Prof. Nikolaos M. Freris, University of Science and Technology of China, China

Nick Freris is Professor in the School of Computer Science at USTC and former Vice Dean of the InternaDonal College (2019-2024). He received the Diploma in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the NaDonal Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece, in 2005, and the M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the M.S. degree in MathemaDcs, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering all from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2007, 2008, and 2010, respectively.
His research lies in AIoT: distributed learning, opDmizaDon, data mining, networking, and control, with applicaDons in intelligent transportaDon, power systems, and roboDcs. His research has been sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the Anhui Department of Science and Technology, Tencent, and the NaDonal Science FoundaDon (NSF), USA. He was recognized with the USTC Alumni FoundaDon InnovaDon Scholar Award (twice), the IBM High Value Patent Award, and the IBM InvenDon Achievement Award (twice).
Previously, he was with the faculty of New York University (Abu Dhabi and New York) and, before that, he held senior researcher and postdoctoral researcher posiDons at EPFL and IBM Research in Switzerland. Dr. Freris is a Senior Member of IEEE, ACM, and CCF. Website: h8p://staff.ustc.edu.cn/~nfr/.

Speech Title: SpiRobs: Bioinspired So/ Spiral Robots

Abstract: SpiRobs morphologically replicate the spiral pa8ern that is ubiquitous in natural organisms (elephant, octopus, chameleon, etc.). They are easy and fast to build across arbitrary scale via 3D prinDng. Cable actuaDon allows for fast and life-like movements. Besides, a single robot can handle a wide variety of objects (in terms of size, shape, and weight). A key to this is a bioinspired grasping strategy from the octopus. Finally, I will also demonstrate a wide range of prototypes, including a miniaturized gripper, a manipulator mounted on a drone, and mulD-robot arrays that can grasp in a tendril-like fashion. A video descripDon is available at: h8ps://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1CDCVYtEoW.