Dr Merihan Alhafnawi is a Lecturer of Robotics in the Department of Engineering, King’s College London. Her research spans the design, building, and algorithmic development of expressive robot swarms that interact with groups of people in everyday settings, using the collective behaviour of many robots to enrich social, cognitive, and spatial experiences.

Merihan received her MSc Robotics and PhD in Robotics and Autonomous Systems from the University of Bristol, where she designed and built Tiles, a swarm of 100 interactive touchscreen-on-wheels robots that was used by more than 500 people in public settings, including a shopping mall and a museum. She then moved to Princeton University as a postdoctoral researcher, where she designed and built the Swarm Garden, an interactive architectural swarm that provides autonomous shading in human spaces while enhancing their aesthetics and encouraging creative expression.

Merihan has received several awards and recognitions, including being selected as a Microsoft Future Leader in Robotics and AI by the Maryland Robotics Center and as a Rising Star by Princeton Robotics. She has also received Best Poster, Best Video, and Best Presentation awards at various ICRA and IROS workshops.

Research Interests

• Swarm Robotics
• Human-Robot Interaction
• Interactive hardware design

Personal Website