About Me

I got my PhD degree in Computer Scienc from University of Southern California. I was a member of the Natural Language Dialogue research group at USC Institute for Creative Technologies, working under the supervision of Prof. David Traum. My research focus was multimodal feedback understanding and generation in human-agent interactions, multimodal human-computer interaction, and natural language dialogue systems.

Contact Details

Setareh Nasihati Gilani
nasihati.s@gmail.com

Education

University of Southern California

Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science 2023

University of Southern California

Master of Science in Computer Science 2018

Sharif University of Technology

Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering 2014

Publications

Multimodal Prediction of User’s Performance in High-Stress Dialogue Interaction Setareh Nasihati Gilani, Kimberly A. Pollard, David Traum
ICMI 2023. [PDF]

Common Strategy Patterns of Persuasion in a Mission Critical and Time Sensitive Task Claire To, Setareh Nasihati Gilani, David Traum
SemDial 2023. [PDF][POSTER][SLIDES]

Analyzing User’s Mental State and Facial Expressions in Interaction with Different Personalities in a Critical Situation Setareh Nasihati Gilani, David Traum
MMSYM 2023. [PDF][POSTER]

Human swarm interaction using plays, audibles, and a virtual spokesperson Patricia Chaffey, Ron Artstein, Kallirroi Georgila, Kimberly A. Pollardy, Setareh Nasihati Gilani, David M. Krum, David Nelson, Kevin Huynh, Alesia Gainer, Seyed Hossein Alavi , Rhys Yahata, Anton Leuski, Volodymyr Yanov, David Traum
SPIE 2020. [PDF]

Multimodal Learning for Identifying Opportunities for Empathetic Reponses Lili Tavabi, Kalin Stefanov, Setareh Nasihati Gilani, David Traum, Mohammad Soleymani.
ICMI 2019. [PDF]

Can a Signing Virtual Human Engage a Baby's Attention? Setareh Nasihati Gilani, David Traum, Rachel Sortino, Grady Gallagher, Kailyn Aaron-Lozano, Cryss Padilla, Ari Shapiro, Jason Lamberton, Laura-Ann Petitto.
IVA 2019. [PDF]

Developing a Virtual Reality Wildfire Simulation to Analyze Human Communication and Interaction with a Robotic Swarm During Emergencies Patricia Chaffey, Ron Artstein, Kallirroi Georgila, Kimberly A. Pollardy, Setareh Nasihati Gilani, David M. Krum, David Nelson, Kevin Huynh, Alesia Gainer, Seyed Hossein Alavi , Rhys Yahata, David Traum
HLTCEM 2019. [PDF]

Can a Virtual Human Facilitate Language Learning in a Young Baby? Setareh Nasihati Gilani, David Traum, Rachel Sortino, Grady Gallagher, Kailyn Aaron-Lozano, Cryss Padilla, Ari Shapiro, Jason Lamberton, Laura-Ann Petitto.
AAMAS 2018. [PDF] [POSTER]

Hearing Babies Respond to Language's Patterning and Social Contingency with a Signing Avatar: Acquisition Insights Laura-Ann Petitto, Rachel Sortino, Kailyn Aaron-Lozano, Grady Gallagher, Setareh Nasihati Gilani, David Traum, Arcangelo Merla, Chiara Filippini, Cryss Padilla.
SRCD 2018. [PDF] [POSTER]

Multimodal Dialogue Management for Multiparty Interaction with Infants Setareh Nasihati Gilani, David Traum, Arcangelo Merla, Eugenia Hee, Zoey Walker, Barbara Manini, Grady Gallagher, Laura-Ann Petitto.
ICMI 2018, **Best Paper Award Winner**. [PDF] [SLIDES]

Teaching Language to Deaf Infants with a Robot and a Virtual Human Brian Scassellati, Jake Brawer, Katherine Tsui, Setareh Nasihati Gilani, Melissa Malzkuhn, Barbara Manini, Adam Stone, Geo Kartheiser, Arcangelo Merla, Ari Shapiro, David Traum, Laura-Ann Petitto.
CHI 2018. [PDF] [Presentation]

Artificial Intelligence to Predict Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration Robin Petering, Mee-Young Um, Nazanin Alipourfard, Nazgol Tavabi, Rajni Kumari, Setareh Nasihati Gilani.
Chapter in "Artificial Intelligence and Social Work" Book, edited by Milind Tambe and Eric Rice, Cambridge University Press. [PDF]

What Kind of Stories Should a Virtual Human Swap? (Extended Abstract) Setareh Nasihati Gilani, Kraig Sheetz, Gale Lucas, David Traum.
AAMAS 2016 [PDF]

What Kind of Stories Should a Virtual Human Swap? Setareh Nasihati Gilani, Kraig Sheetz, Gale Lucas, David Traum.
IVA 2016 [PDF] [SLIDES]

Work

Motorola Solutions

Software Engineer Co-op Jun 2023 - Current

Improving the Intercom Voice-AI performance by training custom speech to text models.

Google

Research Intern Aug 2020 - Nov 2020

Developing a preference-based conversational recommender system for Google Assistant

PayPal

Software Engineering Intern May 2017 - Aug 2017

Returning software engineering intern. Developed an email-routing system to improve customer service’s operation efficiency using text analytics and machine learning.

PayPal

Software Engineering Intern May 2016 - Aug 2016

Developed an internally facing metadata resource management chatbot for engineers to expedite information gaining process.

Beep Company (Rahnema)

Product Specialist and Mobile Application Developer Summer 2013

Co-founded a mobile application start-up; a trivia game based on Persian songs. Beep (Rahnema) is one of the major VAS providers and tech companies in Iran.

Skills

Programming Languages

  • Python
  • Java
  • C++
  • SQL
  • JavaScript
  • CSS
  • HTML

Technologies

Platforms: PSI, Android, Azure, AWS, GCP

Dev Environments: Visual Studio, IntelliJ, Android Studio, Pycharm

Machine Learning and Deep Learning: Torch, TensorFlow, Keras, HuggingFace, Scikit-Learn, NLTK, Spacy

  • We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

    Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.

    Steve Jobs