PhDRIM Event – “Stranger I-RIM”
Date and Time: October 24th 2026, 15:00-16:00
Where: Aula Magna (Floor +3, Building A/B)
As a follow-up to the “Leading the research on Robotics and Intelligent Machines” round table, we will venture into the “Upside Down” and invite the same panelists from the previous session to “let the monsters in”. The audience will have the opportunity to ask them about “things they have never told anyone” concerning their current and past projects, uncovering funny, unexpected, or even dramatic events that helped shape their research and the projects they ultimately developed.
The chairs will present three special awards — the Demodog, Demogorgon, and Mind Flayer Prizes — to the panelists who reveal the most memorable, surprising, or terrifying “monsters.”
Chairs: Antonio Sgorbissa (University of Genoa), Matteo Matteucci (Politecnico di Milano)
Panelists: Vito Cacucciolo (Politecnico di Bari), Giacomo Moretti (University of Trento), Nicola Pedrocchi (National Research Council – STIIMA), Federica Ferraguti (University of Modena – Reggio Emilia), Giovanni Berselli (University of Genoa), Arash Ajoudani (Italian Institute of Technology)
Prof. Vito Cacucciolo – Politecnico di Bari
Associate Professor at Politecnico di Bari
Prof. Giacomo Moretti – University of Trento
Associate Professor at University of Trento
Nicola Pedrocchi, PhD – National Research Council – STIIMA
Head of the Robot Motion Control and Robotized Processes Laboratory at Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing -National Research Council
Prof. Federica Ferraguti – University of Modena e Reggio Emilia
Associate Professor at the Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering of the Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Prof. Giovanni Berselli – University of Genoa
Full Professor at University of Genoa
Arash Ajoudani, PhD – Italian Institute of Technology
Director of the Human-Robot Interfaces and Interaction (HRI²) laboratory at Italian Institute of Technology
