Our Team
Meet the world-class researchers and practitioners behind Proaxis AI. Our team brings together leading experts from University College Dublin's acclaimed HCI research community, combining decades of academic research with practical industry experience in conversational AI.
Justin Edwards, PhD
• Position: Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oulu
• Expertise: Proactive speech agents
• Recent Research: Human-AI collaboration: Designing artificial agents to facilitate socially shared regulation among learners
Benjamin Cowan, PhD
• Position: Professor at UCD’s School of Information & Communication Studies
• Expertise: Psychological methods in HCI for conversational AI
• Recent Research: What Makes a Good Conversation? Challenges in Designing Truly Conversational Agents
Leigh Clark, PhD
• Position: Senior UX Researcher at Bold Insight
• Expertise: Speech accessibility and inclusive conversational design
• Recent Research: Speech Diversity and Speech Interfaces: Considering an Inclusive Future Through Stammering
Philip Doyle, PhD
• Position: Research Scientist at IBM Software
• Expertise: Partner models in human-AI dialogue
• Recent Research: Cross-cultural Validation of Partner Models for Voice User Interfaces
Daniel Rough, PhD
• Position: Lecturer at University of Dundee
• Expertise: Conversational AI design tools
• Recent Research: Creation through Conversation-A Provocation
Diego Garaialde, PhD
• Position: Assistant Professor at University College Dublin
• Expertise: Multimodal conversational interactions
• Recent Research: RoomReader: A Multimodal Corpus of Online Multiparty Conversational Interactions
Orla Cooney
• Position: Doctoral Researcher at University College Dublin
• Expertise: Mental health applications of conversational AI
• Recent Research: Using Speech Agents for Mood Logging within Blended Mental Healthcare: Mental Healthcare Practitioners’ Perspectives
Paola Peña
• Position: Doctoral Researcher at University College Dublin
• Expertise: Cross-cultural conversational AI
• Recent Research: Beyond the Illusion: LLMs and the Case for Pragmatic Cues in Conversation
Our Expertise
Our team represents one of the world’s leading concentrations of expertise in conversational AI and human-computer interaction. Based at University College Dublin, home to the HCI@UCD group and the SFI ADAPT Centre, our researchers and practitioners combine:
- Conversational AI Research: Advanced dialogue systems, natural language understanding, and speech technology
- Human-Computer Interaction: User experience design, interaction design, and usability engineering
- Cross-Cultural Communication: Multilingual AI systems and culturally-aware interaction design
- Psychological Foundations: Understanding human cognition, social dynamics, and communication patterns
- Industry Applications: Translating research into scalable, production-ready AI solutions
Join Our Team
Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. We’re always looking for talented researchers, developers, and designers who share our passion for advancing conversational AI.