Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona

Spain

Research Areas

Robots

Biography

Alicia Casals was born in Barcelona, Spain and studied industrial engineering at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPS). She began teaching at the UPS after finishing her career in industrial engineering and became interested in robotics after her advisor returned from Japan, with information on robotics. She received her doctorate degree from UPS as well, researching on robotics object recognition, having the robots recognize objects through the shape of the curvature of the contours. Casals is currently a professor at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and is significantly involved with the IEEE, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE RAS), European Robotics Network (EURON), and Spanish Robotics Chapter.

Interview Synopsis

In this interview, Casals discusses her past and current work, her interest in integrating robots with humans, and her collaboration with companies and other non-academic institutions, and the challenges that come with it. She also gives advice to prospective students who are interested in the robotics field and her efforts in recruiting more women to the field of robotics.