Ana Cristina Lopes

Ana Lopes is Adjunct Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar (IPT) where she is the Director of the Interdepartmental Engineering Unit and the Director of the Master Degree in Computer Engineering - Internet of Things. She is Integrated Researcher at the IPT Smart Cities Research Center (Ci2) and she is also an active Collaborating Researcher of the Institute of Systems and Robotics - University of Coimbra (ISR-UC), where she collaborates with the Human-Centered Robotics group. She obtained her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Coimbra in 2013, on the Mobile Assistive Robotics topic and since then she has made contributions in the fields of assistive robotics, mobile robotics navigation, human-robot interaction/collaboration and machine learning. She has been supervisor of several BSc (>20), MSc (>20), PhD students (1), and research engineers (5) and has published 28 papers as author/co-author in high standard journals and international conferences. She participated as member in several National and European R&D projects in the areas of assistive mobile robotics, mobile robotics navigation, human-machine interaction, internet of things and telehealth. Her main research interests include human-centered robotics, human-robot interaction, machine learning and robotherapy - a promising branch of robotics focused on investigating the therapeutic potential of interactive robots in improving people's emotional well-being . She serves as a reviewer in many scientific journals and scientific committees of several conferences, and as guest editor in several journals. She was the recipient of the '2022 Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Award on IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems'.