Claire chatted to Simone Schuerle from ETH Zürich all about microrobots, medicine and science. Simone Schuerle is Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, where she heads the Responsive Biomedical System Lab. With her team, she develops diagnostic and therapeutic systems at the nano- and microscale with the aim of tackling a range of challenging problems in medicine. One major focus of her current research is addressing limitations in drug delivery through scalable magnetically enhanced drug transport. In 2014, she co-founded the spin-off MagnebotiX that offers electromagnetic control ..read more

Claire chatted to Lord Ara Darzi from Imperial College London all about robotic surgery - past, present and future. Ara Darzi is Co-Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London and holds the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery. In 2002, he was knighted for his services to medicine and surgery and in 2007 was introduced as Lord Darzi of Denham to the UK’s House of Lords as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health. Professor Darzi leads a large multidisciplinary academic and policy research team, focused on convergence science across engineering, physica ..read more

Claire chatted to Isabelle Ormerod from the University of Bristol all about human-centred design and women in robotics. Isabelle Ormerod is a PhD student at Bristol Robotics Lab in the Design and Manufacturing Futures Lab. Her professional path began in the medical product design industry, where she observed firsthand the application of human factors (HF) processes for dextrous and high-risk procedures. This experience sparked her interest in leveraging data-driven HF approaches in product design. Isabelle is also part of the Leadership team of Women in Robotics UK. This organization is commit ..read more

Claire chatted to Margarita Chli from the University of Cyprus all about vision, navigation, and small aerial drones. Margarita Chli is a professor of Robotic Vision and the director of the Vision for Robotics Lab, at the University of Cyprus and ETH Zurich. Her work has contributed to the first vision-based autonomous flight of a small drone and the first demonstration of collaborative monocular SLAM for a small swarm of drones. Margarita has given invited keynotes at the World Economic Forum in Davos, TEDx, and ICRA, and she was featured in Robohub's 2016 list of "25 women in Robotics you ne ..read more

Claire chatted to Steve Benford from the University of Nottingham all about art, dance, and cat sitting robots. Steve Benford is the Dunford Professor of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham where he co-founded the Mixed Reality Laboratory. His research explores artistic applications of digital technologies through performance-led methods that engage artists in creating, touring and studying unique interactive experiences. He directs the EPSRC-funded Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training and the University’s newly founded Cobot Maker Space that is exploring human interaction with ro ..read more

Claire chatted to Estelle Raffy from the University of Bristol all about animal behaviour, intelligence, and life-like artificial systems. Estelle Raffy is a PhD student at the University of Bristol. During her Bachelor's degree in neuroscience and cognitive science, the “brained body” of the octopus kept her wondering: how can nature start with similar basic principles and end up with massive decentralized systems that we still call intelligent? She did a Master in epistemology and history of science where she addressed what embodiment principles tell us about biological and artificial system ..read more

Claire chatted to Chang Liu from Extend Robotics all about teleoperation, virtual reality, and software. Chang Liu is an entrepreneur from academia and high-tech start-ups. He is the founder, CEO and Chief Designer of Extend Robotics. He was previously a research associate in Imperial College London and University of Southampton on autonomous aerial robot navigation. Join the live audience! Robot Talk will be returning for another live episode recording this June, as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival in London. 'Humans 2.0: Robotically Augmented People' will be held at the V&A Mus ..read more

Claire chatted to Vassia Simaiaki from Wayve all about computer vision, artificial intelligence, and self-driving cars. Vassia Simaiaki is passionate about taking research into application and has spent the last decade of her career in computer vision. She leads AI research in vision and graphics at Wayve. Her focus is pushing the boundaries of novel view synthesis and continuing to accelerate the driving performance of autonomous vehicles. Vassia has a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and MSc in Neuroscience from Imperial College London. She thrives on solving hard problems and ..read more

Claire chatted to Danesh Tarapore from the University of Southampton all about fault detection, division of labour, and robot swarms. Danesh Tarapore is an Associate Professor at the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. Danesh has addressed a diverse range of challenges in fault detection and recovery in robot swarms. He is also keen to push robot swarms out of their carefully controlled laboratory environments and into the real world, pursuing applications for robot swarms in marine exploration and in forest monitoring. Research on resilient robots that ..read more

Claire chatted to Ella Maule from the Bristol Robotics Laboratory all about community robotics and the social side of robot design. Ella Maule is a PhD Student in Ethical & Sustainable Futures at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory and a co-lead of Women in Robotics UK. Grounded in the principles of Responsible Innovation, her research explores the concept of Community Robotics, which centres communities as users of, and stakeholders in, robotic technology innovation. She is passionate about increasing equity, accessibility and inclusivity in robotics and, alongside her Women in Robotics UK co ..read more