Wafa Johal

Wafa Johal

Senior Lecturer at the School of Computing & Information Systems, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Melbourne. ARC DECRA Fellow

Publications

Publications

2024

  1. Exploring Data Agency and Autonomous Agents as Embodied Data Visualizations
    Schömbs, Sarah, Goncalves, Jorge, and Johal, Wafa
    arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.04598 2024
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  2. Exploring the Effects of Shared Autonomy on Cognitive Load and Trust in Human-Robot Interaction
    Pan, Jiahe, Eden, Jon, Oetomo, Denny, and Johal, Wafa
    Robotics and Automation Letters 2024
  3. Robot-Assisted Decision-Making: Unveiling the Role of Uncertainty Visualisation and Embodiment
    Schömbs, Sarah, Pareek, Saumya, Goncalves, Jorge, and Johal, Wafa
    In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24) May 2024
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  4. FaceVis: Exploring a Robot’s Face for Affective Visualisation Design
    Schömbs, Sarah, Pan, Jiahe, Zhang, Yan, Goncalves, Jorge, and Johal, Wafa
    May 2024
    Video PDF Website
  5. Designing an Introductory HRI Course
    Admoni, Henny, Johal, Wafa, Szafir, Daniel, and Sandygulova, Anara
    In Companion of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction May 2024
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    Human-robot interaction is now an established discipline. Dozens of HRI courses exist at universities worldwide, and some institutions even offer degrees in HRI. However, although many students are being taught HRI, there is no agreed-upon curriculum for an introductory HRI course. In this workshop, we aim to reach community consensus on what should be covered in such a course. Through interactive activities like panels, breakout discussions, and syllabus design, workshop participants will explore the many topics and pedagogical approaches for teaching HRI. They will then distill their findings into a single example introductory HRI curriculum. Output from this workshop will include a short paper explaining this curriculum and an example syllabus that can be used and adapted by HRI educators.

  6. Explainability for Human-Robot Collaboration
    Yadollahi, Elmira, Romeo, Marta, Dogan, Fethiye Irmak, Johal, Wafa, De Graaf, Maartje, Levy-Tzedek, Shelly, and Leite, Iolanda
    In Companion of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction May 2024
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    In human-robot collaboration, explainability bridges the communication gap between complex machine functionalities and humans. An active area of investigation in robotics and AI is understanding and generating explanations that can enhance collaboration and mutual understanding between humans and machines. A key to achieving such seamless collaborations is understanding end-users, whether naive or expert, and tailoring explanation features that are intuitive, user-centred, and contextually relevant. Advancing on the topic not only includes modelling humans’ expectations for generating the explanations but also requires the development of metrics to evaluate generated explanations and assess how effectively autonomous systems communicate their intentions, actions, and decision-making rationale. This workshop is designed to tackle the nuanced role of explainability in enhancing the efficiency, safety, and trust in human-robot collaboration. It aims to initiate discussions on the importance of generating and evaluating explainability features developed in autonomous agents. Simultaneously, it addresses various challenges, including bias in explainability and downsides of explainability and deception in human-robot interaction.

  7. Transferability of HRI Research: Potential and Challenges
    Johal, Wafa
    arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.05802 May 2024

2023

  1. Robots for Learning 7 (R4L) A Look from Stakeholders’ Perspective
    Tozadore, Daniel C, Nasir, Jauwairia, Gillet, Sarah, Berghe, Rianne, Guneysu, Arzu, and Johal, Wafa
    In Companion of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction May 2023
  2. Culture in Social Robots for Education
    Bruno, Barbara, Amirova, Aida, Sandygulova, Anara, Lugrin, Birgit, and Johal, Wafa
    In Companion of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction May 2023
  3. User Interface Interventions for Improving Robot Learning from Demonstration
    Phaijit, Ornnalin, Sammut, Claude, and Johal, Wafa
    In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction May 2023
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  4. Championing Design Knowledge in Human-Drone Interaction Research
    Gamboa, Mafalda, Ljungblad, Sara, Johal, Wafa, Mubin, Omar, and Obaid, Mohammad
    In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction May 2023
  5. Speech-Gesture GAN: Gesture Generation for Robots and Embodied Agents
    Liu, Carson Yu, Mohammadi, Gelareh, Song, Yang, and Johal, Wafa
    In 2023 32nd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) May 2023
  6. Culture in Social Robots for Education
    Bruno, Barbara, Amirova, Aida, Sandygulova, Anara, Lugrin, Birgit, and Johal, Wafa
    In 2023 32nd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) May 2023
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    Education is one of the predominant applications that is foreseen by researchers in social roboticsSocial robotics. In this context, social robots are often designed to interact with one or several learners and with teachers. While educational scenarios for social robots have been studied widely, with experiments being conducted in several countries for nearly 20 years, the cultural impact of accepting social robots in classrooms is still unclear. In this paper, we review the literature on social robots for education with the lens of cultural sensitivity and adaptation. We discuss culture theories and their application in social roboticsSocial robotics and highlight research gaps in terms of culture-sensitive design and cultural adaptation in social robots assisting learners in terms of (1) the robot’s role, (2) envisioned tasks, and (3) interaction types. We also present guidelines for designing cross-cultural robots and culturally adaptive systems.

