PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Richard Savery

Richard Savery is a researcher in artificial intelligence and robotics who uses music to study how people and machines work together, building robots that drum and rap. Trained in jazz performance at the University of Sydney, he completed a Master of Fine Arts at the University of California, Irvine, and a PhD in music technology at Georgia Tech in 2021. At Georgia Tech, he was primary author with his advisor Gil Weinberg of a 2019 National Science Foundation grant on robot trust and first author of the 2020 paper "Shimon the Rapper". From 2022 to 2024, he was a Research Fellow at Macquarie University, where he built the rapping and drumming robot Keirzo, and in 2025 he worked at Jen Music and was named a NSW Young Tall Poppy award winner. He is an ARC DECRA Fellow at the University of Canberra, where he is developing an ensemble of Keirzo-like robots to study long-term and group interaction.

Works
59
Citations
277
h-index
9

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2019

    An NSF grant on robot trust

    After a Bachelor of Music in jazz performance at the University of Sydney, a Master of Fine Arts in Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology at the University of California, Irvine, and freelance work as a music technologist, composer and performer, he is a PhD student at Georgia Tech. In 2019, he is primary author with his advisor Gil Weinberg of the National Science Foundation grant "Creating Trust Between Groups of Humans and Robots Using a Novel Music Driven Robotic Emotion Generator", worth $803,892 and starting in November 2019.

  2. 2020

    Shimon the Rapper

    In 2020, he is first author, with Lisa Zahray and Gil Weinberg, of "Shimon the Rapper", presented at the International Conference on Computational Creativity. The system takes vocal input from a human rapper, analyzes its meaning, and has the robot Shimon rap a reply over a musical groove, using a deep learning pipeline based on phoneme embeddings.

  3. 2021

    A PhD on emotional musical prosody

    He completes a PhD in music technology, with a minor in human-computer interaction, at Georgia Tech in 2021, working in the Robotic Musicianship Lab with Gil Weinberg. His dissertation is Machine Learning Driven Emotional Musical Prosody for Human-Robot Interaction. A 2021 paper in Frontiers in Robotics and AI, written with Lisa Zahray and Gil Weinberg, tests an emotional musical prosody audio system on the robot Shimon in a study with 100 participants.

  4. 2022–2024

    Research Fellow at Macquarie University

    In January 2022, he starts as a Research Fellow at Macquarie University to develop new robotic musicians. His main project is Keirzo, a robot built in Sydney that raps original lyrics in real time and drums along with human musicians. The 21-kilogram semi-humanoid robot is mostly 3D-printed and is his first solo creation.

  5. December 2023

    The book Sound and Robotics

    In December 2023, his edited book Sound and Robotics, subtitled Sound in Human-Robot Interaction, is published. It brings together research on sound in human-robot interaction, covering spoken language, non-verbal audio communication, sonification and robotic musicianship.

  6. 2025

    Jen Music and a Routledge volume

    In 2025, he works at Jen Music, developing high-fidelity and ethically trained AI music systems. Routledge publishes Cultural Technologies: Robots and Artificial Intelligence in the Performing Arts in 2025, which he co-edits with Yuji Sone.

  7. 2025

    A NSW Young Tall Poppy award

    In 2025, he is named a NSW Young Tall Poppy award winner. His research builds robot musicians that rap, drum and play melodies, from concert halls with professional performers to museums with children.

  8. As of October 2026

    DECRA Fellow at Canberra

    He is an ARC DECRA Fellow (2026–2028) at the University of Canberra and a lecturer in computational art, music and design in its Centre for Creative & Cultural Research, researching robots and AI designed for long-term use and group interaction. He is developing an ensemble of four Keirzo-like robots for the project Robot Musicians: Long-term Use, Group Dynamics, and Artificial Intelligence.

Career

  1. Since 2026University of CanberraARC DECRA Fellow
  2. 2022–2024Macquarie UniversityResearch Fellow

Education

  1. 2021Georgia Institute of TechnologyPhD in music technology
  2. University of SydneyBachelor of Music in jazz performance
  3. University of California, IrvineMaster of Fine Arts in Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Establishing Human-Robot Trust through Music-Driven Robotic Emotion Prosody and Gesture2019 · IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) · 45 citationsWith Gil Weinberg
  2. A Survey of Robotics and Emotion: Classifications and Models of Emotional Interaction2020 · IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) · 39 citationsWith Gil Weinberg
  3. RoboGroove: Creating Fluid Motion for Dancing Robotic Arms2022 · International Conference on Movement and Computing (MOCO) · 26 citationsWith Gil Weinberg
  4. Robot Gesture Sonification to Enhance Awareness of Robot Status and Enjoyment of Interaction2020 · IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) · 26 citationsWith Gil Weinberg
  5. Before, Between, and After: Enriching Robot Communication Surrounding Collaborative Creative Activities2021 · Frontiers in Robotics and AI · 13 citationsWith Gil Weinberg

From OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026.

  1. Of 216 AI researchers who entered public life, 83 held advisory seats and 58 took public rolesIncludes Richard Savery. Of 216 AI researchers who entered public life, 83 held advisory seats and 58 took public roles. Another 97 people moved from public careers into AI organizations or research, with 62% of dated records starting from 2020 on.
  2. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Georgia Institute of Technology. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  3. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Georgia Institute of Technology. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  4. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes Georgia Institute of Technology. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Richard Savery yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Richard SAVERY - University of Canberra Research Portal researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Emotional Musical Prosody – Richard Savery richardsavery.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Shimon the Rapper: A Real-Time System for Human-Robot Interactive Rap Battles arxiv.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. This Robot Can Rap--Really | Scientific American scientificamerican.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Before, Between, and After: Enriching Robot Communication Surrounding Collaborative Creative Activities ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Keirzo – Richard Savery richardsavery.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. Keirzo: The robot that can spit rhymes, keep time, and make you think about AI — NSSN nssn.org.au. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. Edited Books – Richard Savery richardsavery.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  9. Dr Richard Savery - AIPS aips.org.au. Checked 20 October 2026.
  10. Robot Musicians: Long-term Use, Group Dynamics, and Artificial Intelligence - University of Canberra canberra.edu.au. Checked 20 October 2026.