Marco is an assistant professor for robotic systems at ETH Zurich and co-founder of ANYbotics AG and Bota Systems AG. He studied mechanical engineering and completed his doctoral degree in robotics at ETH. Marco’s research interests are in the development of novel machines and actuation concepts together with the underlying control, planning, and learning algorithms for locomotion and manipulation. Marco is part of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics and NCCR Digital Fabrication and PI in various international projects (e.g. EU Thing) and challenges (e.g. DARPA SubT). His work in this field has been recognized with a number of awards and prestigious grants such as the Branco Weiss Fellowship, ETH medal, IEEE/RAS Early Career Award or ERC Starting Grant.

Nicola Nosengo is the Science Writer and Communication Officer for NCCR Robotics, which brings together over a hundred researchers from 7 Swiss research institutions working on robotics and Artificial Intelligence. He has a degree in Communication from the University of Siena (Italy) and a master in Science Communication from the International School of Advanced Studies (ISAS) in Trieste. As a science writer, he has contributed to Nature, The Economist and several Italian publications, covering AI, robotics, neuroscience and technology in general. In addition to his journalistic work, he has worked as a communicator for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Institute for Astrophysics. He has written three books for the general public and has worked with RAI (Italy’s public broadcasting company) for projects and programmes on science and technology. He is based at EPFL in Lausanne.