Plenary Speakers ICAR-2021

Wednesday, December 8, 2021
Thursday, December 9, 2021
Friday, December 10, 2021

Oussama Khatib

Oussama Khatib received his PhD from Sup’Aero, Toulouse, France, in 1980. He is Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Robotics Laboratory at Stanford University. His research focuses on methodologies and technologies in human-centered robotics, haptic interactions, artificial intelligence, human motion synthesis and animation. He is President of the International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR) and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He is Editor of the Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) series, and the Springer Handbook of Robotics, awarded the American Publishers Award for Excellence in Physical Sciences and Mathematics. He is recipient of the IEEE Robotics and Automation (IEEE/RAS) Pioneering Award (for his fundamental contributions in robotics research, visionary leadership and life-long commitment to the field), the IEEE/RAS George Saridis Leadership Award, the Distinguished Service Award, the Japan Robot Association (JARA) Award, the Rudolf Kalman Award, and the IEEE Technical Field Award. Professor Khatib is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. 

Tamim Asfour

Tamim Asfour is Professor of Humanoid Robotics at the Institute for Anthropomatics and Robotics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. His research focuses on the engineering of high performance 24/7 humanoid robotics. In particular, he studies the mechano-informatics of humanoids as the synergetic integration of informatics, artificial intelligence, and mechatronics into complete humanoid robot systems, which are able to predict, act, interact, and learn in the real world. Tamim is the developer of the ARMAR humanoid robot family. He has been a visiting professor at Georgia Tech, at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and at the National University of Singapore. He is the scientific spokesperson of the KIT Center “Information · Systems · Technologies” (KCIST), the president of the Executive Board of the German Robotics Society (DGR), the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE-RAS Humanoids Conference Editorial Board, and the Editor-in-Chief of the Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L).

Arianna Menciassi

Arianna Menciassi is a Professor of Bioengineering and Biomedical Robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA, Pisa, Italy).
She graduated in Physics at the Pisa University (1995), she obtained the PhD (1999) at SSSA and she was visiting professor in different universities in France since 2014 (Pierre and Marie Curie, in Paris, Besancon University, in Besancon). She is Full Professor of Biomedical Robotics at SSSA and team leader of the “Surgical Robotics & Allied Technologies” Area at The BioRobotics Institute.
She is the Coordinator of the PhD in Biorobotics since 2018, and she was appointed in 2019 as Vice-Rector of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. Her main research interests involve surgical robotics, microrobotics for biomedical applications, biomechatronic artificial organs, smart and soft solutions for biomedical devices. She pays a special attention to the combination between traditional robotics, targeted therapy and wireless solution for therapy (e.g. ultrasound- and magnetic-based).