Ubbo VisserComputer Science · University of Miami

Publications by year

2026

  • “Beyond the Benchmark: Why Physical AI and Robotics are the Next Frontier.” Interview with Ubbo Visser. KI - Künstliche Intelligenz, accepted for publication, 2026.
  • Julio Ojalvo, Sarvesh Saini, Jonathan Elliott Katz, and Ubbo Visser, “Ready to Fire: A Novel DT–Enhanced Vision-Based Navigation Framework for Autonomous Robotic-Assisted Ureteroscopy.” IROS 2026 workshop From Generative AI to Digital Twins: Perception, Simulation, and Learning for Surgical Robotics, poster presentation, September 2026. Best Poster Nomination (IROS 2026 RAISE Workshop).
  • Sarah Schürer, Sarvesh Saini, Julio Ojalvo, Jonathan Elliott Katz, and Ubbo Visser, “Human Interface Device-Driven Teleoperation of a Robot-Assisted Ureteroscopy Platform and its Digital Twin for Laser Lithotripsy.” IROS 2026 workshop From Generative AI to Digital Twins: Perception, Simulation, and Learning for Surgical Robotics, poster presentation, September 2026.
  • K. Pasternak, C. Foronda, M. Cardenas, and U. Visser, “Pediatric Asthma Education Through Caregiver-Informed Social Robotics,” in 2026 IEEE 35th International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), pp. 117–123, IEEE, 2026. doi: 10.1109/RO-MAN72286.2026.11714986.
  • Jonathan Katz, Kimberly Cortes Perez, Joao G. Porto, Luca Civetta, Archan Khandekar, Robert Marcovich, Hemendra N Shah, Sarvesh Saini, Julio Ojalvo, and Ubbo Visser, Validated Custom Pipeline for Three-Dimensional Kidney Stone Renderings to Create an Open Access Repository, Journal of Urology, vol. 215, no. 5S, p. e209, May 2026.
  • Juanita Velasquez Ospina, Ashley Gordon, Julio Ojalvo, Sarvesh Saini, Alessandrino Francesco, Archan Khandekar, Robert Marcovich, Hemendra N Shah, Ubbo Visser, and Jonathan Katz, “Modeling the Effects of Gravity and Patient Positioning on Stone Migration During Ureteroscopy with Laser Lithotripsy in a Physics-Based Simulator,” Urologia Internationalis, published online June 12, 2026. doi: 10.1159/000552687.
  • N. Korkmaz, J. A. Mondshine, S. Saini, J. Ojalvo, A. Khandekar, R. Marcovich, H. N. Shah, U. Visser, and J. E. Katz, “Digital Simulation of Kidney Collecting System and Stone: Geometry and Texture Mapping,” Translational Andrology and Urology, vol. 15, no. 6, article 195, June 2026. doi: 10.21037/tau-2026-1-0157.
  • Katarzyna Pasternak, Cynthia Foronda, Monica Cardenas, and Ubbo Visser, “Community-Embedded Social Robot for Asthma Education,” in Robots for Communities Workshop at HRI 2026, Edinburgh, Scotland, March 16, 2026.
  • J. Ojalvo, C. Duarte, S. Luo, K. Pasternak, and U. Visser, “YCB@Home: A Large Scale Synthetic Object Detection Dataset for RoboCup @Home League,” in RoboCup 2025: Robot Soccer World Cup XXVII (Hanna, Josiah et al., ed.), Springer Nature Switzerland, 2026. Best Paper Nomination.
  • K. Pasternak, C. Foronda, C. Downs, and U. Visser, “Social Robots for Pediatric Asthma Education: A Pilot Study,” in Social Robotics + AI (M. Staffa, J.-J. Cabibihan, B. Siciliano, S. S. Ge, L. Bodenhagen, A. Tapus, S. Rossi, F. Cavallo, L. Fiorini, M. Matarese, and H. He, eds.), (Singapore), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 16131, pp. 476–481, Springer Nature Singapore, 2026. doi: 10.1007/978-981-95-2379-5_35.
  • S. Saini, J. Ojalvo, J. E. Katz, and U. Visser, “Autonomous Robot-Assisted Ureteroscopy (ARA-URS) for the Treatment of Kidney Stones,” in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), IEEE, 2026. IEEE Xplore.
  • Christine Lisetti, Stephanie Lunn, Ubbo Visser, James Hodgins, Diana Marin, Jaynish Hazari, and Maya Boustani, “Toward a Science of the Art in Designing 3D Empathic Virtual Health Agents Acting As Counselors,” ACM Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 1–63, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1145/3815541.

