Mayada is a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Behavioral Institutional Design (C-BID) and the manager of the Social Science Experimental Lab at New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE. Her research utilizes concepts from social science and computer science, alongside biometric technology, to extensively study human-machine and human-robot interactions. She received her PhD degree in Interdisciplinary Engineering (majored in Human-Robot Interaction) from Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, established in collaboration with MIT, in 2017.

Mayada’s research is focused on investigating what constitute a successful relationship between humans and machines, and how to maintain successful relationships. She is interested in investigating social cues and principles that could aid machines in eliciting cooperative behavior from their human associates under various scenarios, including those with conflicting interests (i.e., social dilemmas). She also works on several research projects in which she designs and conducts experiments to investigate how verbal and nonverbal social cues impact human-machine relationship and cooperation in repeated interactions.