Yukie Nagai, Ph.D.


Photo by Emiko Suzuki, LITALICO Inc.

Project Professor, International Research Center for Neurointelligence, The University of Tokyo
Email: nagai.yukie [AT] mail.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Dr. Yukie Nagai has been investigating underlying neural mechanisms for social cognitive development by means of computational approaches. She designs neural network models for robots to learn to acquire cognitive functions such as self-other cognition, estimation of others’ intention and emotion, altruism, and so on based on the theory of predictive coding. The simulator reproducing atypical perception in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which has been developed by her group, greatly impacts society as it enables people with and without ASD to better understand potential causes for social difficulties. She was elected to “World’s 50 Most Renowned Women in Robotics” in 2020 (Analytics Insight),”35 Women in Robotics Engineering and Science” in 2022 (IEEE IROS), and “Women In Tech 30” in 2024 (Forbes JAPAN). She serves as the principal investigator of JST CREST “Cognitive Mirroring” and CREST “Cognitive Feeling” since December 2016 and October 2021, respectively.

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Career

Career Experience

April 2019 – present Project Professor, International Research Center for Neurointelligence, The University of Tokyo
May 2017 – March 2019 Senior Researcher, Center for Information and Neural Networks, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
October 2009 – April 2017 Specially Appointed Associate Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University
February 2008 – September 2009 Postdoc Researcher, Graduate School of Research Institute for Cognition and Robotics, Bielefeld University
April 2006 – January 2008 Postdoc Researcher, Faculty of Technology, Bielefeld University
April 2004 – March 2006 Postdoc Researcher, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
November 2002 – March 2004 Research Associate, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University

Career Experience (Concurrent Positions)

April 2024 – March 2025 Project Professor, Center for Coproduction of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (IncluDE), The University of Tokyo [HP]
April 2024 – March 2026 Selection Committee, Tateisi Science and Technology Foundation [HP]
April 2024 – March 2026 Selection Committee, Nakayama Foundation for Human Science [HP]
October 2023 – September 2029 Associate Member, Science Council of Japan [HP]
April 2023 – March 2025 Visiting Professor, Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence, and Neuroscience (CHAIN), Hokkaido University [HP]
April 2021 – September 2021 Part-time Lecturer, Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence, and Neuroscience (CHAIN), Hokkaido University
October 2020 – March 2023 Project Professor, Institute for AI and Beyond, The University of Tokyo [HP]
April 2020 – March 2026 Research Area Advisors, Japan Science and Technology Agency (PRESTO “The fundamental technologies for Trustworthy AI”) [HP]
February 2020 – present Project Professor, Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Research Center, The University of Tokyo [HP]
October 2019 – July 2020 Fellow, Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld University
April 2018 – March 2019 Guest Associate Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University
January 2017 – December 2018 Visiting Professor, Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology, Bielefeld University
April 2015 – September 2015 Part-time Lecturer, Kyoto Institute of Technology
October 2009 – December 2016 Visiting Researcher, Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology, Bielefeld University
December 2003 – March 2004 Part-time Lecturer, Faculty of Technology, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Education

March 2004 Ph.D. in Engineering, Osaka University
March 1999 Master of Engineering, Aoyama Gakuin University
March 1997 Bachelor of Engineering, Aoyama Gakuin University

Awards

  • Women In Tech 30 (September 2024, Forbes JAPAN) [HP]
  • 35 Women in Robotics Engineering and Science (October 2022, IEEE IROS) [HP]
  • IEEE RAS Distinguished Lecturer (October 2022) [HP]
  • SmartBot Challenge Finalist of the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (September 2022)
  • World’s 50 Most Renowned Women in Robotics (June 2020, Analytics Insight) [HP]
  • JSAI Annual Conference Award of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence (November 2019) [HP]
  • 30 women in robotics you need to know about (October 2019, Robohub) [HP]
  • Best Student Paper Award of the 5th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (October 2017) [HP]
  • JSAI Annual Conference Award of the 30th Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence (May 2017)
  • Babybot Challenge 1st Place Award of the 5th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics (August 2015)
  • AI Award of the RoboCup Japan Open (May 2015)
  • Best Presentation Award of the 31st Annual Conference of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society (November 2014)
  • Presidential Award for Achievement of Osaka University (July 2014)
  • Best Paper Research Award of the RAAD Workshop: Robotics in Alpe-Adria-Danube Region (September 2013)
  • Presidential Award for Achievement of Osaka University (August 2013)
  • Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence SIG Research Award (June 2013)
  • Research Award of the RoboCup Japan Open (May 2013)
  • Best Paper Award Finalist of the 16th Annual RoboCup International Symposium (June 2012)
  • Best Poster Presentation Award of the 12th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Baby Science (June 2012)
  • AI Award of the RoboCup Japan Open (May 2012)
  • Best Paper Award Finalist of the 16th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (August 2008)
  • Best Presentation Award of the 22nd Annual Conference of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society (July 2005)

