Visiting PhD Student
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Office: 31-219M
anesm03@mit.edu

I am a visiting PhD student at the Interactive Robotics Group under the guidance of Prof. Julie Shah. I come from the University of the Basque Country, where I am a fourth-year industrial PhD student collaborating with the Tekniker Research Center.

My research focuses on enhancing bi-directional communication between humans and robots to improve performance, user experience, and hence, current human-robot interaction scenarios, fostering greater confidence in collaboration with robots. To achieve this, I am engaged in three main areas: (i) the development of an augmented reality application that provides users with information about their state and surroundings in relation to the robot during collaboration, (ii) exploring how social signals can be used to enable robots to better understand humans, and (iii) integrating both research strands to enhance bi-directional communication.

I completed my Bachelor's degree in Industrial Electronic Engineering at the University of Mondragón and a Master's Degree in Automatic Control and Robotics at the Polytechnical University of Catalonia. During my master's program, I had the opportunity to undertake a stay at the Polytechnical University of Milan, where I conducted my thesis under the supervision of Prof. Andre Bonarini. My master's thesis involved the development of a social robot designed to assist children with autism spectrum disorder during therapy sessions.