Technology Innovation Institute Appoints Globally-Renowned Experts to Board of Advisors at Autonomous Robotics Research Centre

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 7 April 2021: Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research pillar of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), today announced the appointment of leading international experts to the Board of Advisors at its Autonomous Robotics Research Centre (ARRC).

The appointments follow a series of rapid announcements at Technology Innovation Institute since the first Advanced Technology Research Council board meeting in August 2020. 

Autonomous Robotics Research Centre is one of the initial seven specialised centres at the Technology Innovation Institute.  Members of the new Board of Advisors are renowned experts in various fields of intelligent autonomy, autonomous systems and robotics, robotics and perception, among others. The Centre’s researchers are engaged in exploring the latest advances in robotics that will help build hybrid societies made up of biological and artificial systems. The distinguished Board of Advisors will guide efforts to develop breakthrough technologies that have global impact.

The Board of Advisors includes Prof. Ian F. Akyildiz, the Ken Byers Chair Professor, Director of the Broadband Wireless Networking Lab and Chair of the Telecommunications Group at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States; Prof. Luca Benini, Chair of Digital Circuits and Systems at the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich and Professor of Electronics at Italy’s University of Bologna; Prof. Marko Bertogna, Professor at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, where he leads the High-Performance Real-Time Systems Laboratory; Prof. A. E. Eiben, Professor of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Collective Systems at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Visiting Professor at the University of York in the UK; Prof. Giuseppe Loianno, Assistant Professor of Robotics and Perception at New York University in the United States, and Prof. Martin Saska, founder of the Multi-Robot Systems Group at the Department of Cybernetics of Czech Technical University in Prague.

Speaking about the new appointments, Dr Najwa Aaraj, Acting Chief Researcher at Autonomous Robotics Research Centre, said: “The board members will facilitate scientific collaborations that will enable verifiable, rigorous, systematic, and empirical scientific investigation and research in advanced technology, putting Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE in a prime position to shape future capabilities in autonomous robotics across all dimensions - air, land, water, underwater, and even in space.”