Dr. Sara Baber Sial is a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University Suzhou and an Senior Lecturer (Adjunt) at Monash University, Australia. She also holds an appointment as Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Computational Science and Mathematical Modelling, Coventry University, UK. With over 12 years of experience in academia and research, she has previously worked as an Associate Professor at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Department of Robotics and AI, in Pakistan.

Dr. Sial is the founder and director of the NUST-Coventry Human-Robot Interaction (NC-HRI) Lab, an international collaborative research lab established with Coventry University. She has previously led the major initiative of the Intelligent Field Robotics Lab (IFRL) as the Scientific Director under the National Center of AI (NCAI).

Dr. Sial has received multiple institutional honors, including the Best Teacher Award, Best Researcher Award, and Top Performer Award at NUST.

She is the author of over 70+ peer- reviewed publications, including in leading journals such as IEEE Transactions, and has contributed to multiple international conferences, workshops, and book chapters. Her book,
“Introducing Therapeutic Robotics for Autism,” was published by Emerald Publishing, UK, and has been cited as a key contribution to the emerging field of therapeutic robotics.

Throughout her career, she has graduated over 27 Master’s students and 2 PhD scholars and is currently supervising postgraduate researchers in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. She is also recognized for her contributions to STEM outreach and diversity initiatives, particularly through her role as the founding faculty sponsor of the NUST Robotics Club (NRC), which fosters interdisciplinary and inclusive student engagement in robotics.

Dr. Sial has played a leading role in securing and managing several prestigious national and international grants, including three British Council grants, the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), and collaborative research and development projects across the globe.

She is frequently invited to speak at national and international forums and has delivered keynote addresses at many international conferences. Additionally, she has served as a session chair, technical chair, and member of scientific advisory boards in several reputed conferences in
Robotics and AI. 

Dr. Sial is also contributing at the policy-making level, having played a pivotal role in developing the national framework on the Ethical Use of Generative AI Tools in Academia in collaboration with Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Research Interests: Her research interests include Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Human- Centric AI Technologies, Assistive Digital Technology, Virtual Reality (VR), Human-in-loop (HIL) Interaction, Multi-Modal Sensing and Perception, Generative AI