Maria Teresa Parreira
Papers
15
Total Citations
86
H-Index
6
About
Maria Teresa Parreira is a leading researcher in human-robot interaction (HRI), specializing in how robots perceive and respond to human social and emotional cues. Her work focuses on three key areas: robot gaze behaviors for managing group dynamics, automatic detection of human affective states (like frustration), and error detection and recovery in HRI. Parreira’s most impactful contributions include demonstrating that robots can learn gaze strategies to balance participation in group interactions (14 citations), and developing thermal imaging techniques for real-time frustration detection (12 citations)—a breakthrough for seamless human-robot collaboration. She has also pioneered work on using bystander reactions to detect robot failures, introducing the Bystander Affect Detection (BAD) dataset (5 citations). Notably, her 2023 paper “How Did We Miss This?” (9 citations) critically examines implicit social biases in robot behavior design, sparking important conversations about responsible HRI. Her 2024 challenge paper on multimodal error detection (6 citations) further underscores her commitment to robust, real-world robot performance. With over 70 citations across her top papers, Parreira’s research is shaping the future of socially aware, adaptive robots.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2Automatic Frustration Detection Using Thermal Imaging12 citations · 2022
- 3
- 4How Did We Miss This?9 citations · 2023
- 5Robot Duck Debugging: Can Attentive Listening Improve Problem Solving?7 citations · 2023
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- 9HRI Wasn’t Built In a Day: A Call To Action For Responsible HRI Research4 citations · 2024
- 10“I'm Done”: Describing Human Reactions to Successive Robot Failure4 citations · 2025