Dr Muneeb Ahmad

Senior Lecturer

Computer Science

+44 (0) 1792 604640

m.i.ahmad@swansea.ac.uk

Office - 114
First Floor
Computational Foundry
Bay Campus

Available For Postgraduate Supervision

Research Links

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8111-9967

Google Scholar

About

Dr. Muneeb Ahmad's research is situated within the Human-Centred Robotics domain and is at the Intersection of Human-Robot/Agent Interaction, Intelligent Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). His research focuses on employing methods from the field of human-centred computing to create intelligent interactive systems such as intelligent social robots, and user interfaces that can adapt to users through real-time analysis of their social signals and physiological data. He is interested in the applications of machine learning to implement intelligent interactive systems. The work further involves the evaluation of these interactive systems to study their impact on human behaviour mainly to see their level of social engagement, cognitive load, perceived trust, and performance.

He has published numerous articles in top journals and conferences including HRI and HAI Conference, Frontiers in Robotics and AI and others. He regularly organises top-tiered conferences (AI-HRI, IDC, HAI) and is a General Chair of the 12th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction. He also acts a Guest Editor for the ACM Transaction in Human-Robot Interaction and Frontiers in Robotics and AI journals.

He joined the Department of Computer Science as a Lecturer at Swansea University in September 2020 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in March 2022 Before joining Swansea University, he worked as a Research Associate at the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics in the Department of Computer Science at the Heriot-Watt University on the EPSRC ORCA-Hub project, where he led the development of a measurement of Cognitive load in the Human-Robotic/Computer Interaction.

Areas Of Expertise

Human-Centred Robotics,
Intelligent Robotics,
Human-Robot Interaction,
Human-Computer Interaction,
Human-Agent Interaction,
AI/Machine Learning for Human-Robot Interaction

Publications

Research Highlights

ALZAHRANI, A., Nasir, J., Tayeb, A., Andrè, ., & Ahmad, M. (2025). What Do the Face and Voice Reveal? Investigating Trust Dynamics During Human-Robot Interaction. In HRI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 400-409). IEEE Press.
https://doi.org/10.5555/3721488.3721540, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68635
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3721488.3721540
Daish, P., Kanda, T., Roach, M., & Ahmad, M. (2024). Designing Bias Suppressing Robots for `fair' Robot moderated Human-Human Interactions.. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (pp. 347-349). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3687272.3690877, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68340
Ahmad, M., Alzahrani, A., & Ahmad, S. (2024). Detecting Deception in Natural Environments Using Incremental Transfer Learning. In ICMI '24: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (pp. 66-75). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3678957.3685702, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67198
McKenna, P., Ahmad, M., Maisva, T., Nesset, B., Lohan, K., & Hastie, H. (2024). A Meta-analysis of Vulnerability and Trust in Human-Robot Interaction. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction, 13(3), 1-25.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3658897, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65907
Tesema, K., Hill, L., Jones, M., Ahmad, M., & Tam, G. (2024). Point Cloud Completion: A Survey. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 30(10), 6880-6899.
https://doi.org/10.1109/tvcg.2023.3344935, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65337
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/tvcg.2023.3344935

All Research

Journal Articles

Tesema, K., Hill, L., Jones, M., Ahmad, M., & Tam, G. (2024). Point Cloud Completion: A Survey. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 30(10), 6880-6899.
https://doi.org/10.1109/tvcg.2023.3344935, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65337
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/tvcg.2023.3344935
McKenna, P., Ahmad, M., Maisva, T., Nesset, B., Lohan, K., & Hastie, H. (2024). A Meta-analysis of Vulnerability and Trust in Human-Robot Interaction. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction, 13(3), 1-25.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3658897, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65907
Ahmad, M. & RAFIK, R. (2022). “No Chit Chat!” A Warning From a Physical Versus Virtual Robot Invigilator: Which Matters Most?. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 9
https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2022.908013, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60247
Ahmad, M., Gao, Y., Alnajjar, F., Shahid, S., & Mubin, O. (2021). Emotion and memory model for social robots: a reinforcement learning based behaviour selection. Behaviour & Information Technology, 2021, 1-27.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2021.1977389, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57746
Mubin, O., Cappuccio, M., Alnajjar, F., Ahmad, M., & Shahid, S. (2020). Can a robot invigilator prevent cheating?. AI & SOCIETY, 35(4), 981-989.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-020-00954-8, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57756
Ahmad, M., Keller, I., Robb, D., & Lohan, K. (2020). A framework to estimate cognitive load using physiological data. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01455-7, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56610
Ahmad, M., Mubin, O., Shahid, S., & Orlando, J. (2019). Robot’s adaptive emotional feedback sustains children’s social engagement and promotes their vocabulary learning: a long-term child–robot interaction study. Adaptive Behavior, 27(4), 243-266.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1059712319844182, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57754
Mubin, O., Tejlavwala, D., Arsalan, M., Ahmad, M., & Simoff, S. (2018). An assessment into the characteristics of award winning papers at CHI. Scientometrics, 116(2), 1181-1201.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2778-7, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57757
Ahmad, M., Mubin, O., & Orlando, J. (2017). Adaptive Social Robot for Sustaining Social Engagement during Long-Term Children–Robot Interaction. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 33(12), 943-962.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2017.1300750, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55334
Ahmad, M., Mubin, O., & Orlando, J. (2017). A Systematic Review of Adaptivity in Human-Robot Interaction. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 1(3), 14
https://doi.org/10.3390/mti1030014, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55333
Mubin, O., Mahmud, A., & Ahmad, M. (2017). HCI down under: reflecting on a decade of the OzCHI conference. Scientometrics, 112(1), 367-382.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2293-2, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57755
Robb, D., Lopes, J., Ahmad, M., McKenna, P., Liu, X., Lohan, K., & Hastie, H. (n.d.) Seeing eye to eye: trustworthy embodiment for task-based conversational agents. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 10
https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2023.1234767, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa64061
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2023.1234767

