Rate My Professor Pietro Valdastri

About Pietro

Professor Pietro Valdastri is the Chair in Robotics and Autonomous Systems in the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering within the Engineering faculty at the University of Leeds. He holds directorial positions at the Science and Technologies of Robotics in Medicine (STORM) Lab, the Institute of Robotics, Autonomous Systems and Sensing (IRASS), and the Robotics at Leeds network. Valdastri obtained his Laurea degree cum laude in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pisa in 2001 and his PhD cum laude in Biomedical Engineering from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in 2006. Following his doctorate, he served as Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna until 2011. From 2011 to 2016, he was Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University, before joining the University of Leeds in 2016.

Valdastri's research focuses on surgical robotics, robotic endoscopy, magnetic manipulation, and medical capsule robots. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal papers in medical robotics. Key publications include "Robotic magnetic steering and locomotion of capsule endoscope for diagnostic and surgical endoluminal procedures" (Robotica, 2010), "Advanced technologies for gastrointestinal endoscopy" (Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering, 2012), and "A new mechanism for mesoscale legged locomotion in compliant tubular environments" (IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2009). As principal investigator, he has obtained over £25 million in grants from NSF, NIH, ERC, EPSRC, and others. His accolades encompass the NSF CAREER Award (2015) for “Lifesaving Capsule Robots”, ERC Consolidator Grant (2019) for “NoLiMiTs”, KUKA Innovation Award (2019), Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, and IEEE Fellowship (2022). He edits Medical and Rehabilitation Robotics for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, co-founded WinMedical s.r.l. (acquired 2017), and founded Atlas Endoscopy Limited.