Scientific Activities

Organizing Committee of Conferences

  • Publicity Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impact (2025)
  • Program Chair of the 12th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (2024)
  • Publicity Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (2024)
  • Expo Co-Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (2024)
  • Bridge Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (2023)
  • General Chair of the International Symposium on Predictive Brain and Cognitive Feelings (2023)
  • General Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (2022)
  • Publicity Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (2021)
  • General Chair of the 8th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (2020)
  • Publicity Chair of the 10th Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics (2020)
  • General Chair of the 5th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (2017)
  • Publicity Chair of the 7th Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics (2017)
  • Advisory Board of the 4th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (2016)
  • General Chair of the 11th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (2016)
  • Workshops and Tutorials Chair of the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (2015)
  • Special Program Chair of the 23rd IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (2014)
  • Publication Chair of the 9th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (2014)
  • General Chair of the 3rd Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics (2013)
  • Program Chair of the 2nd Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics (2012)
  • Publicity Chair of the 1st Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics (2011)
  • Registration Chair of the 5th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (2010)
  • Communication Chair of the 4th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (2005)
  • General Chair of the 24th Congress of the Japanese Society of Baby Science (2024)
  • Vice Chair of Planning of the 40th Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan (2022)
  • General Chair of the 10th Annual Meeting of Japan Society for Developmental Neuroscience (2021)
  • Executive Committee of the 44th Annual Meeting of the Japan Neuroscience Society (2021)
  • General Chair of the 6th Annual Meeting of Japan Society for Developmental Neuroscience (2017)

Program Committee of Conferences

  • Program Committee of the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics (2011-now)
  • Program Committee of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (2011-now)
  • Program Committee of the IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (2016-now)
  • Program Committee of the IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (2012-2016)
  • Program Committee of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (2017)
  • Program Committee of the HRI Pioneers Workshop (2012-2016)
  • Program Committee of the RO-MAN2015-WS “Emotion for Social Robotics” (2015)
  • Program Committee of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (2015)
  • Program Committee of the 1st International Workshop on Emotion for Sociable Agents (2014)
  • Program Committee of the International Joint Workshop on Advanced Sensing / Visual Attention and Interaction ­(2013)
  • Program Committee of the IROS2012-WS “Human Behavior Understanding” (2012)
  • Program Committee of the WCCI2012 Special Session “Bio-Inspired Developmental Mechanisms” (2012)
  • Program Committee of the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (2006-2010)
  • Program Committee of the International Conference/Workshop on Epigenetic Robotics (2005-2010)
  • Program Committee of the HAI (Human-Agent Interaction) Symposium (2011-2012)
  • Program Committee of the International Workshop on Gaze Sensing and Interactions (2010)
  • Program Committee of the 3rd International Conference on Human System Interaction (2010)
  • Program Committee of the International Workshop on Robotics for Young Researchers (2009)
  • Program Committee of the 4th International Symposium on Imitation in Animals and Artifacts (2007)
  • Program Committee of the 2006 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference (2006)