2022

  1. Let’s Compete! The Influence of Human-Agent Competition and Collaboration on Agent Learning and Human Perception
    Phaijit, Ornnalin, Sammut, Claude, and Johal, Wafa
    In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction May 2022
  2. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction
    Bartneck, Christoph, Kanda, Takayuki, Obaid, Mohammad, and Johal, Wafa
    In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction May 2022
  3. Envisioning social drones in education
    Johal, Wafa, Gatos, Doğa, Yantac, Asim Evren, and Obaid, Mohammad
    Frontiers in Robotics and AI May 2022
  4. Social Drones for Health and Well-being
    Obaid, Mohammad, Tatar, Kıvanç, Wiberg, Mikael, Said, Alan, Rost, Mattias, Weilenmann, Alexandra, Johal, Wafa, and Eyssel, Friederike
    In Adjunct Proceedings of the 2022 Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference May 2022
  5. Robots for learning
    Johal, Wafa, Belpaeme, Tony, and Chetouani, Mohamed
    Frontiers in Robotics and AI May 2022
  6. To Transfer or Not To Transfer: Engagement Recognition within Robot-assisted Autism Therapy
    Rakhymbayeva, Nazerke, Balgabekova, Zarema, Nurmukhamed, Mukhamedzhan, Burunchina, Karina, Johal, Wafa, and Sandygulova, Anara
    In 2022 17th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) May 2022
  7. Joint action, adaptation, and entrainment in human-robot interaction
    Fourie, Christopher, Figueroa, Nadia, Shah, Julie, Bieńkiewicz, Marta, Bardy, Benoı̂t, Burdet, Etienne, Singamaneni, Phani Teja, Alami, Rachid, Curioni, Arianna, Knoblich, Günther, and others,
    In 2022 17th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) May 2022
  8. A Taxonomy of Functional Augmented Reality for Human-Robot Interaction
    Phaijit, Ornnalin, Obaid, Mohammad, Sammut, Claude, and Johal, Wafa
    In 2022 17th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) May 2022
  9. A Demonstration of the Taxonomy of Functional Augmented Reality for Human-Robot Interaction
    Phaijit, Ornnalin, Obaid, Mohammad, Sammut, Claude, and Johal, Wafa
    In 2022 17th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) May 2022
  10. Leveraging eye tracking to understand children’s attention during game-based, tangible robotics activities
    Olsen, Jennifer K, Ozgur, Arzu Guneysu, Sharma, Kshitij, and Johal, Wafa
    International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction May 2022
  11. The effect of gamified robot-enhanced training on motor performance in chronic stroke survivors
    Ozgur, Arzu Guneysu, Wessel, Maximilian J., Olsen, Jennifer K., Cadic-Melchior, Andéol Geoffroy, Zufferey, Valérie, Johal, Wafa, Dominijanni, Giulia, Turlan, Jean-Luc, Mühl, Andreas, Bruno, Barbara, Vuadens, Philippe, Dillenbourg, Pierre, and Hummel, Friedhelm C.
    Heliyon May 2022
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    Task-specific training constitutes a core element for evidence-based rehabilitation strategies targeted at improving upper extremity activity after stroke. Its combination with additional treatment strategies and neurotechnology-based solutions could further improve patients’ outcomes. Here, we studied the effect of gamified robot-assisted upper limb motor training on motor performance, skill learning, and transfer with respect to a non-gamified control condition with a group of chronic stroke survivors. The results suggest that a gamified training strategy results in more controlled motor performance during the training phase, which is characterized by a higher accuracy (lower deviance), higher smoothness (lower jerk), but slower speed. The responder analyses indicated that mildly impaired patients benefited most from the gamification approach. In conclusion, gamified robot-assisted motor training, which is personalized to the individual capabilities of a patient, constitutes a promising investigational strategy for further improving motor performance after a stroke.

