Juan M. Gandarias is an Assistant Professor in the Systems Engineering and Automation Department at the University of Malaga, Spain, where he conducts his research in the Robotics and Mechatronics Lab. He is the Principal Investigator of the STIFF-JAM project and has participated as a senior researcher in several international projects. He has supervised one Ph.D. thesis, one M.Sc., and 8 B.Sc theses. He has been a senior postdoctoral researcher in the Human-Robot Interfaces and Interaction group at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, led by Dr. Arash Ajoudani. He has participated as senior postdoc in the European project Ergo-Lean, a Starting Grant Project from the European Research Council (ERC). He also participated as a senior researcher in the SOPHIA, framed within the Horizon 2020 initiative of the European Union. He collaborates as scientific advisor in the Real-Move start-up project, awarded with Proof-of-Concept funding from the ERC and winner of the SmartCup Liguria Award (industrial category). He has participated in European, Spanish and Italian projects as predoctoral and postdoctoral researcher. He has authored 40 publications in scientific journals and flagship conferences in the fields of robotics, automation and artificial intelligence. In 2024, he was a finalist for the best paper award in Human-Robot Interaction at the ICRA 2024 conference, and in mobile manipulation at the IROS 2022 conference. He is also the inventor of one international patent. He served as editor for two special issues of the Sensors journal. He has been a member of the program committee for the international conferences ROBOT 2022 and ROBOT 2023, an associate editor for the ICAR 2023 conference, and organized workshops at IEEE Humanoids 2020 and IROS 2022. He has reviewed over 60 articles for prestigious scientific journals and conferences such as IEEE RAM, Soft Robotics, RA-L, ICRA, IROS, ToH, or RCIM among others. Previously, he received his B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Málaga in 2015, 2017, and 2020, respectively. He obtained the Cum Laude and international mentions for his Ph.D. degree as well as the extraordinary award for the best doctoral dissertation in Mechatronics Engineering of his promotion. During his PhD, he spent four months as a Ph.D. visitor at the Soft Haptics & Robotics Lab, led by Prof. Helge Wurdemann in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University College London. He has taught approximately 300 hours for various Engineering degrees. He has also received over 150 hours of additional training beyond his official qualifications. He has participated in an Educational Innovation Project at the University of Málaga and attended a national conference on educational innovation. His main research interests include physical Human-Robot Interaction, compliant robots, and haptics.

Awards and honors

• ICRA 2024 Best Paper Award Finalist on Human-Robot Interaction.
• SmartCup Liguria Award 2023 (Industrial Category)
• IROS 2022 Best Paper Award Finalist on Mobile Manipulation sponsored by OMRON Sinic X Corp.
• Best PhD in Mechatronics Engineering Award from the University of Malaga.
• Ph.D. Thesis with honors (Cum Laude). Intelligent Haptic Perception for Physical Robot Interaction.
• Travel award IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2022).
• Grant from the European Commission for the completion of the Ph.D. Thesis. BES-2016-078237.
• M.S. Thesis with honors. Applications of tactile perception to rescue robotics, 2017.
• B.S. Thesis with honors. Enhanced control of an admittance-type haptic device for education, 2015.

Workshops Organization

• IROS WS, “Workshop on Assistive Robotic Systems for Human Balancing and Walking: Emerging Trends and Perspectives”, 2022.
• Humanoids WS,"Workshop on Floating-base Robots in Manufacturing and Logistics Operations: Opportunities and Challenge" 2021.

Committees

• IEEE International Congerence on Autonomous Robots (ICAR), Associate Editor, 2023.
• Teh Sixth Iberian Robotics Conference (ROBOT), International Program Committee, 2023.
• IEEE RAS Young Reviewers Program, Senior Reviewer, 2023.
• IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts (ARSO), Session Chair, 2023.
• Frontiers in Robotics and AI - Robot Design, Review Editor, 2022.
• MDPI Sensors, Guest Editor of the Special Issue on Robotic Contact with the Human Body in Physical Human-Robot Interaction, edition I (2021) and edition II (2024).