Papers
20
Total Citations
274
H-Index
10
About
Erin Walker is a leading researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction, intelligent tutoring systems, and educational technology. Her work centers on the design and evaluation of social robotic learning companions—systems that combine task-relevant instruction with emotional and motivational support to enhance student learning outcomes. Walker's most influential contributions explore how robots can adapt their speech characteristics, particularly vocal pitch, to build rapport with learners. Her studies demonstrate that voice adaptation and social dialogue meaningfully shape students' perceptions of robotic companions, with her 2016 paper on this topic accumulating over 55 citations. Her subsequent research confirmed that automated pitch convergence can directly improve mathematics learning in middle school students, bridging social robotics and measurable educational gains. Beyond speech adaptation, Walker has investigated how a robot's physical embodiment influences learning, designed user-centered teachable robots, and examined how students' comfort with robots affects rapport formation. More recently, her work has taken an equity-focused turn, engaging girls as co-creators of social robots within culturally-responsive computing education. With a body of work spanning classroom deployment studies and foundational HRI theory, Walker's research continues to shape how intelligent educational systems are designed to be not just effective, but genuinely engaging for diverse learners.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 6User-Centered Design of a Teachable Robot18 citations · 2012
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- 10Lessons Learned from In-School Use of rTAG14 citations · 2016