{"id":26062,"date":"2026-05-12T13:45:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/?p=26062"},"modified":"2026-05-12T13:45:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:45:25","slug":"from-poker-bot-to-emotion-ai-how-a-transylvania-student-built-a-real-time-human-response-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/2026\/05\/from-poker-bot-to-emotion-ai-how-a-transylvania-student-built-a-real-time-human-response-system\/","title":{"rendered":"From poker bot to emotion AI: How a Transylvania student built a real-time human response system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"730\" height=\"486\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/05\/holt_blog-730x486.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26064\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/05\/holt_blog-730x486.jpeg 730w, https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/05\/holt_blog-350x233.jpeg 350w, https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/05\/holt_blog-768x511.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/05\/holt_blog-1536x1022.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/05\/holt_blog-810x539.jpeg 810w, https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/05\/holt_blog-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/05\/holt_blog.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Jackson Holt \u201926 did more than study computer science. He combined it with psychology, built a working system that responds to human emotion and tested it in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What if you could rehearse confidence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine practicing a conversation before it matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou can create interactions that would allow them to practice checking out at a store or ordering in a restaurant,\u201d Holt said. \u201cSome of those situations make people really nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is where his project ended. It is not where it started. Holt began the summer with a different goal: building a poker-playing robot that could detect bluffs by reading emotional cues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy original idea was to set it out to be able to play poker with you and be able to tell whether you\u2019re bluffing or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The concept worked, but the timeline did not. When Holt brought it to his professor, Kenny Moorman, the response was not to shut it down but to scale it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s just see if you can get the robot to alter its behavior based on the emotions that it\u2019s picking up,\u201d Moorman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That shift changed everything. Before detecting a bluff, a machine has to recognize emotion. What started as a clear goal became something more open-ended, something Holt would have to figure out as he built it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AI That Reads Emotion | Transylvania University Student Builds Real-Time System\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k6tvfNJ9FTI?feature=oembed&rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-building-something-that-did-not-exist-yet\"><strong>Building something that did not exist yet<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Each stage of the project required Holt to make decisions without knowing whether they would work, often building and testing ideas from scratch. Progress came through trial and error, forcing him to adapt, rethink and move forward without a clear path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere were several moments where it would click,\u201d Holt said. \u201cAnd then I\u2019d be like, oh man, I really don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He worked with Furhat, a social robot designed for human interaction. It could look at a user, listen and respond, but only if someone built the system behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He taught himself Kotlin while learning to build a real-time system that could interpret facial expressions, process speech and respond in the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAlmost every day of the project would involve problem solving and learning new things,\u201d Moorman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn our courses, there\u2019s scaffolding,\u201d Moorman said. \u201cWe tell students what they need to do. In research, that scaffolding goes away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That kind of open-ended work is what makes research at Transylvania different. Students are not following a set path. They are defining it as they go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re in the driver\u2019s seat for the first time,\u201d Holt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the end of the summer, he had built and tested a system that could read facial expressions, compare them to spoken words and determine a basic emotional state before responding in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-where-disciplines-come-together\"><strong>Where disciplines come together<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The project quickly moved beyond computer science. To interpret emotion, Holt had to understand how people express it. He turned to psychology, studying how facial expressions and speech patterns signal emotional states, then translated those ideas into code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI had to read psychology papers. I didn\u2019t think this is where this was going to go,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that interdisciplinary approach is really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of keeping subjects separate, he combined them. Computer science, psychology and communication became pieces of the same problem, each shaping how the system worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-when-it-didn-t-go-as-planned\"><strong>When it didn\u2019t go as planned<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of the time, the system fell short of expectations, producing responses that were awkward, inaccurate or unusable. Early tests often revealed gaps between what worked in theory and what functioned in practice, forcing Holt to revisit his assumptions, troubleshoot failures and rebuild key parts of the system before trying again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn theory, it was elegant,\u201d Holt said. \u201cIn practice, it broke constantly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first interaction made that clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t great,\u201d he said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t go well. It kind of crashed and burned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He adjusted and tried again, reworking how the system interpreted emotion and how it responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe hardest problem for me during this project was probably when you\u2019re trying to simulate that conversation, you\u2019re trying to decide, you know, if they\u2019re happy, how do you respond?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because the system was not fully automated, Holt built those responses himself. He tested them by pulling in his roommates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI had a few of my roommates actually come in and say, all right, can you talk to this and just tell me if this sounds weird,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their feedback was immediate. Some responses were bluntly negative, others more encouraging. He revised and tried again. Even the robot\u2019s appearance became part of the process. When it looked too realistic, people pulled back. He adjusted it to look more clearly robotic, and the interaction improved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gradually, something shifted. What started as skepticism turned into surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019d be a little skeptical,\u201d Holt said. \u201cAnd then as the robot started talking and they were like, wait, it\u2019s kind of understanding me. That surprise is really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-same-lesson-in-a-different-place\"><strong>The same lesson, in a different place<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>That process of adjusting, trying again and continuing forward was familiar. As a goalkeeper on the men\u2019s soccer team, Holt\u2019s first season did not go as planned. In an early game, he gave up six goals and did not play again that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSometimes things aren\u2019t going to go your way. You\u2019re going to have to learn to lose,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He stayed, improved and eventually earned the starting role, helping lead his team to a conference championship and earning Defensive Player of the Year honors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same mindset showed up in the lab, working through setbacks without stepping away from the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-the-project-became\"><strong>What the project became<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>By the end of the summer, the project looked nothing like the one he started. Holt had built a system he designed and tested himself that reads emotion and responds in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think this kind of social interaction with a robot or a humanoid robot or whatever it may be has some really beneficial uses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He thinks about people who find everyday interactions difficult, including those with social anxiety, ADHD or anyone who feels unsure in those moments. A system like this could give them a way to practice without pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI had a few family members that have trouble interacting or get a little nervous in certain interactions,\u201d he said. \u201cSo being able to be a part of that kind of research was pretty cool to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-comes-next\"><strong>What comes next<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Holt is preparing for graduate school in artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction, building on work that connects technical systems with human behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen a student is the primary on a project, it completely changes their view of how things work,\u201d Moorman said. \u201cWhen they get that experience, it is truly life changing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By the end of the summer, Holt was not guessing what he could do next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He had built something he could point to and a clearer sense of where it could take him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jackson Holt \u201926 combined computer science with psychology to build a working system that responds to human 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