Aditi Ramachandran

I am the CTO of Van Robotics, where I lead product and software development. We build engaging robot tutors to help children learn. I am passionate about using technology to help revolutionize learning and believe everyone should have the supportive learning environment they need to succeed!

Prior to that, I completed my PhD working with Brian Scassellati in the Social Robotics Lab at Yale University. I am interested in social robots, machine learning, intelligent tutoring systems, and affective computing. My research broadly focuses on how we can use social robots to help people learn. As every learner is different, creating engaging robots that personalize behavior to individual users can lead to more effective learning.

My thesis research investigated leveraging social robots as one-on-one tutoring agents. I designed, implemented, and conducted multiple human-robot interaction studies in which children interact with autonomous robots within educational settings. My studies focused on building personalized robot tutoring interactions for children, specifically in math settings. I explored several facets of tutoring interactions, using social robots to provide supportive behaviors in real-time during learning, such as hints, breaks, and other supportive actions.