Dr. Goldie Nejat is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. She is the Founder and Director of the Autonomous Systems and Biomechatronics Laboratory (ASBLab). Her research focuses on expanding intelligent systems into needed healthcare areas and by giving assistive technologies a level of autonomy never seen before. In particular, her work includes designing and developing intelligent service/assistive robots and devices for a number of applications including those in healthcare/elderly care, emergency response, and security and monitoring fields.
One main aspect of her research is to develop and integrate intelligent socially assistive robots for assistive human-robot interactions (HRI) in healthcare facilities and private homes. Her research group is one of only a handful of robotics groups in North America working on developing intelligent social robots for health-related HRI. She collaborates with international healthcare experts and a number of healthcare facilities in order to develop robots and devices that will be effectively integrated into people’s everyday lives. Dr. Nejat has numerous publications in both the natural and health sciences domains. She is the recipient of grants from funding agencies in both Canada and the U.S. She is also a member of IEEE and ASME.