MissMaria Raposo de Lima

Maria R. Lima, PhD (2024) is a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London and the UK Dementia Research Institute Care Research & Technology Centre. Her research focuses on conversational AI and socially assistive robots to support well-being, enhance home safety, and monitor cognitive health among older adults and people affected by dementia. She also investigates speech and language as biomarkers for automated screening of cognitive impairment.

Maria was awarded the Dr Ashraf Ben El-Shanawany Memorial Prize for outstanding achievement in PhD research, innovation and public engagement. During her PhD, Maria developed an interpretable machine learning approach to detect early signs of dementia from spoken language and predict the severity of cognitive impairment; analysed behaviour in smart homes using conversational AI for safety risk detection and well-being monitoring in dementia care; designed and validated an LLM-powered socially assistive robot for in-residence cognitive support; and explored cross-cultural acceptance and feasibility of home use through human-robot interaction studies conducted in the UK, India, and the USA. She was a visiting researcher at the University of Southern California (USC) Computer Science Interaction Lab.

Maria holds an MSc in Advanced Mechanical Engineering with Distinction from Imperial College London. Before joining Imperial, she completed a BSc in Mechanical Engineering with First-Class Honours at the University of Lisbon (IST).

Maria is passionate about fostering diversity and inclusion in STEM, particularly women in engineering, mentoring and hosting young students. She also engages with the elderly community, introducing science through interactive workshops (Age UK, Open Age).