Note: Maria Alejandra Quiros-Ramirez has transitioned from the institute (alumni). Explore further information here
I work in the intersection between the fields of Virtual Humans, Affective Computing and Interaction Design. What makes us perceive an interacting agent as 'human'? What does the shape, pose, movement, behavior and style of a person or virtual human tell us about them? How does the interaction with each other affect our own actions and emotions? Can we apply all of this to improve life quality and mental health? Furthermore, I study how individual factors (such as culture, political views, or gender) influence the answers to these questions.
Aside from research, I enjoy VR, web, and mobile technologies! I support the creation of websites for scientific data acquisition and dissemination related to 3D body shape, as well as technological development for scientific experiments, perceptual studies, and psychological assessment.
virtual humans affective computing social perception mental health implicit biases individual factors linguistics