Since 2024, I have been collaborating with Dr. Shruti Chandra at the University of Northern British Columbia on designing and evaluating socially assistive robots for education and well-being. Our work spans child–robot interaction, embodied learning, and mental health technologies, resulting in publications at ACM CHI, ACM IDC and ACM THRI (under review).

Beyond Screens: Tangible and Embodied Learning with Social Robots (ACM IDC 2026)
I co-developed TEECRI (Tangible and Embodied Educational Child–Robot Interaction), a design framework that reimagines how children interact with social robots for learning. Instead of relying on tablets or screens, the framework distributes interaction across a physical social robot and everyday objects enhanced with lightweight sensors, creating hands-on, fully embodied learning experiences. We introduced three core design principles for screen-free child–robot interaction and demonstrated the framework through five learning scenarios spanning STEM, storytelling, creativity, collaboration, and social-emotional learning. This work challenges the widespread reliance on screens in educational robotics and provides a blueprint for designing future child–robot interaction systems that leverage physical play, tangible interaction, and embodied learning to create richer and more engaging educational experiences.

"Tech" a Deep Breath: Robot-Guided Breathing for Student Well-Being (ACM CHI 2026)
As part of our collaboration with the University of Northern British Columbia and the University of Waterloo, we explored how an autonomous robot-guided breathing system could support university students' psychological and emotional well-being. The system combines a social robot, wearable heart-rate sensing, and real-time physiological analysis to deliver personalised guidance during an ancient yogic breathing practice (Nadi Shuddhi).
University students completed guided breathing sessions over five consecutive days using either a social robot or an identical tablet-only system. Both systems continuously monitored heart-rate variability and breathing rate, adapting their feedback in real time to each participant's physiological state. The results showed that both systems significantly reduced short-term stress and depression symptoms while improving calmness, mindfulness, and physiological indicators of relaxation. However, students guided by the social robot experienced greater improvements in mood, slower breathing rates, and a more positive overall experience, demonstrating how physical embodiment can meaningfully enhance technology-assisted mental well-being interventions.