I am no longer at Georgia Tech. See my updated website.

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Robotics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where I am advised by Dr. Andrea Lockerd Thomaz of the Socially Intelligent Machines Lab. I graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008 with a major in Computer Science and a minor in Music.

I work in the field of human-robot interaction with a focus on human-robot turn-taking. My research interests include situated dialogue, interactive learning, and multimodal action and communication. 

Here is a link to my CV.

Journal Articles

C. Chao and A.L. Thomaz. Controlling social dynamics with a parametrized model of floor regulation. Journal of Human-Robot Interaction, 2(1), 4-29, 2013. [PDF]

C. Chao and A.L. Thomaz. Timing in multimodal turn-taking interactions: Control and analysis using timed Petri nets. Journal of Human-Robot Interaction, 1(1), 4-25, 2012. [PDF]

J. Lee, C. Chao, A.F. Bobick, and A.L. Thomaz. Multi-cue contingency detection. International Journal of Social Robotics. 4(2), 147–161, 2012.

A.L. Thomaz and C. Chao. Turn-taking based on information flow for fluent human-robot interaction. AI Magazine: Special Issue on Dialog with Robots, 32(4), 2011. [PDF]

M. Cakmak, C. Chao, and A.L. Thomaz. Designing interactions for robot active learners. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, 2(2), 108–118, 2010. [PDF]

Conference Publications

C. Chao, M. Cakmak, and A.L. Thomaz. Towards grounding concepts for transfer in goal learning from demonstration. In Proceedings of the Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics (ICDL-EpiRob), 2011. [PDF]

C. Chao, J. Lee, M. Begum, and A.L. Thomaz. Simon plays Simon says: The timing of turn-taking in an imitation game. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), 235–240, 2011. [PDF]

C. Chao and A.L. Thomaz. Turn-taking for human-robot interaction. In Proceedings of the AAAI Symposium on Dialog with Robots, 2010. [PDF] [poster]

C. Chao, M. Cakmak, and A.L. Thomaz. Transparent active learning for robots. In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), 317–324, 2010. [PDF]

C. Breazeal, M. Berlin, J. Gray, and C. Chao. Teaching robots via natural nonverbal cues. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER), 54, 211–220, 2009.

M. Berlin, C. Breazeal, and C. Chao. Spatial scaffolding cues for interactive robot learning. In Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 1229–1235, 2008. [PDF]