PhDone!? The Dr. is In

I’m so grateful to Clare Hall, my college at Cambridge, for making the graduation such a meaningful occasion. I was happy to have my parents there, and some of my friends that started the PhD with me at Clare Hall by my side graduating with me, Dr. Javier Perez-Osorio and Dr. Simon St-Amant.

The ceremony itself made me really nervous – I’m glad we practiced the coreography beforehand! I was worried about tripping over my gown while kneeling. Luckily everything went to plan, and we all enjoyed a lovely afternoon.

Some “thank you"s are in order:

I cannot say thank you enough to all those that have helped me learn and grow along this journey. Thank you first of all to my amazing supervisor and inspiring researcher Prof. Hatice Gunes – I have learned so much with you and I am so grateful! Thank you so much also to my close collaborator and wonderful teacher Prof. Micol Spitale, other wonderful AFAR Lab colleagues and collaborators Dr. Nikhil Churamani, Prof. Indu Bodala, and Dr. Jiaee Cheong. Thank you to my excellent examiners Prof. John Clarkson and Prof. Maya Cakmak, helpful tutors Dr. Lori Passmore and Dr. Tobias Baldauf, and generous advisor Prof. Alan Blackwell.

And thank you to more collaborators: inspiring supervisees Atahan Çaldır and Neval Kara, and incredible cross-institutional collaborators Prof. Sooyeon Jeong, Dr. Paige Tuttösí, Dr. Caitlin Stamatis, Prof. Guy Laban, Prof. Angelica Lim, and Nida Abbasi. Thank you to my OG mentors who generously gave their support to make it all happen: Prof. Ville Kyrki, Prof. Ana Paiva, Prof. Risto Sarvas; and newer mentors who have inspired me along the way: Dr. Mariana Marasoiu and Prof. Matti Nelimarkka. Thank you to my generous funders who this would not have been possible without: Osk. Huttunen Foundation, the EPSRC, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Clare Hall Doctoral Prize Studentship, K. Albin Johansson Foundation, KAUTE Foundation. Thank you to the amazing and excellent staff at Cambridge, Clare Hall and the Computer Science Department, for helping me find my new home.

All the participants, and wellbeing coaches who participated in the research – thank you. This work would not have been possible without you. Dr. Katherine Parkin, you have been especially helpful in conducting this research, you rock. Thank you also to Cambridge Consultants Inc. and Edge Café for our fruitful and enjoyable research collaborations. Thank you to friends and family who have been essential, you mean the world.

Thank you also to all the people at AFAR Lab, GAIPS Lab and Personal Robots Group at MIT Media Lab, who provided support, light and an appropriate amount of darkness during the PhD journey. A lab makes a home – so I’ve learned. Shoutouts especially to my HRI Pioneers colleagues (2023 and 2024), Prof. Elmira Yadollahi, Dr. Irmak Dogan, Prof. Patrícia Alves-Oliveira and Prof. Silvia Tulli for essential career advice and commiseration.

Thank you to all I have collaborated with in the past, and who have mentored and taught me along this journey, you are irreplacalbe. Thank you to all my students and mentees who have taught me so much. And thank you, thank you to those I am collaborating with now - I’m excited to bring our work to the world and I am so proud to work with you.

There are still many more to thank, and to express my gratitude to. Everyone I’ve met along the journey has made the journey worthwhile, the human beats the robot – every time.

My thesis is available here. If you have any questions or have trouble accessing any of my referenced work, please shoot me an email.

I was rather enthused to walk away with the proof of my 5 hard years of work…