Summary
Wafa Johal is a Franco-Australian Associate Professor in Human-Robot Interaction based in Melbourne with a decade of experience translating UX, AI and robotics research into practical, user-centred systems. Her career spans high-impact academic roles from a PhD and postdoc in Grenoble and EPFL to faculty appointments at UNSW and the University of Melbourne, where she now leads research on making robots useful and acceptable to end users. She combines rigorous computational methods with social-science informed design—grounded in degrees across computer science, mathematics and cognitive sciences—to tackle real-world HRI challenges. Known for bridging theory and practice, she has a track record of mentoring students and embedding user experience into robot behaviour and interaction design. A multilingual researcher with roots in both European and Australian labs, she brings a global perspective to interdisciplinary teams and long-term deployments.
10 years of coding experience
6 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor Degree, Mathematics and Computer Sciences applied to Social Sciences, Bachelor Degree, Mathematics and Computer Sciences applied to Social Sciences at Université Pierre Mendès-France (Grenoble II)
Deug, Biologie, Deug, Biologie at Université Joseph Fourier (Grenoble I)
Master Research, Computer Science, Master Research, Computer Science at Université Grenoble Alpes
BAFA - Brevet d'Animation et de Formation à l'Animation, Jeux et Chants- Spécialité : Voyage International, BAFA - Brevet d'Animation et de Formation à l'Animation, Jeux et Chants- Spécialité : Voyage International at Eclaireurs et Eclaireuses de France
Social Human Robot Interaction Summer School
L3, Computer Science, Mathematics, Cognitive Sciences, L3, Computer Science, Mathematics, Cognitive Sciences at Washington College