Book Chapters

Lohan, K., Ahmad, M., Dondrup, C., Ardón, P., Pairet, È., & Vinciarelli, A. (2020). Adapting Movements and Behaviour to Favour Communication in Human-Robot Interaction. Modelling Human Motion (pp. 271-297). Springer International Publishing
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46732-6_13, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57767

Conference Contributions

Alhouli, S., Almania, N., Ahmad, M., & Sahoo, D. (2025). Designing a Multimodal Robot Pet for Older Adults by Young Adults. In CHI EA '25: Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-9). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3720083, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69126
ALZAHRANI, A., Nasir, J., Tayeb, A., Andrè, ., & Ahmad, M. (2025). What Do the Face and Voice Reveal? Investigating Trust Dynamics During Human-Robot Interaction. In HRI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 400-409). IEEE Press.
https://doi.org/10.5555/3721488.3721540, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68635
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3721488.3721540
Ahmad, S., Ahmad, M., Toro, C., Dias, N., & Stawarz, K. (2025). “I Never Imagined a Robot Speaking Urdu:” Exploring the Influence of Language on Robots’ Acceptance. In HRI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 1186-1190). IEEE.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68695
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3721488.3721643
Alzahrani, A. & Ahmad, M. (2025). Optimising Human Trust in Robots: A Reinforcement Learning Approach. In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 1202-1206). IEEE.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68696
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3721488.3721647
Daish, P., Kanda, T., Roach, M., & Ahmad, M. (2024). Designing Bias Suppressing Robots for `fair' Robot moderated Human-Human Interactions.. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (pp. 347-349). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3687272.3690877, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68340
Ahmad, M., Alzahrani, A., & Ahmad, S. (2024). Detecting Deception in Natural Environments Using Incremental Transfer Learning. In ICMI '24: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (pp. 66-75). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3678957.3685702, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa67198
Ahmad, M., Alzahrani, A., Robinson, S., & Rahat, A. (2023). Modelling Human Trust in Robots During Repeated Interactions. In International Conference on Human-Agent InteractionACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3623809.3623892, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa64046
Ahmad, M. & Alzahrani, A. (2023). Crucial Clues: Investigating Psychophysiological Behaviors for Measuring Trust in Human-Robot Interaction. In ICMI '23: Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (pp. 135-143). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3577190.3614148, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa64073
Alzahrani, A., Robinson, S., & Ahmad, M. (2022). Exploring Factors Affecting User Trust Across Different Human-Robot Interaction Settings and Cultures. In HAI '22 - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (pp. 123-131). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3527188.3561920, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60811
Ahmad, M., Robb, D., Keller, I., & Lohan, K. (2020). Towards a Multimodal Measure for Physiological Behaviours to Estimate Cognitive Load. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics. Mental Workload, Human Physiology, and Human Energy (pp. 3-13). Springer International Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49044-7_1, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57758
Robb, D., Ahmad, M., Tiseo, C., Aracri, S., McConnell, A., Page, V., Dondrup, C., Garcia, F., Nguyen, H., Pairet, È., Ramírez, P., Semwal, T., Taylor, H., Wilson, L., Lane, D., Hastie, H., & Lohan, K. (2020). Robots in the Danger Zone: Exploring Public Perception through Engagement. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (pp. 93-102). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3319502.3374789, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57759
Ahmad, M. & Mubin, O. (2018). Emotion and Memory Model to Promote Mathematics Learning - An Exploratory Long-term Study. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (pp. 214-221). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3284432.3284451, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57760
Mubin, O., Ahmad, M., Kaur, S., Shi, W., & Khan, A. (2018). Social Robots in Public Spaces: A Meta-review. In Social Robotics (pp. 213-220). Springer International Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05204-1_21, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57761
Mubin, O., Manalo, M., Ahmad, M., & Obaid, M. (2017). Scientometric Analysis of the HAI Conference. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Human Agent Interaction-45). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3125739.3125747, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57762
Ahmad, M., Shahid, S., & Tahir, A. (2017). Towards the Applicability of NAO Robot for Children with Autism in Pakistan. In Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2017 (pp. 463-472). Springer International Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67687-6_32, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57763
Ahmad, M., Mubin, O., & Orlando, J. (2016). Children views' on social robot's adaptations in education. In Proceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction - OzCHI '16 (pp. 145-149). ACM Press.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3010915.3010977, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57764
Ahmad, M., Mubin, O., & Orlando, J. (2016). Understanding Behaviours and Roles for Social and Adaptive Robots In Education. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Human Agent Interaction (pp. 297-304). ACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/2974804.2974829, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57765
Mubin, O., Wijayarathne, J., Ahmad, M., Ginige, A., & Hewapathirana, R. (2016). Using Persuasive Mobile Apps to Enhance Children's Health and Well Being. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing SystemsACM.
https://doi.org/10.1145/2851581.2892447, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57766
Ahmad, M., Sahoo, D., & Hyde, M. (n.d.) Older Adults' Emotional Challenges and Co-design Preferences for a Social Robot after the COVID-19 Pandemic.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63591

