Dan Szafir
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, UNC Chapel Hill • Former ATLAS faculty member

ATLS 201B

Beginning in August 2021, Szafir began a new position at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill as an assistant professor of computer science. HeÌýserved as an assistant professor of computer science with the ATLAS Institute 2015 – 2021.

Dan Szafir studies the design and use of robots and related novel technologies, including brain-computer interfaces and virtual reality, with the goal of improving usability and outcomes, such as learning and collaboration. ÌýHis research isÌýfocusedÌýon human-robot interaction (HRI) and human-computer interaction (HCI). ÌýDan received a doctorateÌýin computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where heÌýwas a member of theÌýHuman-Computer Interaction Laboratory. Prior to UW, heÌýreceived degrees in computer science and history from Boston College.

Projects

Publications

Hooman Hedayati,ÌýRyoÌýSuzuki,ÌýWyatt Rees,ÌýDaniel Leithinger, andÌýDaniel SzafirÌý. 2022.Ìý. Frontiers in Robotics and AI. vol. 9. DOI=10.3389/frobt.2022.719639Ìý (April 11, 2022).

Hooman HedayatiÌýandÌýDaniel Szafir. 2022. Predicting Positions of People in Human-Robot Conversational Groups. InÌýProceedings of the 2022 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot InteractionÌý(HRI '22). IEEE Press, 402–411.

Jamie Voros, Jamison McGinley, Steven McGuire, Michael Walker, Priyanka Karki, Nisar Ahmed, Daniel Szafir, and Torin Clark(C). (2020). Trust in an Autonomous Guidance System for a Planetary Rover Task. In the IEEE Aerospace Conference (AeroConf 2020), pp. 1–8. Big Sky, Montana. doi:

M. Whitlock, Daniel Szafir, & Kenny Gruchalla. 2020. HydrogenAR: Interactive Data-Driven Storytelling for Dispenser Reliability. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), DOI: . (Virtual–Nov. 9-13, 2020) .Ìý

Hooman Hedayati, Ryo Suzuki, Daniel Leithinger, Daniel J. Szafir. 2020. PufferBot: Actuated Expandable Structures for Aerial Robots. In Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2020). DOI: . (Las Vegas, Nevada–Oct.Ìý25-29, 2020) .

Hooman Hedayati, Annika Muehlbradt, Daniel J. Szafir and Sean Andrist. 2020. REFORM: Recognizing F-formations for Social Robots. In Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2020). DOI: . (Las Vegas, Nevada–Oct.Ìý25-29, 2020).

Hooman Hedayati,ÌýDaniel Szafir, and James Kennedy. 2020. Comparing F-Formations Between Humans and On-Screen Agents. InÌýExtended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsÌý(CHI EA ’20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1–9. DOI:Ìý(Honolulu, Hawaii (virtual) –ÌýApril 25-30, 2020).

Ryo Suzuki,ÌýHooman Hedayati,ÌýClement Zheng, James Bohn,ÌýDaniel Szafir,ÌýEllen Yi-Luen Do,ÌýMark D Gross, andÌýDaniel Leithinger. 2020. RoomShift: Room-scale Dynamic Haptics for VR with Furniture-moving Swarm Robots. InÌýProceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '20). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Paper 396, 11 pages. DOI:ÌýÌý (Honolulu, HawaiiÌý–ÌýApril 25-30, 2020).

Connor Brooks and Daniel Szafir. (2020). Visualization of Intended Assistance for Acceptance of Shared Control. In the Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2020). Las Vegas, Nevada. doi: .

Brooks, ConnorÌýandÌýSzafir, Daniel. 2019. Building Second-Order Mental Models for Human-Robot Interaction.Ìý InÌýProceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial IntelligenceÌýFall Symposium SeriesÌý(AI-HRI '19),ÌýArXiv preprint arXiv:1909.06508.Ìý(Washington, DC – Nov.Ìý7-9, 2019). DOI:

Daniel Szafir. (2019). Mediating Human-Robot Interactions with Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality. In the Proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality. Applications and Case Studies (HCII VAMR 2019), pp. 124–149. Orlando, FL. doi: .

Darren Guinness, Annika Muehlbradt, Daniel Szafir, and Shaun K. Kane. 2019. RoboGraphics: Dynamic Tactile Graphics Powered by Mobile Robots. In Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '19). ACM, New York, NY, USA. DOI: (Pittsburgh, PA - Oct. 28, 2019).Ìý

Steve McGuire, P. Michael Furlong, Terry Fong, Christoffer Heckman,ÌýDaniel Szafir, ÌýSimon J. Julier, Nisar Ahmed.Ìý,ÌýinÌýIEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 1216-1223, April 2019. DOI:Ìý10.1109/LRA.2019.2894381.

