Rate My Professor Robin Welsch

Robin Welsch is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Psychology in the Department of Computer Science at Aalto University. He earned his PhD from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Prior to his current role, Welsch was a postdoctoral researcher at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München from 2020 to 2022, working at the intersection of human-computer interaction and experimental psychology.

His research focuses on human-AI interaction, metacognition in human-AI contexts, creativity judgments of text-to-image generative AI, agent-human collaboration, social virtual reality, proxemics, personal space, and placebo effects of AI in human-computer interaction. Notable publications include "The AI ghostwriter effect: When users do not perceive ownership of AI-generated text but self-declare as authors" (2024), "The shape of personal space" (2019), "The placebo effect of artificial intelligence in human–computer interaction" (2023), "Simulating the human in HCD with ChatGPT: Redesigning interaction design with AI" (2024), "Proxemics for human-agent interaction in augmented reality" (2022), "AI makes you smarter but none the wiser: The disconnect between performance and metacognition" (2026), and "The AI Memory Gap: Users Misremember What They Created With AI or Without" (2026). Welsch has received an Honorable Mention at CHI PLAY 2023 and the Augmented Performer grant in December 2025. As principal investigator, he leads major projects including AmplifAI under EU Horizon Europe ERC (2026–2031), MET-AI funded by RCF Academy Research Fellow (2025–2029), and XTREME with multiple EU Framework programmes (2024–2026). His research has attracted press coverage on topics such as AI-induced cognitive overestimation and user trust in ChatGPT. Welsch teaches foundations of HCI, cognitive psychology, and human-centered research methods, and launched the Mind & Machine Seminar Series at Aalto University in September 2025.