Ruth Aylett is a professor of computer science at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, where she specialises in affective computing, social computing, software agents, and human–robot interaction.

Her research involves affective computing, social computing, software agents, and human–robot interaction. She is the leader of Socially Competent Robots (SoCoRo), a project of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council that studies whether robots can assist autistic people in learning to recognize facial expressions and other social cues.

She has also studied the use of “emotionally literate” robots for tutoring schoolchildren, developed interactive role-playing software intended to combat bullying, and performed with a robot poet named Sarah the Poetic Robot as part of the Edinburgh Free Fringe.

Ruth Aylett

Professor
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.