Curriculum
Computer Science for Societal Challenges and Innovation, XLI series
Grant sponsor
Bruno Kessler Foundation
Supervisors
Lamberto Ballan 
Co-supervisor
to be defined
Contact
elena.zoppellari@phd.unipd.it
Project description
Embodied AI agents are sensorimotor systems situated in physical or simulated environments: they perceive, act, and learn through continuous interaction with the world rather than by operating on static data alone. This embodied setting requires agents to interpret rich, noisy, and dynamic contexts in real time, making simple or isolated controllers insufficient. Cooperative behaviours naturally emerge when multiple actors, whether artificial agents or humans, need to share information, align decisions, or pursue joint goals. Supporting such behaviours demands both explicit and implicit mechanisms for communication, joint decision-making, and continual mutual adaptation. My research focuses on several open challenges within this field, including improving perception and visual reasoning to enable artificial systems with more advanced forms of social reasoning and theory-of-mind capabilities to enhance collaborative decision-making among heterogeneous agents. This work is conducted in collaboration with the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) research center.