  12. Automatic assessment of motor impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorders: a systematic review
    Gargot, Thomas, Archambault, Dominique, Chetouani, Mohamed, Cohen, David, Johal, Wafa, and Anzalone, Salvatore Maria
    Cognitive Computation May 2022

2021

  1. 10 years of human-nao interaction research: A scoping review
    Amirova, Aida, Rakhymbayeva, Nazerke, Yadollahi, Elmira, Sandygulova, Anara, and Johal, Wafa
    Frontiers in Robotics and AI May 2021
  2. Speech-based gesture generation for robots and embodied agents: A scoping review
    Liu, Yu, Mohammadi, Gelareh, Song, Yang, and Johal, Wafa
    In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction May 2021
  3. The Valley of non-Distraction: Effect of Robot’s Human-likeness on Perception Load
    Ingle, Daisy, Marcus, Nadine, and Johal, Wafa
    In Companion of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI ’21 Companion), March 8–11, 2021, Boulder,CO, USA May 2021
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    "Previous research in psychology has found that human faces have the capability of being more distracting under high perceptual load conditions compared to non-face objects. This project aims to assess the distracting potential of robot faces based on their human-likeliness. As a first step, this paper reports on our initial findings based on an online study. We used a letter search task where participants had to search for a target letter within a circle of 6 letters, whilst an irrelevant distractor image was also present. The results of our experiment replicated previous results with human faces and non-face objects. Additionally, in the tasks where the irrelevant distractors are images of robot faces, the human-likeness of the robot influenced the response time (RT). Interestingly, the robot Alter produced results significantly different than all other distractor robots. The outcome of this is a distraction model related to human-likeness of robots. Our results show the impact of anthropomorphism on distracting potential and thus should be taken into account when designing robots."

  4. Method of handwritten character recognition confirmation
    Zolna, Konrad, Asselborn, Thibault, and Johal, Wafa
    In Companion of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI ’21 Companion), March 8–11, 2021, Boulder,CO, USA Nov 2021
  5. Robots for Learning-Learner-Centred Design
    Johal, Wafa, Bruno, Barbara, Olsen, Jennifer K, Chetouani, Mohamed, Lemaignan, Séverin, and Sandygulova, Anara
    In Companion of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction Nov 2021
  6. The transferability of handwriting skills: from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet
    Asselborn, Thibault, Johal, Wafa, Tleubayev, Bolat, Zhexenova, Zhanel, Dillenbourg, Pierre, McBride, Catherine, and Sandygulova, Anara
    npj Science of Learning Nov 2021
  7. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction
    Ogawa, Kohei, Yonezawa, Tomoko, Lucas, Gale M, Osawa, Hirotaka, Johal, Wafa, and Shiomi, Masahiro
    npj Science of Learning Nov 2021

2020

  1. Research Trends in Social Robots for Learning
    Johal, Wafa
    Current Robotics Reports Nov 2020
  2. Exploring the Role of Perspective Taking in Educational Child-Robot Interaction
    Yadollahi, Elmira, Couto, Marta, Johal, Wafa, Dillenbourg, Pierre, and Paiva, Ana
    In International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education Nov 2020
  3. Acquisition of handwriting in children with and without dysgraphia: A computational approach
    Gargot, Thomas, Asselborn, Thibault, Pellerin, Hugues, Zammouri, Ingrid, M. Anzalone, Salvatore, Casteran, Laurence, Johal, Wafa, Dillenbourg, Pierre, Cohen, David, and Jolly, Caroline
    Plos one Nov 2020
  4. Swarm Robots in Education: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities
    Johal, Wafa, Peng, Yu, and Mi, Haipeng
    In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction Nov 2020
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    This study reviews published scientific literature on the use of swarm robots for education purposes in the last ten years. It focuses on user studies involving robotics swarm in order to identify the potential contributions of the incorporation of swarm robots as an educational tool and insight future research. We consider here the appearance of swarm robots, the curriculum of the experimental task and the interaction modalities between learners and robots. The outcomes of the literature review are discussed in terms of their existing challenges and opportunities for guiding researchers, educators, and practitioners.

  5. P. 114 Automatic assessment of motors impairments in autism spectrum disorders: a systematic review
    Gargot, T, Archambault, D, Chetouani, M, Cohen, D, Johal, W, and Anzalone, SM
    European Neuropsychopharmacology Nov 2020
  6. "If You’ve Gone Straight, Now, You Must Turn Left" - Exploring the Use of a Tangible Interface in a Collaborative Treasure Hunt for People with Visual Impairments
    Chibaudel, Quentin, Johal, Wafa, Oriola, Bernard, J-M Macé, Marc, Dillenbourg, Pierre, Tartas, Valérie, and Jouffrais, Christophe
    In The 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility Nov 2020
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    Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) have been found to be relevant tools for collaborative learning by providing a shared workspace and enhancing joint visual attention. Researchers have explored the use of TUIs in a variety of curricular activities and found them particularly interesting for spatial exploration. However, very few studies have explored how TUIs could be used as a collaborative medium for people with visual impairments (VIs). In this study, we investigated the effect of tangible interaction (a small tangible robot) in a spatial collaborative task (a treasure hunt) involving two people with VIs. The aim was to evaluate the impact of the design of the TUI on the collaboration and the strategies used to perform the task. The experiment involved six dyads of people with VIs. The results showed that the collaboration was impacted by the interaction design and open interesting perspectives on the design of collaborative games for people with VIs.