Miscellaneous

  • Section Vice Chief Editor of Special Section “Cognitive Development and Symbol Emergence” in Advanced Robotics (2023-now)
  • Associate Editor of Section “Human-Robot Interaction” in Frontiers in Robotics and AI (2023-now)
  • Scientific and Industrial Advisory Board of Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI), Dresden University of Technology (2022-now)
  • Vice Chair of IEEE Cognitive and Developmental Systems Technical Committee (2021-2022)
  • Special Issues Editor for ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction (2017-now)
  • Vice Chair of IEEE Autonomous Mental Development Technical Committee (2012-2013)
  • IEEE CIS Technical Committee on Cognitive and Developmental Systems / Autonomous Mental Development (2011-now)
  • IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Cognitive Robotics (2014-now)
  • Steering Committee of Human-Robot Interaction (2014-now)
  • Steering Committee of Human-Agent Interaction (2016-2018)
  • Review Editor of Frontiers in Neurorobotics (2011-now)
  • Review Editor of Frontiers in Robotics and AI: Humanoid Robotics (2014-now)
  • Scientific Organizing Committee and Local Organizing Committee of ISSA Summer School (2017)
  • Scientific and Usage Advisory Board for EARS (Embodied Audition for RobotS) project (2014-now)
  • Organizer of IROS2023 Workshop on World Models and Predictive Coding in Cognitive Robotics (2023)
  • Organizer of ALIFE2023 Workshop on Cognitive feelings: Towards multi-disciplinary approaches for realizing artificial systems with cognitive capacities (2023)
  • Organizer of IROS2022 Women in Engineering Forum (2022)
  • Organizer of ICDL2022 Workshop on “Neurodiversity of cognitive feelings” (2022)
  • Organizer of Online Lecture Series “Developing Minds” (2021-now)
  • Organizer of ICDL2021 Workshop on “Spatio-temporal Aspects of Embodied Predictive Processing” (2021)
  • Organizer of ICDL-EpiRob2018 Workshop on “Understanding Developmental Disorders: From Computational Models to Assistive Technology” (2018)
  • Organizer of HAI2017 Workshop on “Representation learning for human and robot cognition” (2017)
  • Organizer of IROS2016 Workshop on “Bio-inspired Social Robot Learning in Home Scenarios” (2016)
  • Organizer of ICAR2015 Workshop on “Robot Learning: Bottom-up and top-down development of robot skills” (2015)
  • Organizer of HRI2015 Workshop on “Cognition: A Bridge between Robotics and Interaction” (2015)
  • Organizer of HRI2014 Workshop on “HRI: a bridge between Robotics and Neuroscience” (2014)
  • Organizer of IJCNN2014 Special Session “Cognition and Development” (2014)
  • Organizer of the ICDL-EpiRob2013 Special Session “Constructive Developmental Science: Two Endeavors toward Understanding Human Development” (2013)
  • Organizer of Humanoids2012 Workshop on “Can developmental robotics yield human-like cognitive abilities?” (2012)
  • Organizer of Workshop on Robot Anthropology (2012)
  • Organizer of IROS Workshop on “Cognitive Neuroscience Robotics” (2011-2013)
  • Organizer of Bielefeld-Osaka Workshop on Cognition and Robotics (2011)
  • Organizer of ICDL-EpiRob2011 Special Session “How can human scaffolding support robots learning?” (2011)
  • Organizer of HRI2011 Workshop on “The role of expectations in intuitive human-robot interaction” (2011)
  • Organizer of Bielefeld-Osaka Workshop (2010)
  • Representative of the Robotics Society of Japan (2021-2025)
  • Research Area Advisors of PRESTO “The fundamental technologies for Trustworthy AI” (2020-2022)
  • Trustee of Japan Society for Developmental Neuroscience (2017-now)
  • Committee of Mechanism of Brain and Mind (2017-now)
  • Organizer of the RSJ Developed Session “GCOE: Human-Friendly Robotics Based on Cognitive Neuroscience” (2010-2013)
  • Organizer of the RSJ Developed Session “Constructive Developmental Science: Revealing the Principles of Development from Fetal Period and Systematic Understanding of Developmental Disorders” (2013)
  • Organizer of the JSBS “New Direction of Constructive Developmental Science” (2013)

