Maria Julia Martins Vidal

Maria Julia Vidal

Junior Undergraduate Researcher I

mariajulia57@usf.edu

9/2024→


Hello! I am Maria Julia Vidal. I am a Sophomore in Computer Engineering at the University of South Florida, and I am incredibly excited about the opportunity to contribute to the RARE Lab.

I’m passionate about human-robot interaction, especially the cognitive framework of robots—their mental models, memory systems, and how we draw from human cognition to build these systems. The idea of creating systems inspired by human cognition drives my curiosity, and I’m eager to explore and contribute to advancements in this field, where robotics, AI, and neuroscience come together.

— 9/5/2024


Publications

Hong Wang, Maria Julia Vidal, Zhao Han

Exploring Familiar Design Strategies to Explain Robot Vision Capabilities

Explainability for Human-Robot Collaboration: Real-World Concerns Workshop at HRI 2025

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2025

News

HRI 2025 X-HRI Workshop Acceptance

RARE Lab’s robot vision capability work leveraging familiar experiences was accepted to the “Explainability for Human-Robot Collaboration: Real-World Concerns” Workshop (X-HRI) at HRI 2025! Congrats to Hong Wang and Maria Julia Vidal!

RARE Lab at USF ACM AI Convention

RARE Lab participated in the USF ACM AI Convention outreach event! Minh Ha and Maria showcased our research on indicating a robot’s vision capability with a Pepper robot and AR headset.

UR2PhD Spring 2025

Congrats to 12 RARE Lab undergraduate students accepted to the CRA Undergraduate Research to PhD (“UR2PhD”) program: Tammy, Jonathan, Chi, Vlad, Maria, Tony, Khoa, Suyog, Bao, Minh Ha, Thom, and Khang!

Also congrats to two graduate students Hong and Ridhima accepted to Graduate Student Mentorship Training.

DevFest Tampa Bay 2024

RARE Lab participated in the DevFest Tampa Bay outreach event! Hong and Maria showcased our research on indicating a robot’s vision capability with a Pepper robot and AR headset.

Undergraduate students Maria Julia Vidal (9/4) and Felix Mendez (9/17) have joined the RARE lab. Welcome!