Supervision

Developing Non-invasive Methods to Assess Cognitive Load in Real Time. (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Deepak Sahoo
Investigating The Impact Of Bias Within The Reinforcement Learning Frameworks During Human-Robot Collaboration. (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Deepak Sahoo
Enabling intelligent and proactive Telecare services for elderly and vulnerable people (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Jiaxiang Zhang
Novel human-in-the-loop 3D point cloud completion for sub sea surveying (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Mark Jones

Other supervisor: Dr Gary Tam
A User-designed Multimodal Soft Robot Pet for Older Adults to Improve Acceptance of Social Robots (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Deepak Sahoo
Developing Novel Machine Learning Techniques with Human-in-the-Loop Approach to Enable Better Decision Making on Operations Maintenance (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Cinzia Giannetti
Measuring Human’s Trust in Robots in Real-time During Human-Robot Interaction (awarded 2025)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Simon Robinson
Navigating Filter Bubbles: A Multidimensional Analysis of User Behavior and Cross-Cultural Impacts (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Matt Roach

Taught Modules

CSC349 User Experience

This module presents an overview of concepts, design for and evaluation of User Experience (UX). Students will come to understand what UX is, why the concept has become so prominent, what differentiates UX from aesthetic design, and what UX practitioners do in their work. The module will examine specific design approaches, and the student will gain some practical skills applying these techniques. Techniques that will be covered include brainstorming, personas and participatory design. The module will also cover the research methods that are employed to understand specific experiences with technology and impart the beginnings of the skills needed to employ these methods and evaluate the results. This module develops practical skills through the coursework and theoretical understanding is demonstrated in the exam. The module builds on skills developed in the second year HCI module but this is not a pre-requisite for it.
CSCM39 Human Computer Interaction

This module gives an overview on the main topics in Human Computer Interaction and helps students understand research and research processes in Human Computer Interaction. Students explore the advanced literature and research results underpinning the field of HCI. Classic papers and controversies are covered, as well as recent work from the leading figures. Students achieve a clear view of the 'cutting edge' and issues in the field and where things are happening. The module is very interactive, and students will be expected to give presentations.
CSDM001 Theory of Digital Information and Society

This module gives an overview on theoretical and methodological debates contemporary Digital Economy and Society research with specific focus on Human Computer Interaction. This module helps students understand how human experience can influence the design and adoption of digital into services and the lives of individuals and communities.Students explore the advanced literature and research results underpinning the field. Understand, through a series of Classic papers, the practical application of qualitative and quantitative techniques for the study of soci-technical assemblages in a digital by default world, as well as recent work from the leading figures. Students achieve a clear view of the 'cutting edge' and issues in the field and where things are happening. The module is very interactive, and students will be expected to give presentations.

Dr Muneeb Ahmad

Telephone number

Email address

Twitter Account

Research Links

About

Areas Of Expertise

Publications

Research Highlights

All Research

Journal Articles

Book Chapters

Conference Contributions

Supervision

Developing Non-invasive Methods to Assess Cognitive Load in Real Time. (current)

Investigating The Impact Of Bias Within The Reinforcement Learning Frameworks During Human-Robot Collaboration. (current)

Enabling intelligent and proactive Telecare services for elderly and vulnerable people (current)

Novel human-in-the-loop 3D point cloud completion for sub sea surveying (current)

A User-designed Multimodal Soft Robot Pet for Older Adults to Improve Acceptance of Social Robots (current)

Developing Novel Machine Learning Techniques with Human-in-the-Loop Approach to Enable Better Decision Making on Operations Maintenance (current)

Measuring Human’s Trust in Robots in Real-time During Human-Robot Interaction (awarded 2025)

Navigating Filter Bubbles: A Multidimensional Analysis of User Behavior and Cross-Cultural Impacts (current)

Taught Modules

CSC349 User Experience

CSCM39 Human Computer Interaction

CSDM001 Theory of Digital Information and Society