Speakers

Prof. Jean-Louis Thonnard received the BA and MA degrees in physical education and physical therapy from UCLouvain, Belgium, in 1977 and 1979, respectively. He received the PhD degree in rehabilitation from UCLouvain in 1988. He has been a Professor with UCLouvain between 2004 and 2020. Since 2020 he is Professor Emeritus. His interests in research concern the sense of touch and its role in dexterous manipulation. More particularly, he investigated the biomechanical properties of the fingertips and their role in tactile perception and dexterous manipulation. He has authored over 250 peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Dr. Saekwang Nam leads the Robot Touch Data Laboratory at Kyungpook National University, focusing on AI-integrated tactile sensors for advanced robotic manipulation. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Tübingen (2022), an M.S. in Computer Science from UC San Diego (2013), and a B.S. in Human & Mechanical Engineering from Kanazawa University (2011). Prior to his current role as Assistant Professor at Kyungpook National University, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the Dexterous Robotics Group, University of Bristol (2022.11-2024.02). His research interests encompass simulation, optimization, and robotic tactile sensing.

Prof. Ingvars Birznieks is a neuroscientist whose research is dedicated to understanding the neural code – the language neurons use to communicate, process information about the world we live in, and perform computations that shape our perception and control our movements. His research addresses tactile sensory function comprehensively, starting from skin biomechanics and single sensory neuron activity recorded in humans using microneurography, to modelling, psychophysics, perception, and sensorimotor control of movement. By linking sensory signals to their functional significance, his research bridges the gap between fundamental knowledge and its application in clinical translational research and applied engineering, such as haptics and robotics. Ingvars Birznieks is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health, UNSW Sydney where he is also a passionate and dedicated educator. He is a member of Bionics and Bio-robotics, Tyree Foundation Institute of Health Engineering, and a group leader at the Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) where he heads Sensory Bionics and Motor Control laboratory.

Prof. Frederic Giraud is an Associate Professor in electrical engineering at University of Lille and a member of the L2EP (Laboratory of Electrical Engineering and Power Electronics). His research interest is on the modelling and control of piezoelectric actuators, for Mechatronic systems and Haptic devices. He was a student at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Cachan (1993-1996); he obtained a Master degree from the Polytechnical Institute of Toulouse (France) and a PhD from the University of Lille, both in electrical engineering.

Dr. Gunhyuk Park is an assistant professor and leads the Haptic Assistive Media Laboratory at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Republic of Korea. He earned dual B.S. degrees in Computer Science & Engineering and Electronic & Electrical Engineering from POSTECH in 2007, followed by a Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering from the same institution in 2017, where his dissertation focused on attachable / detachable vibrotactile feedback modules. Before joining GIST in 2019, he was a postdoctoral researcher with the Haptic Intelligent Systems group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart and completed a research internship with Microsoft Research Asia. Dr. Park's work centers on haptic devices, vibrotactile perception, mobile haptic feedback, and user-interface design for immersive and assistive technologies. 

David Gueorguiev's main research interest is to better understand touch and multimodal interactions with the goal to link them to health and decision-making. He obtained his PhD at UCLouvain in 2016 on the human perception of microscale tactile cues. He then performed post-docs at Inria-Lille and Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems on the human perception of contact forces. In 2020, he started his lab on multimodal haptics first at CNRS and now as a FNRS researcher in the Institute of Neuroscience of UCLouvain.

Mariama Dione is Assistant Professor at the Department of Biology of Aix-Marseille University, with research conducted at Center for Research in Psychology and Neuroscience (CRPN). Her research interests include timing; spatial control of movement trajectories; action planning and the executive functions; active touch; texture exploration; object manipulation; prosthetics and experience-driven plasticity. She obtained her PhD in Psychology from Université de Lille and the University of Birmingham in 2013 on action planning. She was a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden from 2014 to 2019 and at the Centre de Recherche en Psychologie et Neurosciences (CRPN) from 2019 to 2024.