People

	Dr. Dimitrios Kanoulas (PI) Dr. Dimitrios Kanoulas is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Robotics and Computation at the University College London (UCL), Department of Computer Science. Before joining UCL, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology for 5 years and obtained his PhD at Northeastern Univ. in Boston. His research focuses on robot perception, planning, and learning, while he has worked on more than six humanoid/animaloid robots. He has published more than 40 research articles in high-impact robotic journals and conferences, while he has won the Best Interactive Paper Award in IEEE Humanoids 2017 and Best Student Paper Award Finalist in IEEE ICARCV 2018.
	Dr. Arash Ajoudani (co-I) Dr. Arash Ajoudani (co-I) is a tenured senior scientist at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), where he leads the Human-Robot Interfaces and physical Interaction (HRI²) laboratory. He received his PhD degree in Robotics and Automation from University of Pisa and IIT in 2014. He is a recipient of the European Research Council (ERC) starting grant 2019, the coordinator of the Horizon-2020 project SOPHIA, and the co-coordinator of the Horizon-2020 project CONCERT. He also coordinates /is a principal investigator of a number of technology transfer initiatives such as JOiiNT lab. He is a recipient of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Early Career Award 2021, and winner of the Amazon Research Awards 2019, of the Solution Award 2019 (MECSPE2019), of the KUKA Innovation Award 2018, of the WeRob best poster award 2018, and of the best student paper award at ROBIO 2013. His PhD thesis was a finalist for the Georges Giralt PhD award 2015 - best European PhD thesis in robotics. He was also a finalist for the Solution Award 2020 (MECSPE2020), the best conference paper award at Humanoids 2018, for the best interactive paper award at Humanoids 2016, for the best oral presentation award at Automatica (SIDRA) 2014, and for the best manipulation paper award at ICRA 2012. He is the author of the book "Transferring Human Impedance Regulation Skills to Robots" in the Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR), and several publications in journals, international conferences, and book chapters. He is currently serving as the executive manager of the IEEE-RAS Young Reviewers' Program (YRP), and as chair and representative of the IEEE-RAS Young Professionals Committee. He has been serving as a member of scientific advisory committee and as an associate editor for several international journals and conferences such as IEEE RAL, ICRA, IROS, ICORR, etc. His main research interests are in physical human-robot interaction, mobile manipulation, robust and adaptive control, assistive robotics, and tele-robotics
	Dr. Kirsty Ellis Dr. Kirsty Ellis is a Research Fellow at UCL, working on robotic navigation through reinforcement learning.
	Dr. Pietro Balatti Dr. Pietro Balatti is a senior software engineer at the Human-Robot Interfaces and physical Interaction Lab, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. He received his PhD degree, cum laude, in Robotics and Automation from University of Pisa and IIT in 2021. He received the BD and the MD, cum laude, in computer science and engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, in 2014 and 2016, respectively. He is involved in the EU Horizon-2020 projects SOPHIA and CONCERT, and also active in technology transfer initiatives with several industrial partners, as the JOiiNT lab at Kilometro Rosso Innovation District. He was responsible of the robot control framework in the team "CoAware" that won the KUKA Innovation Award in April 2018, winner of the Solution Award 2019 (MECSPE2019), and finalist of Solution Award 2020 (MECSPE2020). His main research interests are focused in the enhancement of robot interaction autonomy, within the fields of adaptive impedance control, mobile manipulation, tele-operation, and physical human-robot interaction.
	Dennis Hadjivelichkov Dennis Hadjivelichkov is a PhD student at the Center for Doctoral Training in Foundational Artificial Intelligence, UCL. His focus is on self-supervised and imitation learning for robotic applications.