Speakers

Prof. Aude Billard is head of the LASA laboratory at the School of Engineering at the Swiss Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), academic director of the EPFL Robotics Center, Vice-president of the Swiss Robotics Association.

A.B. holds a B.Sc and M.Sc. in Physics from EPFL (1995) and a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence (1998) from the University of Edinburgh. A.B. was the recipient of the Intel Corporation Teaching award, the Swiss National Science Foundation career award, the Outstanding Young Person in Science and Innovation from the Swiss Chamber of Commerce, the IEEE-RAS Best Reviewer Award and IEEE-RAS Distinguished Service Award. A. B.’s research spans the fields of machine learning and robotics with a particular emphasis on learning from sparse data and performing fast and robust retrieval. This work finds application to robotics, human-robot / human-computer interaction and computational neuroscience. This research received best paper awards from IEEE T-RO, RSS, ICRA, IROS, Humanoids and ROMAN and was featured in premier venues (BBC, IEEE Spectrum, Wired).

Aude Billard leads the Swiss National Thematic Network Innovation Booster on Robotics, a half a million fund in support of industrial-academic partnerships, and is the current president-elect of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.

Robert Katzschmann is an Assistant Professor of Robotics at ETH Zurich and the founder of the Soft Robotics Lab, where he develops new robotic morphologies for a future of life-like robots that seamlessly integrate with us. Robert is also the cofounder and scientific advisor of mimic robotics, which develops autonomous dexterous manipulation solutions.  He holds a Diplom-Ingenieur from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), wrote his master thesis at Stanford University (2013), and earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) in 2018.

Before joining ETH, Robert engineered robotic surgery and biopsy systems at Auris Surgical Robotics (now Johnson & Johnson), created new robotic manipulation technologies as an Applied Scientist at Amazon Robotics, and served as CTO at Dexai Robotics (now Sony AI), where he led the development of autonomous kitchen robots. His research spans soft robotics, biohybrid systems, musculoskeletal robotics, and dynamic control, with work published in top journals such as Science Robotics and Nature.

Robert’s contributions have been recognized internationally, including as a IEEE RAS Senior Member, Ellis Member, and a TED Fellow. His TED Talk from 2022 on robots inspired by animal movement has been viewed by millions. He serves as an Editor for the International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR) and IEEE BioRob and holds leadership roles in major conferences such as Robotics Science and Systems (RSS), ICRA, IROS and RoboSoft. Additionally, he is an Editorial Board Member of Advanced Robotics Research and npj Robotics. His work has been featured in prominent media outlets, including The New York Times, National Geographic, and BBC News.

Dr. Anca-Georgiana Rusu is the Executive Director of the Swiss Robotics Association and Community Manager at the EPFL Robotics Center. Working at the intersection of research, innovation and community building, she plays a central role in connecting Switzerland’s robotics ecosystem and translating scientific excellence into meaningful collaborations and opportunities.

As EPFL’s focal point for robotics, Anca brings together academic laboratories, industry partners, start-ups, students and public institutions. She coordinates strategic visits to EPFL robotics laboratories and develops initiatives that strengthen the visibility and impact of robotics within Switzerland and internationally. Until the program concluded in 2025, Anca coordinated the Innovation Booster Robotics.

Before moving into robotics and innovation, Anca spent more than six years as a Project Manager at EPFL’s International Risk Governance Center. There, she led interdisciplinary research projects examining the opportunities, risks and governance challenges associated with emerging technologies.

Anca holds a Master’s degree in Social Sciences, specializing in communication and culture, from the University of Lausanne. She earned her PhD from Paris Dauphine University, where her research explored how organizational communication shapes the development and adoption of emerging technologies, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence.

Marco Tempest is a cyber-illusionist and Partner for Creative Technology and Innovation at ETH Zurich | Space. As a Director's Fellow at the MIT Media Lab and Creative Technologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he spent years using the tools of magic: stagecraft, psychology, and narrative design, to make unimagined futures feel real. The results have funded multi-year research programs, aligned engineering teams across decades, and changed how some of the world’s most advanced organizations think about what’s possible.

Thomas is currently working as professor and Head of ETH Zurich | Space, founding director of ETH’s GeoLab, and as a sought-after speaker, consultant and board member for Schindler group, Firefly, and McKinley. He was the longest continually running Head of Science at NASA from 2016 to 2022 responsible for 130 missions with 37 launches including JWST, Parker and Perseverance. Previously, he was a Professor for Space Science and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan. Also, founder of one of the largest University-based Entrepreneurship programs worldwide - the Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship.

He holds an MS and PhD in physics/astrophysics from the University of Bern and received many awards and recognitions, including four honorary doctorates, and membership of the International Academy of Astronautics.