Research Funds

Principal Investigator

2024.7-2027.3 Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows
“Predictive coding in children’s context-based learning of homophones” (Research project number: 24KF0103)
Budget: JPY2,100,000
[KAKEN]
2021.10-2027.3 CREST
“Cognitive Feelings that Mediate Between Perception and Emotion” (Grant Number: JPMJCR21P4)
Budget: JPY123,000,000 (Total: JPY274,000,000)
[CREST]
2021.7-2026.3 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S)
“Understanding Cognitive Individuality Based on a Unified Brain Theory: Assisting People with Developmental Disorders” (Research project number: 21H05053)
Budget: JPY80,500,000 (Total: JPY145,500,000)
[KAKEN]
2021.4-2025.3 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
“Developmental Mechanism of Individuality in Self-Recognition: Systematic Understanding Based on Predictive Coding” (Research project number: 21H04884)
Budget: JPY21,700,000 (Total: JPY32,300,000)
[KAKEN]
2020.7-2023.3 Institute for AI and Beyond
“AI x Tojisha-Kenkyu: Computational Neuroscience for Systematic Understanding of Cognitive Individuality”
Budget: JPY54,400,000 (Total: JPY59,500,000)
[Beyond AI]
2016.12-2022.3 CREST
“Cognitive Mirroring: Assisting people with developmental disorders by means of self-understanding and social sharing of cognitive processes” (Grant Number: JPMJCR16E2)
Budget: JPY139,600,000 (Total: JPY300,000,000)
[CREST]
2013.4-2016.3 Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
“Development of theory of mind from self-other cognition facilitated by maturational constraints: A constructive approach” (Research project number: 25700027)
Budget: JPY18,800,000
[KAKEN]
2012.6-2017.3 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)
“Modeling social cognitive development and designing support systems for developmental disorders” (Research project number: 24119003)
Budget: JPY85,300,000 (Total: JPY191,700,000)
[KAKEN]
2012.4-2014.3 Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
“Emotion Recognition from Multimodal Information Based on Synesthesia” (Research project number: 24650083)
Budget: JPY3,000,000
[KAKEN]
2008-2011 Research Grant provided by Research Institute for Cognition and Robotics, Bielefeld University
“Designing Human-Robot Interaction based on / toward Understanding Parent-Infant Interaction”
Budget: EUR39,300
[CoR-Lab]

Co-Investigator

2022.9-2027.3 Moonshot Research and Development Program
“Development of “At-will Translator” connecting various minds based on brain and body functions” (Research project number: JPMJMS2292)
Budget: JPY89,000,000 (PI: Ken-ichiro Tsutsui)
[Moonshot]
2021.7-2026.3 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S)
“Dynamics of mother-infant interaction: Foundation of the emergent mechanism of diversity of human development” (Research project number: 21H04981)
Budget: TBD (PI: Masako Myowa)
[KAKEN]
2021.4-2025.3 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
“Dynamics of mother-infant interaction: Foundation of the emergent mechanism of diversity of human development” (Research project number: 21H04895)
Budget: JPY6,900,000 (PI: Masako Myowa)
[KAKEN]
2018.4-2022.3 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
“Corrective and assistive frameworks for visual perception using head-mounted display” (Research project number: 18H04116)
Budget: JPY7,400,000 (PI: Kiyoshi Kiyokawa)
[KAKEN]
2014.4-2022.3 COI STREAM (Satellite)
“Healthy development of children’s mind exploiting the characteristic of their brains: Paradigm shift from atypicality to speciality”
Budget: JPY12,308,000 (PI: Yoshio Minabe)
[HP]
2012.6-2017.3 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)
“Constructive Developmental Science: Revealing the Principles of Development from Fetal Period and Systematic Understanding of Developmental Disorders” (Research project number: 24119001)
Budget: JPY3,460,000 (PI: Yasuo Kuniyoshi)
[KAKEN]
2012.5-2017.3 Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research
“Constructive Developmental Science Based on Understanding the Process from Neuro-Dynamics to Social Interaction” (Research project number: 24000012)
Budget: JPY8,500,000 (PI: Minoru Asada)
[KAKEN]
2012.4-2017.3 Core-to-Core Program
“Competitive Partnership on Cognitive Neuroscience Robotics”
Budget: JPY5,000,000 (PI: Minoru Asada)
[HP]
2011.4-2016.3 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
“The brain mechanisms of working memory under the unconscious processes: comparison between conscious and anesthetized conscious condition” (Research project number: 23240036)
Budget: JPY1,200,000 (PI: Mariko Osaka)
[KAKEN]
2010.4-2015.3 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S)
“Understanding and construction of developmental process from body-babbling to sociality acquisition” (Research project number: 22220002)
Budget: JPY16,450,000 (PI: Minoru Asada)
[KAKEN]
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