Speakers

Leonardo Cappello

Leonardo Cappello graduated in Mechanical Engineering (BS) in 2009 and in Biomedical Engineering (MS) in 2011 at the University of Florence, Italy. In 2016 he accomplished his PhD in “Robotics, Cognition and Interaction Technologies” at the Italian Institute of Technology, advised by Prof. Lorenzo Masia. During his PhD, he was visiting student at the Nanyang Technological University, Robotics Research Centre, Singapore (2014 - 2015). 

He was Postdoctoral Researcher at Harvard University and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, in the team lead by Prof. Conor Walsh, where he worked on soft wearable robots for upper limb sensorimotor restoration (2016 - 2017). He was then Postdoctoral Researcher at the BioRobotics Institute - Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (Italy) - investigating advanced robotic prostheses and prosthetic techniques for the upper extremities, working closely with Prof. Christian Cipriani and Prof. Marco Controzzi (2017-2022).

Leonardo Cappello started his academic path in 2022 as Assistant Professor at the BioRobotics Institute - Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (Italy), where he funded the Textile Robotics Laboratory and where he works on the design of textile-based robotic wearables for human sensorimotor restoration and augmentation. His research interests include haptics, assistive and rehabilitation robotics, prosthetics and orthotics, and motor neurosciences.

He was recently awarded with the European Research Council Starting Grant (ERC StG) for the project MUsculoSkeletal Expansion (MUSE). He also obtained the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR) in 2015, held in Singapore.

Francesca Cordella

Francesca Cordella is Assistant Professor with tenure track (RTDb) in Bioengineering at Unit of Advanced Robotics and Human-centred Technologies (Creo Lab) of Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, Italy (UCBM). She received the Laurea degree in Electronic Engineering and the Ph.D. in Computer and Automation Engineering both from the University of Naples Federico II. In 2011, she was visiting student at the Institut fur Robotik und Mechatronik, Deutsche Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR). Until June 2013 she has been Assistant Researcher at the University of Naples Federico II. From 2013 to 2018 she was Assistant Researcher and from November 2018 she is Assistant Professor both in the Creo Lab at Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome. She has obtained the National Scientific Qualification for 2nd level Professor in the competition sector 09/G2. Her research interests are mainly in the field of biomechanics, biomedical robotics and human-machine interfaces. She is member of the Technical Program Committee and associate editor for several International Conferences and Workshops. She is guest Editor of several journals and Associate editor for the journal Applied Bionics and Biomechanics. Since 2015 she is an expert and reviewer for the European Commission within H2020- ICT research program. She was and is involved in the role of Co-PI, Project Manager and scientific manager of Work Package for various European and national projects in her fields of interest.

Matteo Laffranchi

Matteo Laffranchi is Coordinator of Robotics at Rehab Technologies Lab, IIT. His main works focus on the development of novel mechatronic systems for robotic applications.

He received a Master's Degree in mechatronic engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin in 2006 and a PhD in robotics from the University of Sheffield, UK, in 2011. Following a brief experience in the automation industry at OSAI A. S., in the period 2008-2011 he has been Research Fellow and Post-Doc researcher from 2011 to 2014 at the department of Advanced Robotics (ADVR), Italian Institute of Technology. At ADVR, he spent 6 years developing compliant actuation systems for robotics and robots (CompAct actuators, CompAct arm) for safe physical human-robot interaction. 

Since 2014, he works at Rehab Technologies, Italian Institute of Technology, with specific focus on the development of novel healthcare robots, particularly robotic prostheses and exoskeletons (Hannes, Pro-Leg, Twin, Float). He now manages the activities related to robotics research and product development within the lab starting from 2016.

Along with research and development, he is also involved in technology transfer activities and in entrepreneurial projects to bring the developed technology to the medical and industrial robotics industries since 2012.