Rate My Professor Cecilia Laschi

Cecilia Laschi is Provost's Chair Professor of robotics at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She leads the Soft Robotics Lab and serves as Director of the Advanced Robotics Centre. She is also Co-Director of CARTIN. Her position is within the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the College of Design and Engineering. She is on leave from her previous role as Full Professor of Biorobotics at the BioRobotics Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy. Laschi received her Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Pisa and her PhD in Robotics from the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. Her research centers on soft robotics, an area she pioneered with a bio-inspired approach that began with studies of the octopus as a model for robotics. She investigates fundamental challenges in building robots using soft materials and deformable structures. Her work explores marine applications of soft robots as well as their use in the biomedical field, with a focus on eldercare. She has also contributed to humanoid and neuro-robotics by applying brain models in humanoid robots. Laschi is recognized for her contributions to the international development of soft robotics through her leadership of the Soft Robotics Lab at NUS and her extensive academic appointments.