Hooman Hedayati, Daniel Szafir, and Sean Andrist. 2019. Recognizing F-Formations in the Open World. InÌý2019 14th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '19). DOI:ÌýÌý(Daegu, South Korea – March 11-14, 2019).

​Connor BrooksÌýand Dan Szafir. 2019.ÌýBalanced Information Gathering and Goal-Oriented Actions in Shared Autonomy.Ìý InÌýACM/IEEE '19:ÌýThe 14th Annual International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI'19),Ìý(Daegu, South Korea – March 11-14, 2019). DOI:

Michael Walker, Hooman HedayatiÌýand Daniel Szafir.Ìý2019.ÌýRobot Teleoperation with Augmented Reality Virtual Surrogates. In Proceedings of the 2019ÌýACM/IEEEÌýInternational Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '19).Ìý(Daegu, South Korea – March 11-14, 2019).

T. Williams,ÌýD. Szafir,ÌýT. Chakraborti and E. Phillips. 2019.ÌýVirtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality for Human-Robot Interaction (VAM-HRI).ÌýInÌýTheÌý14th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI '19), pp. 671-672. DOI:ÌýÌý(Daegu, South Korea – March 11-14, 2019).

Williams, Tom,ÌýSzafir, Daniel,ÌýandÌýChakraborti, Tathagata. 2019.ÌýÌýInÌý2019 14th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot InteractionÌý(HRI '19)Ìý(Daegu, South Korea – March 11-14, 2019).

M. E. Walker, D. Szafir and I. Rae, "The Influence of Size in Augmented Reality Telepresence Avatars,"Ìý2019 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), Osaka, Japan, 2019, pp. 538-546. doi: (Osaka, Japan – March 23-27, 2019).

Darren Guinness, Annika Muehlbradt,ÌýDaniel SzafirÌýandÌýShaun K. Kane. 2018. The Haptic Video Player: Using Mobile Robots to Create Tangible Video Annotations. InÌýProceedings of the 2018 ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and SpacesÌý(ISS '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 203-211. DOI:ÌýÌý (Tokyo, Japan — Nov.Ìý25 - 28, 2018).Ìý

Daniel PrendergastÌýandÌýDaniel Szafir. 2018.ÌýÌýInÌýProceedings of the 2018 on International Conference on Multimodal InteractionÌý(ICMI '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 477-485. DOI:ÌýBoulder, ColoradoÌý— Oct.Ìý16 - 20, 2018).

Iuzzolino, Michael L., Michael E. Walker, and Daniel Szafir. "Virtual-to-Real-World Transfer Learning for Robots on Wilderness Trails." In Proceedings of theÌýIEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2018). IEEE, 2018. (Madrid, Spain – Oct. 1-5, 2018).

Connor Brooks, Madhur Atreya, and Daniel Szafir. 2018. Proactive Robot Assistants for Freeform Collaborative Tasks Through Multimodal Recognition of Generic Subtasks.Ìý2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)Ìý(2018). DOI: (Madrid, Spain – Oct. 1-5, 2018).

Hooman Hedayati, Akriti Kapur, Bradley Hayes and Daniel Szafir. 2018.ÌýÌýRobot Navigation for Space Station Environments, InÌýRobotics: Science and Systems Conference at Carnegie Mellon University. (Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaÌý – June 26-30,Ìý2018).

S. McGuire, P. M. Furlong, C. Heckman, S. Julier, D. Szafir and N. Ahmed, ,ÌýÌýin IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 1639-1646, July 2018. DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2018.2801468.

Steve McGuire,ÌýMichael Walker, Jamison McGinley,ÌýNisar Ahmed,ÌýDaniel SzafirÌýand Torin Clark.Ìý2018.ÌýTRAADRE: TRust in Autonomous ADvisors for Robotic ExplorationÌýat the Robotics: Science and Systems,ÌýIn Robotics: Science and Systems, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – June 26 - 30, 2018).

Hooman Hedayti,ÌýMichael Walker,ÌýandÌýDaniel Szafir.Ìý2018.ÌýÌý,Ìý InÌýProceedings of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot InteractionÌý(±á¸é±õ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 78-86. DOI:ÌýÌý[Runner-up forÌýBest Paper in Design Category].

Michael Walker, Hooman Hedayti,ÌýJennifer Lee,ÌýDaniel Szafir.Ìý2018.Ìý,ÌýInÌýProceedings of theÌýACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot InteractionÌý(). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 316-324. DOI:ÌýÌýÌý(Chicago,ÌýMarch 5-8, 2018) [Best Paper in Design Category].

Tom Williams,ÌýDaniel Szafir, Tathagata Chakraborti, and Heni Ben Amor. 2018. Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality for Human-Robot Interaction. InÌýCompanion of the 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot InteractionÌý(HRI '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 403-404. DOI:ÌýÌý(Chicago, IL, USA — March 05 - 08, 2018).

Additional publications

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