About

Hi, my name is Mehdi Hellou

I am a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester’s Cognitive Robotics Lab (COROLAB), working within the EU’s Horizon Europe programme PRIMI. I was previously an Early-Stage Researcher and PhD student at the University of Manchester, working on the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks project PERSEO, under the supervision of Prof. Angelo Cangelosi and Dr. Samuele Vinanzi.

My research focuses on improving social robot behaviours in real-world, human-centred environments by applying the premises of the Theory of Mind (ToM) to enable personalised interactions. This includes designing and testing computational architectures for ToM that consider each user’s differences and needs, tailoring the robot’s actions by exploiting Reinforcement Learning techniques such as Inverse Reinforcement Learning.

My passion for robotics led me to complete a Master of Engineering in Robotics from Polytech Sorbonne University, followed by a Master’s in Computer Science at Sorbonne University Pierre and Marie Curie.