  7. A Comparison of Social Robot to Tablet and Teacher in a New Script Learning Context
    Zhexenova, Zhanel, Amirova, Aida, Abdikarimova, Manshuk, Kudaibergenov, Kuanysh, Baimakhan, Nurakhmet, Tleubayev, Bolat, Asselborn, Thibault, Johal, Wafa, Dillenbourg, Pierre, CohenMiller, Anna, and Sandygulova, Anara
    Frontiers in Robotics and AI Nov 2020
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    This research occurred in a special context where Kazakhstan’s recent decision to switch from Cyrillic to the Latin-based alphabet has resulted in challenges connected to teaching literacy, addressing a rare combination of research hypotheses and technical objectives about language learning. Teachers are not necessarily trained to teach the new alphabet, and this could result in a challenge for children with learning difficulties. Prior research studies in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) have proposed the use of a robot to teach handwriting to children (Hood et al., 2015; Lemaignan et al., 2016). Drawing on the Kazakhstani case, our study takes an interdisciplinary approach by bringing together smart solutions from robotics, computer vision areas, and educational frameworks, language, and cognitive studies that will benefit diverse groups of stakeholders. In this study, a human-robot interaction application is designed to help primary school children learn both a newly-adopted script and also its handwriting system. The setup involved an experiment with 62 children between the ages of 7–9 years old, across three conditions: a robot and a tablet, a tablet only, and a teacher. Based on the paradigm—learning by teaching—the study showed that children improved their knowledge of the Latin script by interacting with a robot. Findings reported that children gained similar knowledge of a new script in all three conditions without gender effect. In addition, children’s likeability ratings and positive mood change scores demonstrate significant benefits favoring the robot over a traditional teacher and tablet only approaches.

  8. Domestic drones: Context of use in research literature
    Obaid, Mohammad, Johal, Wafa, and Mubin, Omar
    In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction Nov 2020
  9. Acquisition of handwriting in children with and without dysgraphia: A computational approach
    Gargot, Thomas, Asselborn, Thibault, Pellerin, Hugues, Zammouri, Ingrid, M. Anzalone, Salvatore, Casteran, Laurence, Johal, Wafa, Dillenbourg, Pierre, Cohen, David, and Jolly, Caroline
    PloS one Nov 2020
  10. Gamified motor training with tangible robots in older adults: a feasibility study and comparison with the young
    Guneysu Ozgur, Arzu, Wessel, Maximilian J, Olsen, Jennifer K, Johal, Wafa, Ozgur, Ayberk, Hummel, Friedhelm C, and Dillenbourg, Pierre
    Frontiers in aging neuroscience Nov 2020
  11. Cowriting kazakh: learning a new script with a robot
    Sandygulova, Anara, Johal, Wafa, Zhexenova, Zhanel, Tleubayev, Bolat, Zhanatkyzy, Aida, Turarova, Aizada, Telisheva, Zhansaule, CohenMiller, Anna, Asselborn, Thibault, and Dillenbourg, Pierre
    In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM/IEEE international conference on human-robot interaction Nov 2020
  12. Allohaptic: Robot-mediated haptic collaboration for learning linear functions
    Khodr, Hala, Kianzad, Soheil, Johal, Wafa, Kothiyal, Aditi, Bruno, Barbara, and Dillenbourg, Pierre
    In 2020 29th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) Nov 2020
  13. Using tabletop robots to promote inclusive classroom experiences
    Neto, Isabel, Johal, Wafa, Couto, Marta, Nicolau, Hugo, Paiva, Ana, and Guneysu, Arzu
    In Proceedings of the interaction design and children conference Nov 2020
  14. Iterative design and evaluation of a tangible robot-assisted handwriting activity for special education
    Guneysu Ozgur, Arzu, Özgür, Ayberk, Asselborn, Thibault, Johal, Wafa, Yadollahi, Elmira, Bruno, Barbara, Skweres, Melissa, and Dillenbourg, Pierre
    Frontiers in Robotics and AI Nov 2020
  15. Learning symmetry with tangible robots
    Johal, Wafa, Andersen, Sonia, Chevalier, Morgane, Ozgur, Ayberk, Mondada, Francesco, and Dillenbourg, Pierre
    In Robotics in Education: Current Research and Innovations 10 Nov 2020
  16. Exploring the role of perspective taking in educational child-robot interaction
    Yadollahi, Elmira, Couto, Marta, Johal, Wafa, Dillenbourg, Pierre, and Paiva, Ana
    In Artificial Intelligence in Education: 21st International Conference, AIED 2020, Ifrane, Morocco, July 6–10, 2020, Proceedings, Part II 21 Nov 2020

For publications prior to 2020, see DBLP.