PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Alessandra Sciutti

Alessandra Sciutti is a robotics researcher whose work explores how people and robots understand each other and how embodied experience can ground language models. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees in Bioengineering and a Ph.D. in Humanoid Technologies from the University of Genova in 2010, then coauthored a 2015 perspective on reading intentions with humanoid robots. In 2018, she received the ERC Starting Grant wHiSPER for shared human-robot perception; in 2024, she and three coauthors outlined a roadmap for grounding LLMs through bodily, temporal and social experience. She coordinates ARIEL's myCube project for assessing children's object manipulation. In January 2026, she led MERLIN, a project developing technology to support people with dyslexia; as of October 2026, she is a Senior Tenure Track Researcher and head of IIT's CONTACT Unit.

Links
Google Scholar and LinkedIn

Timeline

  1. 2010

    Bioengineering and a doctorate

    She earns bachelor's and master's degrees in Bioengineering and a Ph.D. in Humanoid Technologies from the University of Genova in 2010.

  2. 2015

    Reading intentions with robots

    In 2015, she coauthors a perspective proposing humanoid robots as tools to study intention reading from movement, with a controlled, natural interactive scenario.

  3. By 2018

    Research periods abroad

    By 2018, she completes two research periods in the United States and Japan.

  4. 2018

    wHiSPER and shared perception

    In 2018, she receives the ERC Starting Grant wHiSPER to investigate joint perception between people and robots.

  5. 2018

    Assistant professor at Genoa

    In 2018, she serves as an assistant professor at the University of Genoa.

  6. 2024

    Grounding LLMs in experience

    In 2024, she and three coauthors outline a roadmap for grounding LLMs through active bodily experience, temporally structured experience and social skills for shared understanding.

  7. 2025–2026

    ARIEL's multisensory cube

    She coordinates ARIEL, an ERC Proof of Concept project for 2025–2026. It develops myCube, a multisensory cube for the quantitative assessment of children's object manipulation.

  8. As of October 2026

    Leading CONTACT and MERLIN

    In January 2026, she leads MERLIN, an ERC Proof of Concept project developing technology to support people with dyslexia. As of October 2026, she is a Senior Tenure Track Researcher and head of IIT's CONTACT Unit.

Career

  1. NowItalian Institute of TechnologySenior Tenure Track Researcher
  2. From 2018University of GenoaAssistant professor

Education

  1. 2010University of GenoaBachelor's degree in Bioengineering

From the biography.

  1. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes Italian Institute of Technology. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Italian Institute of Technology. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Italian Institute of Technology. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Genoa. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Alessandra Sciutti | People details - COgNiTive Architecture for Collaborative Technologies contact.iit.it. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Investigating the ability to read others’ intentions using humanoid robots | Frontiers in Psychology frontiersin.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Alessandra Sciutti | People iit.it. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. [2409.16900] A Roadmap for Embodied and Social Grounding in LLMs arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Alessandra Sciutti | Titolare di borsa ERC iit.it. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. In Genoa, Milan and Naples, five IIT researchers win new ERC funding opentalk.iit.it. Checked 21 October 2026.