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20162024

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Personal profile

Biography

Dr Nicole Robinson is a Lecturer at Monash University in the Faculty of Engineering. 

Research: She has created and built up an interdisciplinary research group that specialises across both scientific methods and novel engineering. Her research theme is to evaluate and improve the quality and success of human-robot teamwork. This work involves theoretical and applied human-robot interaction work in domestic and field settings, including for mobile, manipulator, mobile manipulator, humanoid and social robots. 

Prior to Monash, she was a Research Fellow with the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision on Humanoid Robotics on a $1.5 million R&D project with the Queensland Government. She was later promoted to become a Chief Investigator (CI) and Program Leader of Human Interaction in the QUT Robotics Centre.

Funding: Throughout her career, she has been a Chief Investigator or Lead Applicant for more than $7.4 million in awarded funds from competitive grants, industry partnerships, and student scholarships.  

Teaching: She has led and been involved in the design and implementation of university-level courses. She has been an invited guest lecture to talk on the topics of behavioural science, technology, engineering, entrepreneurship, and human-robot teams. She has also taught 1st to 3rd year level course content to both small-room tutorials and large-scale lecture halls (15 though to 500 students per class). 

Public Outreach: She is a strong advocate for public outreach and promoting STEM careers for women. She has a media reach of 40+ million to date across live television, radio, print articles and world-renowned festival stages:

  • Tedx, International Business Times, MIT Technology Review, Gizmodo, and the World Science Festival. She has also hosted a postcast on artificial intelligence and robotics available on iTunes and Spotify.

Start-up: She is a Co-Founder and Executive Director of LYRO Robotics Pty Ltd, a deep-tech robotics company that builds and deploys intelligent pick and pack robots for order fufillment. LYRO has successfully commercialised robotics technology in Australia, creating direct benefit and value to the agriculture and warehousing industries.

  • In 2020, LYRO Robotics won 1st place in the Unicorn Cup, the worlds largest start-up pitch competition against 2,000 companies from 125 cities.
  • LYRO has been supported by venture capital from both national and international investors

Memberships: She is also a Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Australian Psychological Society, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology. 

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 2 - Zero Hunger
  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

External positions

Director and Board Member, LYRO Robotics Pty Ltd

Adjunct Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

Research area keywords

  • Robotics
  • Human-Robot Interaction
  • Human-Robot Teamwork
  • Explainable AI
  • Behavioral/Experimental Psychology
  • Psychology
  • Robot Learning
  • Robot Ethics
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Human Centered AI

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or