Sahitha Vuddagiri
Sahitha Vuddagiri smiling, seated on a bench in a cable car, with a hillside city behind her.
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Hi, my name is Sahitha!

Hello! I'm a first-year PhD student at the University of Southern California working with Maja Matarić in the Interaction Lab, supported by the NSF GRFP. My research lies at the intersection of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), accessibility, and care.

Previously in my undergrad at Rice University, I worked with Dr. Vaibhav Unhelkar to study error recovery and trust in robots with caregivers. Through the DUB REU program, I worked with Dr. Maya Cakmak to develop a shared autonomy system using end-user programming to enable more personalized robot interactions.

I'm interested in personalization and long-term human–robot interaction (HRI) in care contexts. My research aims to account for stakeholder differences and sociocultural contexts, increase agency for users with long-term care needs, and design for long-term deployment. I take an interdisciplinary approach that draws on critical studies and participatory methods to center lived experience in the design of intelligent systems.

News

  1. Started my PhD in Computer Science at USC with Maja Matarić in the Interaction Lab!

  2. Awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

  3. Awarded the Rice Engineering Alumni Research Excellence Award

  4. Attended HRI in Edinburgh, Scotland where I was a student volunteer and in HRI Pioneers '26

  5. Attended my first conference, ASSETS 2025!

  6. Awarded Rice OURI funding for a new project on Cultural Influences on Trust, Acceptance, and Preferences for Technology-Mediated Mental Well-Being Support

  7. Presented An AI-Driven Simulation Tool for Training Mental Health Practitioners in Culturally Responsive, Identity-Affirming Care at the AI in Health Conference (Idea-a-thon, 2nd place)

  8. Started working with Dr. Vaibhav Unhelkar on my senior honors thesis in Human-Robot Interaction

  9. Paper Towards Personalizing Shared Autonomy with Human-in-the-Loop Robot Programs accepted to the CoRL ’25 Workshop on Human to Robot: Sensorizing, Modeling, and Learning from Humans

  10. Completed the DUB REU at the University of Washington and presented at the summer research showcase

  11. Presented the poster Thinking Inside the Box: The Impact of Bounding Boxes on Visual Grouping at AHFE ’25

  12. NASA SUITS work presented during Test Week at Johnson Space Center