Dr Diego R. Faria joined the School of Engineering & Applied Science of Aston University (UK) as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Computer Science in July/2016. Dr Diego Faria has been carrying his research at the System Analytics Research Institute (SARI) collaborating with the Aston Lab for Intelligent Collectives Engineering (ALICE) and Aston Interactive Media Lab (AIM). He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Coimbra, Portugal in 2014. From April 2014 to June 2016 he carried out his research as postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Systems and Robotics, University of Coimbra, Portugal.From 2006 to 2013, Dr Diego Faria has collaborated on different European Projects, such as HANDLE - Developmental pathway towards autonomy and dexterity in robot in-hand manipulation and BACS-Bayesian Approach to Cognitive Systems. From Oct/2013 to Aug/2014, he has collaborated on the project Pedestrian Detection in Urban Challenging Scenarios, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). In 2014, Dr. Diego (as core researcher) together with Dr. Mahmoud Tavakoli had the concession of a grant from the CMU-Portugal program for the project: Compliant Robotics Hands with Integrated Soft MEMS Skin (for Medical Prosthesis and Industrial Robotics Applications) - partnership between the ISR-UC and Soft Machine Lab of Robotics Institute at Carnegie Melon University (SML-CMU). From April 2014 to June 2016 he carried outhis postdoctoral research within the AMS-HMI project (Assisted Mobility Supported by Shared-Control and Advanced Human-Machine Interfaces), funded by FCT. In 2017, he had the concession of a grant funded by the SEAS-Aston University to launch and coordinate the Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (AIR) club, which has the goal of preparing undergraduate and postgraduate students to apply AI concepts into practice using real robots (e.g. NAO?s, Pepper and Thymios) as an extracurricular activity. In 2018, he was awarded with a start-up grant funded by the System Analytics Institute (SARI), Aston University to coordinate (PI) a seed corn project called "An EMG-controlled Prosthetic Hand for Academia", where a 3D printed low-cost robotic hand controlled by EMG forearm signals was developed. Currently his research is focused on Machine Learning for Human-Robot Interaction: Human Daily Activity (individual and social) and Emotion Recognition towards robot assisted living, and also Child-Robot Interaction towards assisting the facilitation of adaptive health-related coping and improved quality of life outcomes in pediatric settings (robotherapy). His research interests are: Human-Robot Interaction (socially assistive robotics); Artificial Perception Systems; Applied Machine Learning; Grasping & Dexterous Manipulation; Affective Computing.
