Auke Ijspeert

Expertise Locomotion, Robotics, Computational neuroscience, Machine learning, Nonlinear dynamical systems Twitter https://twitter.com/BIOROB_EPFL Auke Ijspeert is a full professor at the EPFL, and head of the Biorobotics Laboratory (BioRob). He has a B.Sc./M.Sc. in physics from the EPFL (1995), and a PhD in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh (1999). He carried out postdocs at IDSIA and EPFL, and at the University of Southern California (USC). He then became a research assistant professor at USC, and an external collaborator at ATR (Advanced Telecommunications Research institute) in Japan. In 2002, he came back to the EPFL as an SNF assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in October 2009 and to full professor in April 2016. His primary affiliation is with the Institute of Bioengineering, and secondary affiliation with the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests are at the intersection between robotics, computational neuroscience, nonlinear dynamical systems, and machine learning. He is interested in using numerical simulations and robots to get a better understanding of sensorimotor coordination in animals, and in using inspiration from biology to design novel types of robots and adaptive controllers (see for instance Ijspeert et al Science 2007, Ijspeert Science 2014, and Nyakatura et al Nature 2019). He is also investigating how to assist people with limited mobility using exoskeletons and assistive furniture.  He is regularly invited to give talks on these topics (e.g. TED talk given at TED Global Geneva, Dec 8 2015). With his colleagues, he has received paper awards at ICRA2002, CLAWAR2005, IEEE Humanoids 2007, IEEE ROMAN 2014, CLAWAR 2015, SAB2018, CLAWAR 2019, and ICRA 2024. He is an IEEE Fellow, member of the Board of Reviewing Editors of Science magazine, and associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics. He has acted as an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Robotics (2009-2013), Soft Robotics (2018-2021), and the International Journal of Humanoids Robotics (2017-2022). He was a guest editor for the Proceedings of IEEE, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Autonomous Robots, IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, and Biological Cybernetics. He has been the organizer of 7 international conferences (BioADIT2004, SAB2004, AMAM2005, BioADIT2006, LATSIS2006, SSRR2016, AMAM2019), and a program committee member of over 50 conferences. Teaching & PhD PhD Students Zeynep Özge Orhan, Lixuan Tang, Louis Gevers, Chuanfang Ning, Alessandro Pazzaglia, Astha Gupta, Javier Jia Jie Pey, Giulia Ramella, Alexandros Anastasiadis Past EPFL PhD Students Alessandro Crespi, Jonas Buchli, Joël Rossier, Ludovic Righetti, Pierre-André Mudry, Sarah Dégallier Rochat, Alexander Spröwitz, Jérémie Knüsel, Soha Pouya, Konstantinos Karakasiliotis, Andrej Bicanski, Sébastien Gay, Jesse van den Kieboom, Stéphane Bonardi, Mostafa Ajallooeian, Massimo Vespignani, Alexandre Tuleu, Nicolas Van der Noot, Robin Thandiackal, Salman Faraji, Peter Eckert, Tomislav Horvat, Florin Dzeladini, Mehmet Mutlu, Simon Lukas Hauser, Jessica Lanini, Romain Baud, Miroslav Caban, Shravan Tata Ramalingasetty, Jonathan Patrick Arreguit O'Neill, Laura Paez, Andrea Di Russo, Alice Julie Bruel, Milad Shafiee Ashtiani, Amirreza Razmjoo Fard Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Ludovic Daler, Ali Reza Manzoori, Pembe Gizem Ozdil Courses Computational motor control MICRO-436 The course gives (1) a review of different types of numerical models of control of locomotion and movement in animals, from fish to humans, (2) a presentation of different techniques for designing models, and (3) an analysis of the use and testing of those models in robotics and neuroprosthetics. Legged robots MICRO-507 The course presents the design, control, and applications of legged robots. It gives a review of different types of legged robots (including two-, four- and multi-legged robots), and an analysis of different control methods for legged locomotion. Topics in Autonomous Robotics ENG-615 Students will be introduced to modern approaches in control and design of autonomous robots through lectures and exercises. Awards Marie Curie Scholarship 1997 SNSF professorship Swiss National Science Foundation 2006 IEEE Fellow IEEE 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation Most Influential Paper Award IEEE 2024 Best conference paper award at SAB 2018 15th International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior 2018 Best paper award at IEEE RO-MAN 2014 23rd IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication 2014 Best paper award at Humanoids 2007 IEEE-RAS International conference on Humanoid Robots 2007 Overall Best Paper Award at ICRA 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation 2002 Best paper prize at CLAWAR 2019 he 22nd International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots 2019