Dr. Veronica Ahumada is the director of the Technology and Social Connectedness lab at UC Davis. She is an assistant professor in the School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, with a cross appointment at UC Davis' MIND Institute. Ahumada’s work is focused on the use of interactive technologies (e.g., telehealth, telerobots) for improved health, behavioral, and developmental outcomes.
Ahumada is the principal investigator of a $1 million dollar National Science Foundation, National Robotics Initiative grant, Robot-Mediated Learning: Exploring School-Deployed Collaborative Robots for Homebound Children, to create better telerobots for children who are restricted to their homes due to medical conditions or disabilities. Ahumada is also co-PI on a $1.2 million University of California, Multicampus Research Projects and Initiatives project, Robot-facilitated Health Equity in Post-Pandemic California and Beyond, to create telemanipulation robots for healthcare worker safety and social inclusion of individuals who are at high risk of infection.
In the past, Ahumada has lead or co-lead grants from the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, Health Resources and Services Administration, United States Department of Agriculture (telehealth), Children’s Hospital of Orange County, and the Bainum Family Foundation among others.