Dr Von Ralph Dane Marquez Herbuela

BSc, MEd, EngD

Pronouns: He/him
  • Research Associate (Breathing Pattern Assessment App Developer)

Research groups and centres

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ORCiD Researcher ID Google Scholar
Von Ralph Dane Marquez Herbuela

Von obtained a BSc in Psychology, specialising in Educational Psychology, from the Philippine Normal University, where he graduated Cum Laude. He subsequently moved to Japan as a Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholar, completing a Master of Education in Special Needs Education and a Doctor of Engineering at Ehime University.

Following his doctorate, Von worked at Ehime University as a researcher and lecturer in Special Needs Education and Inclusive Education. His research combined psychology, data science, artificial intelligence and assistive technologies to understand behaviour and develop technologies for children with profound intellectual, multiple and neurodevelopmental disabilities. Alongside his research, he taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in psychology, research methods and special needs education.

In 2024, Von joined the International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN) at the University of Tokyo as a Project Research Associate in the Cognitive Developmental Robotics Lab. His research there focused on multimodal approaches to understanding human affect, behaviour and social interaction, integrating artificial intelligence and computational methods with behavioural, physiological and neurophysiological data.

Von joined the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University in 2026, and now works alongside Dr Sam Winter.

Von's research combines psychology, artificial intelligence, affective computing and digital health to understand human emotion, behaviour and social interaction. His work uses multimodal data, including facial expressions, speech, gaze and movement alongside physiological and neurophysiological signals such as EEG, ECG and electrodermal activity (EDA/GSR), to develop computational approaches to emotion and behaviour estimation.

His recent work includes AffexTrace2D for analysing facial, vocal and semantic affect, real-time multimodal emotion-estimation systems, OyaKoSync app for parent-child interactions, and machine-learning approaches integrating EEG and physiological features. His research also examines autism and alexithymia through multimodal measures of affect and social interaction. He was PI of a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists (Wakate KAKENHI) on multimodal emotional misalignment in adults with autism and alexithymia.

Von has also developed digital health and assistive technologies, including Mozzify, an mHealth system for disease surveillance, health communication and behaviour change; ChildSIDE and iBehave for behavioural assessment and support; and VOCA-based communication technologies for people with disabilities.

Across these areas, his research focuses on developing human-centred computational technologies that translate multimodal human signals into meaningful information to support health, wellbeing, communication and social interaction.

Von is a Topic Editor for the Frontiers Research Topic Translating Neurodiversity: From Predictive Mechanisms to Embodied Systems, hosted across Frontiers in Neurorobotics, Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, and Frontiers in Neural Circuits.

He serves as an advisory committee member of the Wellbeing Information Technology research group in Japan and is a member of the Alpha Sigma Omega Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota, Counseling Academic and Professional Honor Society International. He is also an Associate Member of the American Psychological Association and an Affiliate Member of the Psychological Association of the Philippines. He has presented and contributed to academic activities internationally across affective computing, neurodevelopment, psychology, digital health, assistive technology and artificial intelligence.

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