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

Claire chatted to Stephen Oram from Nudge the Future Fiction all about applied science fiction and the quirks and perils of new technology. Stephen Oram writes near-future science fiction, exploring the intersection of messy humans and imperfect technology. He also works with scientists and technologists on projects that explore possible future outcomes of their research through short stories. He is published in several anthologies, including the Best of British Science Fiction 2020 and 2022, and has two published novels and three collections of sci-fi shorts. His recent collection – Extractin ..read more

Claire chatted to Andrew Starr from Cranfield University all about robot maintenance and railway inspection robots. Andrew Starr holds a PhD in condition monitoring of robotic production systems and is a Chartered Engineer. His career started with British Aerospace, before working for the University of Manchester, University of Huddersfield, and the University of Hertfordshire. At Cranfield University he is Professor of Maintenance Systems, and former Head of the Centre for Life-cycle Engineering and Management. His research is in monitoring of mechanical systems with special interests in rail ..read more

Claire chatted to Antonia Tzemanaki from the University of Bristol all about hand exoskeletons, robotic hands, and teleoperation. Antonia Tzemanaki is Senior Lecturer in Robotics at the University of Bristol and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. Prior to this, she was Lecturer in Mechatronics at the University of the West of England. Her research includes human and robot hands, hand exoskeletons, haptics and wearable robotics, especially with applications in surgery, preventative medicine, rehabilitation, physiotherapy and dexterous tele-operation, as well as extreme environments (nuclear and s ..read more

Claire chatted to Edward Johns from Imperial College London, all about robotic manipulators, learning, and artificial intelligence. Edward Johns is the Director of the Robot Learning Lab at Imperial College London, where he is also a Senior Lecturer. He completed a PhD in Computer Vision at Imperial College and was then a Research Fellow in the Dyson Robotics Lab at Imperial College. In 2017, he was awarded a prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship. Since founding the Robot Learning Lab in 2018, he and his team have been developing efficient methods for robots to learn new ..read more

Claire chatted to Maria Jose (Marisé) Galvez Trigo from Cardiff University all about human-robot interaction, machine learning, and accessibility. Maria Jose Galvez Trigo (Marisé) is a Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University, and part of the Human-centred Computing (HCC) Research Section and its Subgroup in Computational and Human-centred Robotics. Marisé is interested in Robotics, Human-Robot Interaction, Human-Computer Interaction and applications of Machine Learning in those areas, with accessibility and co-design as key aspects of her research. With ..read more

Claire chatted to Rafael Lopez from Robotnik Automation all about mobile robots, logistics, and inspection. Rafael Lopez has a degree in Telecommunications Engineering. He worked in research and development at Althea Productos Industriales before joining IBM as a System Engineer for wide area networks in Madrid and Barcelona. He co-founded Robotnik in 2002, where he was the Research and Development Manager, participating in and managing many EU projects. After the acquisition of Robotnik by United Robotics Group in 2023, he became Managing Director of the company. In 2017 he joined the board o ..read more

Claire chatted to Virginia Ruiz Garate from Mondragon University all about assistive robotics, mobility, and bio-inspired control. Virginia Ruiz Garate obtained her PhD in 2016 in bio-inspired control for leg exoskeletons at the Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium. Later, she worked on new bio-inspired grasping methods for robotic hands at the Italian Institute of Technology. She then became Associate Professor in assistive robots at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. Currently, she is a Lecturer and Researcher in Robotics at Mondragon University. Her research interests include ..read more