Maja Pantić facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Maja Pantić
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Pantic speaking at the World Economic Forum in 2016
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| Born | 13 April 1970 Belgrade
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| Alma mater | Delft University of Technology |
| Employer | Imperial College London University of Twente Samsung NatWest Group |
| Known for | Artificial Intelligence, Robotics |
Maja Pantić is a very important professor and expert in a field called Affective and Behavioural Computing. This means she teaches computers to understand how humans act and feel. She works at Imperial College London and is also the Chief AI Research Officer at NatWest Group. Before this, she worked at Facebook London and led the Samsung AI lab in Cambridge, UK.
Professor Pantić is known for her work in helping machines understand human actions. This includes teaching computers to recognize things like facial expressions, body movements, laughter, and even emotions.
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Education and Early Career
Maja Pantić was born in Belgrade, Serbia, on April 13, 1970. She first studied mathematics at the University of Belgrade. In 1992, she moved to the Netherlands to study informatics, which is about how information is processed, especially by computers.
She earned her first degree from Delft University in 1995. Then, she got her master's degree in Artificial Intelligence in 1997. In 2001, she completed her PhD at the Delft University of Technology. Her PhD research was about using smart computer methods to analyze facial expressions.
From 2001 to 2005, she was an associate professor at Delft. She was one of only two women professors among 300 in the Electronic and Electrical Engineering department. In 2002, she received a special fellowship and was named one of the top young researchers in the Netherlands. She also spent time as a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University in 2005.
Research in Artificial Intelligence
Professor Pantić is a leading expert in teaching machines to understand human nonverbal behavior. In 2006, she joined the Department of Computing at Imperial College London. She helped write a book called "Artificial intelligence for Human Computing" in 2007.
In 2008, she received a special grant for her research project called Machine Analysis of Human Naturalistic Behavior (MAHNOB). When her team started this project, the tools available could only understand very obvious or exaggerated human expressions. Her goal was to make machines understand more natural human actions. She became a full Professor at Imperial College in 2010.
Understanding Human Behavior with AI
Professor Pantić leads a group at Imperial College London called the Intelligent Behaviour Understanding Group (iBug). This group focuses on making computers smarter at understanding how people behave.
She is very interested in how artificial intelligence and machine learning can help in real life. For example, her work has been used to:
- Help older people: In 2017, she helped with a TV show that explored how AI could assist older people in living independently.
- Improve healthcare: AI can help doctors and nurses by understanding patient behaviors.
- Support people with autism: AI tools can help understand and respond to the unique ways people with autism communicate.
- Develop driverless cars: Her research helps self-driving cars understand human actions and reactions on the road.
Professor Pantić has written over 150 research papers. These papers cover topics like machines analyzing facial expressions, body gestures, and understanding emotions through sound and video. Her work has been cited by many other researchers, showing its importance in the field.
In 2020, Professor Pantić became the AI Scientific Research Lead at Facebook London. She left Facebook in December 2024 and joined NatWest Group in 2025 as their first Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer.
Awards and Public Speaking
Professor Pantić has received many important awards for her work. In 2011, she received the BCS Roger Needham Award. In 2012, she was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for her contributions to understanding human behavior and affective computing. She also became a Fellow of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) in 2016.
She is the Editor in Chief of the Image and Vision Computing Journal, a major publication in her field. She also advises companies like Real Eyes and IPSOS on science and strategy. In 2019, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, which is a very high honor for engineers in the UK.
Professor Pantić often talks about her research in the news and at big events. She is a strong supporter of women working in technology. In 2016, she appeared on the TV show "60 Minutes" to discuss artificial intelligence and how machines can measure emotions. That same year, the journal Nature chose her to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where she talked about "Machines That Can Read Human Emotions."
In 2017, she participated in a "Brainwaves" event by The Guardian, discussing how artificial intelligence will change the world. She has also shared her thoughts on how AI could make human abilities even better, perhaps even allowing for direct brain-to-brain communication in the future.
