Dr. Abolfazl Zaraki is a distinguished Senior Lecturer in AI and Robotics within the Computer Science Department at the University of Hertfordshire. He is also an integral member of the Robotics research group. Prior to his tenure at the University of Hertfordshire, Dr. Zaraki served as a Lecturer at Cardiff University's School of Engineering and was a key member of the Research Centre in AI, Robotics and Human-Machine Systems (IROHMS). Additionally, he held the position of Co-chair for the Human-Like Artificial Intelligence (AI) working group and was part of the IROHMS leadership team.

Dr. Zaraki earned his Master's degree in Mechatronics and Automatic Control Engineering from University Technology Malaysia in 2010, followed by a Ph.D. in Automatic Robotic and Bioengineering from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 2014. From 2014 to 2019, he advanced his research career as a Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow at various prestigious institutions in Italy and the UK.

Throughout his career, Dr. Zaraki has contributed to numerous national and international research initiatives, including significant European projects such as EASEL (Expressive Agents for Symbiotic Education and Learning), BabyRobot—NextGen Social Robotics, JAMES (Joint Action for Multimodal Embodied Social Systems), and the Innovate UK-funded project InSight—Snake Robot Solution for Inspection in collaboration with industry partners.

Dr. Zaraki’s research focuses on the development of AI-powered Autonomous Agents for both social and industrial applications, enhancing trusted autonomy, conducting comprehensive closed-loop Human-Robot Interaction studies, and exploring the potential of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) for both research and assistive technologies. His work is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of how robots and intelligent systems can improve human lives in real-world settings.