The Speakers

Stefan has been Vice President (international relations) at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm since 2017. In that role, his focus has been on strategies for international academic partnerships including e. g. strategic partner universities, the European university alliance, Unite and the Nordic partnership, Nordic 5 Tech. He has also been deeply engaged in responsible internationalization. 

Stefan Östlund is a professor of Electric Power Engineering. His teaching and research focus on electric propulsion, transportation electrification, and power electronics. He is also a supervisory board member of the European innovation company, EIT KIC InnoEnergy SE and a senior member of IEEE.

Professor Mamoru Mitsuishi graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science in Physics. Following this, he earned a second bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1981. He received his Master’s and doctorate degrees in 1983 and 1986, respectively from the University of Tokyo, after which he joined the university's School of Engineering as an academic staff. He became a professor in 1999. Professor Mitsuishi was the Dean of the School of Engineering from 2014 to 2017 and between 2017 and 2021, he was appointed as an Executive Director and Vice President of the University of Tokyo.

Professor Mitsuishi retired from the University of Tokyo at the end of March 2022 and was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus in June. He is now working as a Vice President at NIAD-QE: National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education, as well as two private universities, Waseda and Teikyo Universities as a Guest Senior Researcher (Guest Professor) and a Specially Appointed Professor, respectively.

He was elected as the President of Science Council of Japan in 2023.

His areas of interest are biomedical robotics, and manufacturing systems. He is a member of various internationally renowned societies, such as the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP), where he was its president from 2019 to 2021, and is an Honorary Fellow, and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.

Atsuto Maki is a Professor of Computer Science at KTH Royal Institute  of Technology, Sweden. He obtained BEng and MEng in electrical  engineering from Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo,  respectively, and his PhD degree in computer science from KTH.  Previously he was an associate professor at the Graduate School of  Informatics, Kyoto University, and then a senior researcher at Toshiba’s  Cambridge Research Lab in the UK. His research interests cover a broad  range of topics in machine learning, deep learning, and computer vision,  including motion and object recognition, clustering, subspace analysis,  stereopsis, and representation learning. He has been serving as a  program committee member at major computer vision conferences, e.g. as  an area chair of ICCV and ECCV 

Kento is a Project Assistant Professor at JSK Robotics Laboratory in the Department of Mechano-Informatics at the University of Tokyo. He received the B.S., M.Sc., and Ph. D. degrees in Department of Mechano-informatics from The University of Tokyo in 2017, 2019, and 2022 respectively.

His research interests include musculoskeletal humanoids, biomimetics, tendon-driven robots, and machine learning.

Hans has a PhD on human muscle atrophy and weakness following bedrest inactivity for spaceflight (1996), and is the inventor of a strength training apparatus (using gravity-independent flywheels) that has been used in microgravity studies by ESA and NASA. Clinical studies focus  on muscular weakness, gait disturbance and morphological changes, including muscular fat infiltration in orthopaedic patients suffering from osteoarthritis or trauma. 

Nowadays, patients anticipate not only pain relief but also restored limb function after orthopaedic surgery. A current study aims to develop technologies for computed assisted fracture surgery. 

Saul is a Project Assistant Professor at the Harada Laboratory in the Department of Medicine at The University of Tokyo since 2023. With a Master's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from The National Autonomous University of Mexico (2018) and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Tokyo (2020), he brings a global perspective to his research, combining insights from diverse academic backgrounds. Specializing in virtual reality (VR) simulation for robotic surgery, he previously excelled as an engineer at Sony Group Corporation (2020-2023), pioneering the development of VR surgical simulators. His expertise lies in creating photorealistic VR simulations, with a focus on applying VR techniques to study the autonomy of robots. His research explores the intersection of robotics, VR, and artificial intelligence (AI), to enhance surgical robot autonomy in navigating and performing tasks in complex environments.

Christian is an associate professor in Computer Science, specialized in robotics and autonomous systems, and the deputy head of the Division of Robotics, Perception, and Learning at KTH. 

His current research explores human-robot interaction and how to combine supervised and unsupervised learning for mobile manipulation and assembly. The goal is to find methods that enable fast and flexible set up for automation for small batch sizes. 

Christian Smith received a MSc in Engineering Physics from KTH in 2005, and a PhD in Computer Science from KTH in 2009. He has spent two longer visits at the Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratory at ATR in Japan, in 2004, and 2010-2011, respectively.

Murilo is a Lecturer in Robotics with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.  I hold a visitor scholar position at the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, at the Harada Laboratory.

He has a BS (2012) in Mechatronics Engineering and MS (2014) in Electronic Systems and Automation Engineering from the University of Brasilia, and obtained a PhD (2018) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tokyo. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo until late 2023.

With over 50 peer-reviewed publications, he strives to contribute to flagship robotics journals such as T-RO, RAM, and RA-L and have contributed to leading journals in surgical robotics such as T-MRB and IJMRCAS.  Many of his contributions also feature in flagship robotics conferences such as ICRA and IROS, including the winner of the IROS'23 Best Application Paper Award.

His contribution to the surgical robot SmartArm has been featured as part of the Best Innovation Award and Overall Winner Award in the Surgical Robotic Challenge 2019. Such achievements have also featured in an interview for TBS 's Origins of the Future「未来の起源」.

Matilda is Professor of Medical Image Processing (2022) and Head of the Division of Biomedical Imaging at the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Health Systems - KTH. She received her PhD in Technology and Health from KTH in 2010 and was a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven in 2010-2011. Her research focuses on the development of medical imaging technologies for improved diagnosis and treatment strategies in healthcare. She specializes in quantitative ultrasound methods in cardiovascular and obstetric applications.

Jonny Gustafsson has a M.Sc. in Applied Physics from KTH. He has close to forty years experience of working with display holography. As the president of Holovision AB he specialised in making high-quality holographic images for museums, artists, trade shows etc. At KTH he has been involved in research concerning the use of holography for visualisation of CAD (Computer Aided Design) and for measurements. He is now responsible for the holography laboratory at KTH where he has developed a real-time holographic display.

Akiko Shirabe is a Japanese lecturer in Language and Communication at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. Her interest lies in integrating intercultural communication into Japanese language education. She has prior experience teaching Japanese to non-native speakers across various age groups in the U.S. and Austria.