Meet the team

Kerstin Eder is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bristol, heads the Trustworthy Systems Laboratory (https://www.bristol.ac.uk/tsl) and leads the Verification & Validation for Safety in Robots research theme at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. Her expertise is in simulation-based testing and formal methods to gain confidence in the trustworthiness of complex systems from semiconductor designs and cyber-physical systems to human-assistive robots and automated vehicles. Her research is focused on novel modelling, analysis and combinations of techniques to achieve solutions that make a difference in practice, including functional correctness, safety and security properties as well as power dissipation and energy… [Read more]

Nathan F. Lepora is an academic with cross-disciplinary interests in robotics and neuroscience. His main focus is on dexterous robots with a human-like sense of touch and manual intelligence, an area undergoing rapid and exciting progress. He is a Professor of Robotics & AI at the University of Bristol, leading the Tactile Robotics Group in Bristol Robotics Laboratory with 15 researchers in robotics, AI and neuroscience. He holds a Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Award on: ‘A Biomimetic Forebrain for Robot Touch’. Nathan also writes children’s books on science and technology, most recently ‘Robots!’ in the acclaimed Findout! series by Dorling-Kindersley. [Read more]

Jonathan Rossiter is Professor of Robotics at the University of Bristol and Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Founder and Head of the Soft Robotics research group, Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies and pioneer and world leader in the field of Soft Robotics - the development of soft materials, mechanisms and machines that will have a huge impact on almost all aspect of our lives, from healthcare and virtual reality to environmental protection and space systems.  He was previously awarded a EPSRC Research Fellowship and a Royal Society Research Fellowship.  Jonathan has been awarded over £40m research funding and has… [Read more]

Lee Loong Yi is a posdoctoral research associate with the Bristol Softlab at the University of Bristol. He is keen on bringing robots and humans closer together via focusing on accessibility in robotics and automation. Currently, his research focus includes digital fabrication, optimisation, and application of soft robotic technologies for manipulation. [Read more]

Saekwang Nam is a postdoctoral research associate in the Dexterous Robotics Group of Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL). His main interests are understanding contact mechanics created on a (human/robot) finger and applying the knowledge for object manipulation. Before joining BRL, he worked as a doctoral student at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, studying fingerpad-surface interaction. In addition, he has a wide variety of study/research experiences in Japan, the United States, South Korea, Germany, and the United Kingdom. [Read more]

Anas Shrinah is a senior research associate in the verification and validation of Smart Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) Systems at the Trustworthy Systems Laboratory at the University of Bristol. Anas's research is focused on developing automatic test scenario generation methods and coverage analysis techniques to assess the effectiveness of simulation-based testing of HRC systems.   Anas has a first-class honours BEng in Computer and Automation Engineering. He spent two years working on different automation projects in the industry, followed by five years working as an instrumentation and control engineer for Petrofac in the oil and gas industry. In 2017, Anas was… [Read more]

Phil is the head of the Integrated Systems Department and leads the Aero-structure Assembly and Systems Installation Research Group and is currently leading a number of projects on aero-structure assembly and aircraft systems installation. As the Deputy Director of the EPSRC Centre in Intelligent Automation is involved in a significant number of projects on advanced automation and especially human collaborative automation and robotics. [Read more]

Seemal is CU control lead for ATI-funded Airbus project for Module-Positioning (AutoRamp; TRL:5-7). She have 12 years’ experience in academia and 4 years’ experience in industry - Software house (associated with academia). She is an enthusiastic scientist, chartered-engineer and higher-education-academy-Fellow who always look for opportunities to solve problems that help make life easier by working closely with industry to provide them with automated system which not only include expert-human in the loop but also assist the operators with manual handling and precision. She is a strong believer of human in the loop of automation where possible which not only help… [Read more]

Sarah heads the Industrial Psychology and Human Factors research group in the Centre for Robotics and Assembly at Cranfield University, and has been leading human-automated system interaction research for over 22 years. Her research work focuses on improving the integration of people with automation / robotic systems through the development of effective user interfaces and implementation strategies that enhance trust, satisfaction, performance and safety behaviours. She has led numerous human analysis programmes in UK and EU research projects, mostly within the manufacturing sector, and works on the development of national and international standards in robotics, robot ethics, human-system ergonomics, and… [Read more]

Dr. Christopher Burns (B.A., MRes, Phd) is a cognitive psychologist with a background in individual differences, psychophysiology and research methods who obtained his doctorate from Edinburgh University in 2008. Chris has previously worked in driving simulation and medical training simulation (University College Cork), cognition, motivation and pain (Liverpool John Moores University), and automotive human factors (Warwick WMG and Jaguar Land Rover) and human factors in software evaluation (University of Edinburgh and Mozilla) using mixed-methods approaches including psychometrics, qualitative and psychophysiological measures. Chris Joined Cranfield University's School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing in August 2022 to work on aspects of Horizon… [Read more]