Speakers

Prof. Okamura is the Richard W. Weiland Professor of Engineering at Stanford University in the mechanical engineering department, with a courtesy appointment in computer science. She was previously Professor and Vice Chair of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. She is currently a deputy director of the Wu Tsai Stanford Neurosciences Institute, a Science Fellow/Senior Fellow (courtesy) at the Hoover Institution, and a founding member and executive committee member of the Stanford Robotics Center. She has been editor-in-chief of the journal IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Haptics, editor-in-chief of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation Conference Editorial Board, an editor of the International Journal of Robotics Research, and co-chair of the IEEE Haptics Symposium. Her academic interests include haptics, teleoperation, virtual environments and simulators, medical robotics, soft robotics, neuromechanics and rehabilitation, prosthetics, and education. 

Prof. Iulian I. Iordachita is the Department of Mechanical Engineering, a member of the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, and director of the Advanced Medical Instrumentation and Robotics (AMIRo) Research Lab. His research focuses on medical and surgical robotics; medical instrumentation and smart surgical tools; image-guided and computer-assisted surgery; and mechanisms and mechanical transmissions for robots. He received his Mechanical Engineer Diploma in the Technology of Mechanical Engineering; Diploma of Advanced Studies in Industrial Robots; and Doctor Engineer Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, all at the University of Craiova (Romania) in 1984, 1989, and 1996, respectively. He joined Johns Hopkins in 2003 after 14 years at University of Craiova, where he was an assistant and associate professor.

Prof. Robert J. Webster III is Senior Associate Provost for Commercialisation and Technology Transfer at Vanderbilt University, and the Richard A. Schroeder Professor of Mechanical Engineering. A member of the VISE Steering Committee, he leads the Medical Engineering and Discovery (MED) Lab, where clinicians and engineers co‑create image‑guided technologies to make interventions more accurate, less invasive, and more effective. His research spans surgical robotics and mechanics‑based modelling, with projects in natural‑orifice surgery (nasal, throat, urethral), inner‑ear and lung interventions, image‑guided kidney surgery, and novel treatments for brain tumours, cerebral haemorrhage, and epilepsy.

Prof. Yip is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego, Director of the Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory (ARCLab), and Director of the Healthcare and Medical Robotics Collaboratory at the UCSD Contextual Robotics Institute. His research and expertise are in the areas of surgical robotics, biomimetic robots, and robot learning. His research lab at UCSD has received numerous best paper awards at top robotics and AI conferences, and Dr. Yip has been recognized by the NSF CAREER award, NIH Trailblazer award, and as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. His research projects have led to the founding of several robotics startup companies. He was named the Faculty Innovator of the Year at UC San Diego in 2024 and elected as a Senior Member into the U.S. National Academy of Inventors. He is also a former Disney Imagineer and Faculty Consultant to Amazon Robotics. His degrees are in Mechatronics Engineering (BS), Electrical Engineering (MS), and Bioengineering (PhD) from U. Waterloo, UBC, and Stanford University, respectively.

Prof. Cameron Riviere received the Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from The Johns Hopkins University in 1995, and joined the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University the same year.  He is presently Research Professor of Robotics, Biomedical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, and the Director of the Surgical Mechatronics Laboratory in the Robotics Institute.  Since 1998 he has also been Adjunct Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology at the University of Pittsburgh.  He has been guest editor of special issues on medical robotics in the Proceedings of the IEEE and in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering.  His research interests include medical robotics, control systems, signal processing, and biomedical applications of human-machine interfaces.