Could you briefly share with us your career journey, from studying physics to becoming a full professor of Biomedical Robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna? (What inspired you to transition into this highly specialized field, and what were some key milestones along the way?)

 I was a committed high school student, loving maths, physics, literature. I decided to study physics because it was less theoretical than maths and because I believed to have plenty of time in the future to study literature and other social sciences. It is not like that, unfortunately, but I am happy to have studied physics, for the solid bases that it gave to me. After the master thesis I was convinced that: 1) staying in a lab and living the University environment was very nice; 2) working in a company could be a sort of “old people choice”; 3) teaching could be a nice job, but high school teaching could be something to do after a while.

On the other hand I was not convinced that a super specialization in physics would have been appealing for all my life. A relative of mine knew a “strange” group working in Scuola Sant’Anna at the interface between bioengineering and robotics and recruting people with master (also) in biology, chemestry, physics. I applied for a PhD position and I obtained a position to work on micromanipulation of small bodies (e.g. cells) by using different robotic and not robotic principles. The PhD path was not easy: my competences in physics were useful for approaching the bold problems but not enough for entering in the details. Anyhow I found my research path and I used micromanipulation knowledge to enter the later the field of robotics for endoscopy.  

I had in the years the opportunity to collaborate with many experts in many fields (thanks to European projects, which have been a sort of gym for me). And one step after another step… I am here. 

The good feeling pushing me to move away from physics was a timely decision. And anyhow I am still introducing physics in the projects that I do. The employment of ultrasound energy and magnetic fields for doing interventions is a demonstration of my origins. 

You have received multiple awards for your work, including the KUKA Innovation Award for robotic-assisted focused ultrasound. Could you share the impact of this achievement on your ongoing research and what excites you the most about the future of medical robotics?

Awards are fantastic because they provide energy and they motivate both the recipients and the people working on the same topics. They are mentioned in the CV with emphasis and they are useful for promotions. Now I am more excited of awards and promotions of my students rather than me. They can make me really proud! Medical robotics is moving towards the minimally / no invasiveness approach, thanks to the progress of diagnostics. And I am also interested in novel tools adapting to the body and implanted in the body for treating chronic diseases.

EELISA places a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration and real-world impact. How do you see biomedical robotics, particularly in areas like smart devices and soft robotics, contributing to societal challenges such as healthcare access and sustainability? And how can EELISA students and researchers contribute to these developments?

As mentioned above, I have to thank collaborative European projects that were fundamental to me to generate an interdisciplinary approach to problems. The Renaissance engineer that EELISA is promoting is something very close to my PhD training. Recently, I have been working on surgical simulators and simple devices for making a difference in low-income countries. What I always say to my students is not falling in love (too much) with a specific technology and trying to apply it to ALL the problems. It is important to look out of our personal S&T box for finding a creative solution and solving the problems in a more interdisciplary (and more sustainable) way.

Lastly, from your perspective, what makes EELISA compelling to researchers and students from around the world? How can EELISA help foster innovation, collaboration, and real-world impact in fields like biomedical robotics, and why should others consider joining the alliance?

I think that in the DNA of EELISA there is what we need to make solid research with an impact. In medical robotics but also in many other sectors. What we could do for convincing people about the added value of EELISA is to tell success stories of students involved in or trained by EELISA. This can be easier for doctoral students, trained in solid European Joint PhD, while it can be more difficult for undergraduated students, who could be worried about the solidity of a training program based on multiple universities and requiring many changes of locations. In this sense, the main priority for me in EELISA is developing convincing undergraduated shared programs where involving selected groups (e.g. universities which are leaders in in vivo trials, at least for medical robotics), rather than enlarging the network without a specific strategy.