2025

  • C. L. Foronda, T. Susas, N. C. Cubillos, K. Pasternak, C. A. Downs, and U. Visser, “Preparing nurses for the technological future: Robotic integration in nursing education,” Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 2025. doi: 10.1016/j.teln.2025.11.034.
  • C. Duarte, S. Luo, J. Ojalvo, K. Pasternak, and U. Visser, “A Quantitative Comparison of Vision Performance for the HSR: Gazebo vs. Isaac Simulator,” in RoboCup 2024: Robot World Cup XXVII (E. Barros, J. P. Hanna, H. Okada, and E. Torta, eds.), (Cham), pp. 339–350, Springer Nature Switzerland, 2025. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-85859-8_29.
  • S. Saini, J. Ojalvo, J. E. Katz, and U. Visser, “Robotic-Assisted Ureteroscopy (RA-URS) and its Digital Twin (DT): Design, Trials, and Validation,” in IROS Workshop on Embodied Intelligence for Medical Robotics, 2025.
  • A. Dizet, U. Visser, and C. Buche, “A Mental Simulation Based Decision-Making Algorithm for the RoboCupSoccer Goalkeeper,” in RoboCup 2024: Robot World Cup XXVII (E. Barros, J. P. Hanna, H. Okada, and E. Torta, eds.), (Cham), pp. 127–139, Springer Nature Switzerland, 2025. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-85859-8_11.

2024

  • J. Molto, J. Fields, U. Visser, and C. L. Lisetti, “An LLM-powered Socially Interactive Agent with Adaptive Facial Expressions for Conversing about Health,” in Companion Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Multimodal Interaction, ICMI Companion 2024, San Jose, Costa Rica, November 4-8, 2024 (H. Hung, C. Oertel, M. Soleymani, T. Chaspari, H. Dibeklioglu, J. Shukla, and K. P. Truong, eds.), pp. 75–77, ACM, 2024.
  • K. Fouad, R. Vavrek, M. Surles-Zeigler, J. Huie, H. Radabaugh, G. Gurkoff, U. Visser, J. Grethe, M. Martone, A. Ferguson, J. Gensel, and A. Torres-Espin, “A practical guide to data management and sharing for biomedical laboratory researchers,” Experimental Neurology, p. 114815, 2024. (Impact factor 5.3).
  • C. Buche, A. Rossi, M. Simões, and U. Visser, eds., RoboCup 2023: Robot World Cup XXVI [Bordeaux, France, 4-10 July, 2023], vol. 14140 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2024.
  • A. Sheoran, K. A. Fond, L. Maliga, J. R. Huie, R. Vavrek, P. Fairbairn, V. Lemmon, J. L. Bixby, U. Visser, J. C. Gensel, K. Fouad, A. R. Ferguson, J. S. Grethe, A. Bandrowski, M. E. Martone, and  A. Torres-Espin, “Data reporting quality and semantic interoperability increase with community-based data elements (CoDEs). Analysis of the Open Data Commons for Spinal Cord Injury (ODC-SCI),” in National Neurotrauma Society (NNS), pp. 1–28, Zenodo, 2024. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11519002.
  • K. Pasternak, C. Duarte, J. Ojalvo, U. Visser, and C. Lisetti, “3D Multimodal Socially Interactive Robot with ChatGPT Active Listening,” in RoboCup 2023: Robot Soccer World Cup XXV (Buche, Cédric et al., ed.), (Cham), pp. 42–53, Springer Nature Switzerland, 2024.

