Pourya Aliasghari

University of Waterloo, Sharif University of Technology

Papers

10

Total Citations

66

H-Index

4

About

Pourya Aliasghari is a human-robot interaction researcher whose work sits at the intersection of social robotics, robot learning, and trust dynamics. His research primarily investigates how humans perceive, teach, and build trust with trainee robots — machines designed to learn new tasks directly from human instructors. With a body of work accumulating over 60 citations, Aliasghari has made meaningful contributions to understanding how robot errors, nonverbal behaviors, and appearance shape human teachers' confidence in and tolerance of robotic learners. Among his most influential contributions is his exploration of how domestic trainee robots' mistakes affect human trust, garnering 19 citations, alongside complementary work examining how gaze and arm motion kinesics influence a humanoid robot's perceived eagerness and attentiveness. He has also advanced practical methodologies for kinesthetic teaching — physically guiding robots through tasks — studying how non-experts develop teaching proficiency across multiple sessions. More recently, Aliasghari has ventured into biologically inspired imitation learning, proposing novel program-level frameworks drawn from primate behavior to enable robots to acquire complex, sequential skills. Across his portfolio, his research consistently champions the goal of making robots genuinely teachable by everyday people, bridging cognitive science, robotics, and human-centered design.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

4
H-Index
10
Papers
66
Total Citations
7
Avg Citations/Paper
🏆 Most Cited Paper
Effect of Domestic Trainee Robots’ Errors on Human Teachers’ Trust
19 citations · 2021
📈 Most Prolific Year: 2021 (4 Papers)
🤝 Key Collaborators: 6
🏛 Institutions: University of Waterloo, Sharif University of Technology

Top Papers

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Key Collaborators

Contact & Links

Available for collaboration
Content generated · 14 days ago