Rate My Professor Elahe Abdi

Dr. Elahe Abdi is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Monash University. She serves as Director of the Robotics in Medicine and Interaction Laboratory (RoMI Lab) and Robotics Education Liaison Representative for the Australian Robotics and Automation Association. Abdi obtained her PhD in Robotics from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, in 2017. After her doctorate, she moved to Australia to build her research team specializing in human-robot interaction, shared autonomy, and haptics, applied to medical robotics, construction automation, and service robotics. Her research develops intuitive controls for robot-assisted surgery and cranes, enhancing safety and efficiency to address workforce shortages and aging populations.

Abdi has earned numerous accolades, including nomination of her PhD thesis for the EPFL ABB best thesis award, Sanovica two-year full funding, and EPFL Prime Prize for exceptional work. She was a finalist for the Women’s Agenda Award “Emerging Leader in STEM” in 2021 and Women Leading Tech Award Education/Research in 2023. Named one of Science & Technology Australia’s Superstars of STEM for 2023-2024, she was also selected as a 2024-2025 Emerging Leader by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering. Key publications encompass “Control of a supernumerary robotic hand by foot: An experimental study in virtual reality” (PLoS ONE, 2015), “In a demanding task, three-handed manipulation is preferred to two-handed manipulation” (Scientific Reports, 2016), “Haptics in Teleoperated Medical Interventions: Force Measurement, Haptic Interfaces and Their Influence on User's Performance” (IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 2020), “A study on the influence of service robots’ level of anthropomorphism on the willingness of users to follow their recommendations” (Scientific Reports, 2022), and “Critical Review of Load Handover in Construction Cranes” (Journal of Architectural Engineering, 2025). With over 640 citations on Google Scholar, her contributions advance human-centred robotics, and she supervises PhD students in her lab.