Past Member

Laura Aymerich Franch

Former Visiting Scholar
  • Personal Robots

I am a Ramón y Cajal research fellow in the Department of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona.

Before that, I was a Marie Curie IOF postdoctoral fellow (2014-17) at The Experimental Virtual Environments (EVENT) Lab for Neuroscience and Technology, Universitat de Barcelona (return phase) and at the CNRS-AIST JRL (Joint Robotics Laboratory), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan (outgoing phase).

Previously, I was a Fulbright postdoctoral scholar at Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Stanford University (2012-14).

I earned a PhD cum laude on Audiovisual Communication and Advertising (2010) from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), where I was part of the Image, Sound, and Synthesis Research Group. I have also been a lecturer at UAB (2006-2011) and a visiting research fellow at iCinema, Centre for Interactive Cinema Research at University of New South Wales in Sydney (2009).

My area of expertise is Media Psychology applied to cutting-edge technologies. Principally, I work with social robots and virtual reality. I am particularly interested in developing and promoting the positive uses of these technologies, which I conceive as fascinating tools for social and psychological change.