute of Technology

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Dina Utami is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction and intimate relationship science. Her work explores how social robots can serve as accessible, automated counselors for couples in distress—addressing the critical gap where many couples avoid professional help due to cost, logistics, or discomfort. Utami’s most influential paper, “Collaborative User Responses in Multiparty Interaction with a Couples Counselor Robot” (2019, 41 citations), examines how couples collaboratively engage with a robotic mediator during conflict, revealing novel interaction patterns that inform robot design. Her earlier foundational work, “A Robotic Couples Counselor for Promoting Positive Communication” (2017, 18 citations), demonstrated the feasibility of using robots to deliver evidence-based communication interventions, opening a new frontier in automated mental health support. Beyond robotics, Utami has contributed to computer vision with research on hand pose recognition using Hu moments (2017), showcasing her breadth in human-computer interaction. Her work has profound implications for making therapeutic support more scalable and accessible, particularly for underserved populations. Utami’s research not only advances technical capabilities in social robotics but also challenges how we think about technology’s role in our most intimate human relationships.