Hala was doing a great job. Her task was to interact with visitors to Carnegie Mellon's Qatar campus, switching between English and Arabic and acting as an intermediary between the different cultures. But a couple of computer science students saw some room for improving Hala, a three-dimensional animated robot-perhaps more natural facial expression and better lip movements in sync with Arabic. Sophomores Amna Al Zeyara and Nawal Behih got to work. Both students were recognized at the 2011 Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum for their innovative scientific work on enhancing facial expressions in bilingual humanoid robots. They received the Best Student Research Award in Computing and a 20,000 Qatari Riyal grant (worth more than $5,000).
-Elizabeth May
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