Hi! I’m Sakina Rao, a Ph.D. student in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Florida, advised by Professor Zhao Han in the RARE Lab. I received my M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota Duluth with a thesis on “Exploring the Effects of Breathing Exercises with a Humanoid Robot on Cognitive Functioning“. I hold a B.Tech. degree in Computer Engineering from Aligarh Muslim University in India. Before starting my Ph.D., I worked as an AI Engineer at Skyworks Solutions developing LLM-based applications and AI agents.
My research interests include human-robot interaction, human-centered AI, and socially assistive robotics, with a particular interest in developing adaptive robotic systems that can understand human behavior and physiological states and respond to individual needs.
— 8/7/2026
