Patrícia Alves-Oliveira is an Assistant Professor of Robotics at the University of Michigan, where she leads Robot Studio, a research lab focused on the design, development, and evaluation of social robotics. Patricia’s background unifies the fields of Robotics, Design, and AI. She was a Senior UX Designer for Amazon Lab126 in California, a Postdoc at the University of Washington in Seattle, and has received her Ph.D. from the University Institute of Lisbon, in Portugal where she is from. Her research received Best Paper Awards at the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, and her work is funded by NSF and DARPA.

Dr. Somaya Ben Allouch has been Professor of Digital Life at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) since October 2018. The research group focuses on human-centered research into the design, use, and implementation of digital technologies in health and wellbeing. She is also involved in the SIA-SPRONG project Mensen in Beweging (“People in Motion”), which focuses on healthy lifestyles and sustainable behavior change through creative technology. Since January 2021, Somaya has held the position of Special Professor of Human-System Interaction for Health and Wellbeing at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), a chair established by the Beta Plus Foundation. Her expertise lies in human-centered interaction, acceptance, and evaluation of technologies such as social robotics and wearables. She previously earned her PhD at the University of Twente and worked as a visiting researcher at Stanford University. In addition, Somaya is active in international research projects and serves on the editorial boards of scientific journals.

Formerly a postdoc researcher at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), with a PhD in Computer Science by the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. Has more than 10 years of experience in Computer Science, focusing on Robotic Systems, acting on the following subjects: Human-Robot Interaction, Artificial Intelligence for Education, Convolutional Neural Network, Reinforcement Learning, Adaptive Systems and Graphical User Interface. Has a wide experience in research leading roles, as in the iReCHeCk project, a joint project with Paris 8 University aiming to achieve an autonomous handwriting practicing setup using tablets and social robots with real-time assessment and personalised recommendation. Was the PI in the Multicultural Interactive Integration Using Social Agents (MI2US) project, where it evaluated the impact of Social Robots in the inclusion of children with immigrant history in international schools, analyzing the different users' perceptions in real school environments. Was the CEO and founder of the Brazilian startup "TEIA Educacional" that uses methods derived from his PhD project to boost teaching and learning experiences in schools by using Artificial Intelligence and Affective Computing. The startup has received a national reward and funding for being at the top 10 most innovative ideas of technology in education in 2022.