Pablo Gonzalez Oliveras

I am PhD Researcher at KTH. I joined the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Speech, music and hearing Division) in December 2021, under the supervision of Professors Olov Engwall, Ali Reza Majlesi, Olga Vilberg & Iolanda Leite.My research focuses on howinformational social influence operates in interactions between students and educational robots or AI-driven agents. Mor specifically, my work examines how robots’ communicative behaviours—such ascertainty, hesitancy, disagreement, argumentation, or apparent reliability—shape learners’decisions, reasoning, and informational trust, especially when the knowledge at stake is relevant and meaningful for them.Between 2022 and 2025, I conducted a coordinated series of experimental studies with high-school and adult learners to understandwhen and why students conform to a robot’s suggestions, how they resist or challenge them, and how such influence affects learning outcomes. Across these studies, I explore bothargument-based persuasion andinformational conformity, linking behavioural findings with broader questions abouteducational AI, learner agency, and trust calibration.My research combines controlled HRI experiments, conversation and interaction analysis, and the development of autonomous conversational agents—most recently in the SIRSELL project for second-language learners. I am funded by the WASP-HS program.My PhD is funded byWASP-HS (the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program – Humanities and Society).

Current Research Projects

SIRSELL – Social-Influencing Robot for Second Language Learners (2025– ).My ongoing main project develops anautonomous Furhat agent for L2 learners engaged in a collaborative word-connections puzzle. The robot adapts itscertainty displays, alignment strategies, and conversational behaviour to study how these cues influence learners’ decisions, trust, and interpretation of “false friends” in Swedish as a second language.This project also contributes to the broader thesis goal of modellinglinguistic and cultural miscommunication and enabling more culturally aware robot behaviour.

Completed and published studies

• González-Oliveras, P., Engwall, O., & Wilde, A. (2025).Social Educational Robotics and Learning Analytics: A Scoping Review of an Emerging Field.International Journal of Social Robotics.

Project code: SERALA – Social Educational Robotics and Learning Analytics.A systematic scoping review mapping 29 empirical studies at the intersection of Learning Analytics and Social Educational Robotics. The work identifies methodological synergies and research gaps, proposing LA-aware pathways for future HRI studies.

• SEPRIMA Manuscript (revised & resubmitted),ACM THRI.

Project Code: SEPRIMA – Social Educational Persuasive Robot in Maths Activities.A controlled study with upper-secondary students examining how and why learners sometimesaccept incorrect answers suggested by a robot, even when their own reasoning was initially correct. The manuscript has undergone major revision and resubmission (2025).

• González-Oliveras, P., Engwall, O., & Majlesi, A.R. (2025).Sense and Sensibility: What Makes a Social Robot Convincing to High-School Students?RSS 2025 Proceedings.

Project code: ISISER – Informational-Social Influencing Social Educational Robot.This follow-up experiment demonstrates howrobot certainty style (confident vs. hesitant) affects students’ willingness to revise answers in physics/electric-circuits tasks. The work was presented atRobotics: Science and Systems 2025 (oral + poster).

 

Other projects

• MATTECOACH – Hybrid human–AI tutoring in mathematics.As part of a Digital Futures initiative, I contributed to the development of anAI add-on that supports human tutors during real-time online mathematics help. I performed thestatistical analysis of 900+ tutoring dialogues and am preparing further publications linking hybrid tutoring with educational HRI and AI trust.
• STINT / SALC Collaboration – Autonomous AI agents and L2 learning.International collaboration exploring how autonomous AI agents influence learners from different cultural backgrounds. Contributions include co-conducting interviews, preparing the section“When Autonomous AI-Agents Meet Autonomous Learners”, and analysing focus-group data. A future L2-robot study is under consideration.
• CEIBAL (Uruguay), ITSOS & MAR (future work).Exploratory collaborations involving L2 education with virtual or physical Furhat robots, teacher-student simulation for analysing tutoring strategies, and the conceptualization of a “Mathematics Apprentice Robot.”

Teaching & supervision

I have served as teaching assistant and supervisor in several EECS courses, including:

• Technology-Enhanced Learning (DM2730)

• Conversational Systems (DT2151)

• Multimodal Interaction and Interfaces (DT2140)

• Supervision of 22Master’s theses (Computer Science)

• Contributor to theDigital Futures semi-automated mathematics coach project

I also organized and moderated a 3-hour workshop at the2025 WASP-HS Winter Conference:“Shaping Future Generations of Critical Thinkers with Educational Robots.”

Research interests

• Educational Human–Robot InteractionSocial influence, robot certainty, trust calibration, argument-based persuasion, and resistance to misinformation.

• Human–AI interaction in learning settingsGenerative-AI–supported tutoring, hybrid human–AI help systems, conversational agents.

• Language, culture, and interactionHow linguistic background and intercultural differences shape learners’ interpretations of robot cues.

• Learning Analytics & Multimodal Interaction DataHow multimodal traces from HRI can inform adaptive and accountable educational technologies.

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Short Bio

Academic background

• Bachelor in Computer Science (UPV, 1995)
• MSc Software Engineering (UPV, 1997)
• Master's in Teaching in Mathematics & Computer Science (UCAM, 2016)
• Master's in Technology & Education (UOC, 2018)
• Higher studies in Anthropology and Social Psychology (URV, 2015)

Professional work

• IBM Research Group (Southern Europe region; Data Replication, Data Mining, SW Architecture) -- 10 years
• SW Engineering and Database Consultancy in several technological companies (Telefonica, Merced Services, AngryQuestions..) -- 15 years

Teaching

• Visiting lecturer at University of Winchester (Computer Science) - 1 year
• Visiting teacher at Lochside Academy; Aberdeen (Computer Science) - 1.5 years

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Keywords: Computer Science, Social Robotics, Educational Robotics, HRI, AI, HCI, Reinforcement Learning, Learning Analytics, Cognitive science, Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Education, Mathematics, Linguistics, Languages, Intercultural Communications