2023

  • R. E. C. Cid, D. D. Zheng, M. Kitaigorodsky, M. Adjouadi, E. A. Crocco, M. Georgiou, C. Gonzalez- Jimenez, A. Ortega, M. Goryawala, N. Nagornaya, P. Pattany, E. Sfakianaki, U. Visser, and D. A. Loewenstein, “A Novel Computerized Cognitive Test for the Detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Its Association with Neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s Disease Prone Brain Regions,” Advances in Alzheimer’s Disease, vol. 12, pp. 38–54, September 2023. doi:10.4236/aad.2023.123004 
  • J. E. Katz, L. Abdelrahman, S. Nackeeran, U. Ezeh, U. Visser, and L. A. Deane, “The development of an artificial intelligence model based solely on computer tomography successfully predicts which patients will pass obstructing ureteral calculi,” Urology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2023.01.025, 2023.

2022

  • R. Dass, N. Petersen, M. Omori, T. R. Lave, and U. Visser, “Detecting Racial Inequalities in Criminal Justice: Towards An Equitable Deep Learning Approach for Generating and Interpreting Racial Categories using Mugshots,” AI & Society, 2022, DOI: 10.1007/s00146-022-01440-z, 22 pages. 

2021

  • K. Pasternak, Z. Wu, U. Visser, and C. Lisetti, “Towards building rapport with a Human Support Robot,” in RoboCup 2021: Robot Soccer World Cup XXV (O. Obst et al., ed.), pages 214–225, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2021.

  • K. Pasternak, Z. Wu, U. Visser, and C. Lisetti, “Let’s be friends! A rapport-building 3D embodied conversational agent for the Human Support Robot,” in nHRI, Workshop on non-verbal communication at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (J. H. et al., ed.), p. 5, ACM/IEEE, arxiv, 2021. https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.04498v1.

  • D. Verdear and U. Visser, “Ontology-based Knowledge System and Team Verification Tool for Competitive Pokemon,” in Proceedings of the 34th International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference (FLAIRS) (F. Keshtkar and E. Bell, eds.), vol. 34, p. 6 pages, AAAI press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.32473/flairs.v34i1.128544.

  • M. Boustani, M. Polceanu, S. Lunn, U. Visser, and C. Lisetti, “Development, feasibility, acceptability, and utility of an expressive speech-enalbed digital health agent to deliver online brief motivational interviewing for alcohol misuse,” Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 23(9), 15 pages, August 2021. doi: 10.2196/25837

  • R.E. Curiel-Cid, E.A. Crocco, M. Kitaigorodsky, L. Beaufils, P.A. Peña, G. Grau, U. Visser, and D.A. Loewenstein, “A Novel Computerized Cognitive Stress Test to Detect Mild Cognitive Impairment,” The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease - JPAD, vol. 8, pp. 135–141, February 2021.

2020

  • Visser, U. Our software production is still some sort of hacking (Interview with W. Bibel). Künstliche Intelligenz34(4), pages 563–569, (2020), 7, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13218-020-00676-5.

  • Rahul Dass, Nick Petersen, Ubbo Visser, and Marisa Omori (2020): It’s Not Just Black and White: Classifying Defendant Mugshots Based on the Multidimensionality of Race and Ethnicity. In L. Paull and M. Brown (ed.), Proceedings of the 17th Computer and Robot Vision, (pp 238-245), IEEE Xplore,  DOI 10.1109/CRV50864.2020.00039. 

  • Pedro Peña and Ubbo Visser (2020). ITP: Inverse Trajectory Planning for Human Pose Prediction. Künstliche Intelligenz, 34(2), pages 209-225, June 2020, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13218-020-00658-7.

  • Pedro Peña and Ubbo Visser (2020). Adaptive Walk-Kick on a Bipedal Robot, in RoboCup 2019: Robot Soccer World Cup XXIII (S. C. et al., ed.), vol. 11531, pp. 213–226, Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2020. Best Paper Nomination.

  • C. Branning, G. Sutcliffe, T. Beavers, U. Visser, and R. Schutt, “Statistical Analysis of Sailing Forecasts,” in INNOV’SAIL, Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Innovation in High Performance Sailing Yachts and Sail-Assisted Ship Propulsion (L. Larsson, G. Allwright, P. Bot, R. Flay, and I. Viola, eds.), vol. 5, pp. 99–106, University of Gothenburg, University of Gothenburg, June 2020. https://tinyurl.com/y8zhyot3.

