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About

Iliana Ferrer is a leading researcher in the field of social and socially assistive robotics, with a particular focus on the real-world deployment of robots in healthcare, crisis response, and commercial settings. Her work is distinguished by its empirical rigor, systematically tracing hundreds of documented robot deployments to map how these technologies are being adopted across diverse global contexts. Ferrer's most influential contribution, "Liaison, Safeguard, and Well-being: Analyzing the Role of Social Robots during the COVID-19 Pandemic" (2022), has accumulated 56 citations and offers one of the most comprehensive analyses of how robots were mobilized during a global health crisis. Alongside her complementary 2020 study on the same topic (30 citations), this body of work established her as a key voice in understanding robots as pandemic response tools. Her research on socially assistive robots in healthcare settings (33 citations) further demonstrates her commitment to understanding technology's practical impact on human well-being. Ferrer has also explored commercial applications of robotics, examining how companies leverage social robots as brand strategy tools. Collectively, her scholarship provides invaluable empirical grounding for students, policymakers, and technologists seeking to understand where and how social robots are genuinely transforming human environments.