Ruth Aylett

Ruth Aylett is a Professor of Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University and a member of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics.

She works in the field of social agents - both robotic and graphical - and is investigating robot expressive behaviour and social signals and the cognitive architectures that support this. She has interests in affective processing, embodiment and its ramifications, culturally-mediated communication and ethical issues.

She was a partner in the EU projects Living with Robots and Interactive Companions (LIREC) and EMOTE (investigating an empathic robot tutor).

Her current project looks at whether a robot can assist adults with an autism disorder in improving their social signal processing. She has authored two popular science books (‘Robots: Bringing Intelligent Systems to Life?’, 2002, and ‘The Robots are Coming: what every anxious human needs to know’, MIT Press, forthcoming). 

She is also a widely published poet and her pamphlet ‘Pretty in Pink’ (4Word) was published in early 2021. Read more at: http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth/index.html