2019

2018

2017

  • P. Peña, J. Masterjohn, and U. Visser, “Optimizing Kick Trajectory: A Comparative Study,” in GCAI 2017. 3rd Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence (C. B. et al., ed.), vol. 50, pp. 239–245, EPiC Series in Computing, 2017.

  • Yu Lin, Saurabh Mehta, Hande Kucuk McGinty, John Paul Turner, Dusica Vidovic, Michele Forlin, Amar Koleti, Dac-Trung Nguyen, Lars Juhl Jensen, Rajarshi Guha, Stephen L. Mathias, Oleg Ursu, Vasileios Stathias, Jianbin Duan, Nooshin Nabizadeh, Caty Chung, Christopher Mader, Ubbo Visser, Jeremy J. Yang, Cristian G. Bologa, Tudor Oprea, and Stephan C. Schurer, “Drug Target Ontology to Classify and Integrate Drug Discovery Data”. Journal of Biomedical Semantics 8:50, 1-16. (doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/117564)

  • Ubbo Visser, “Quo vadis AI,” Künstliche Intelligenz, 31(1):99-105. (doi: 10.1007/s13218-017-0485-9)

  • Kyle Poore, Joseph Masterjohn, Andreas Seekircher, Pedro Peña, and Ubbo Visser. DTMF Audio Communication for NAO Robots. In I. Russell and W. Eberle, editors, Proceedings of the Thirtieth International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference, pp. 448–453, AAAI Press, 2017.

  • Andreas Seekircher and Ubbo Visser. “A Closed-Loop Gait for Humanoid Robots Combining LIPM with Parameter Optimization.” In S. Behnke, R. Sheh, S. Sarıel, and D. D. Lee, editors, RoboCup 2016: Robot World Cup XX, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 9776, pp. 71–83, Springer, Cham, 2017. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-68792-6_6.

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

  • Heiner Stuckenschmidt and Ubbo Visser. Semantic translation based on approximate re-classification. In Workshop on Semantic Approximation, Granularity and Vagueness; International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, pages 110–118, Breckenridge, 2000.
  • Heiner Stuckenschmidt, Holger Wache, Thomas Vögele, and Ubbo Visser. Enabling technologies for interoperability. In Ubbo Visser and Hardy Pundt, editors, Workshop on Information Sharing: Methods and Applications at the 14th International Symposium of Computer Science for Environmental Protection, volume 20, pages 35–46, Bonn, 2000. TZI.
  • Thomas Vögele, Heiner Stuckenschmidt, and Ubbo Visser. BUISY- using brokered data-objects for environmental information systems. In Klaus Tochtermann and Wolf-Fritz Rieckert, editors, Hypermedia im Umweltschutz, volume 24 of Umwelt-Informatik aktuell, pages 68–73, Ulm, Germany, 2000. Metropolis-Verlag.
  • Thomas Vögele, Heiner Stuckenschmidt, and Ubbo Visser. Towards intelligent brokering of geoinformation. In Urban and Rural Data Management (UDMS), pages 135–142, Delft, 2000. Electronic.

1999

1998

1997

  • Ubbo Visser and Karsten Hell. PRO_PLANT - Information System - Canola Pests. In B. Verma and X. Yao, editors, ICCIMA ’97, Proceedings of the International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Multimedia Applications, pages 59–64, Gold Coast, Australia, 1997. Watson Ferguson & Company (Griffith University).

1996

1995

1994

1993

1991

  • Ubbo Visser and Ulrich Streit. Möglichkeiten zur Einbindung neuronaler Netze am Beispiel des Beratungssystems PRO_PLANT. In R. Ackmann, B. Petersen, and H. Geidel, editors, Referate der 13. GIL-Jahrestagung, volume 3 of Berichte der Gesellschaft für Informatik in der Land-, Forst- und Ernährungswirtschaft, pages 32–36, Giessen, 1991. Ulmer Verlag.