Giulio Sandini

Timeline

1. 1976–1984

   Bioengineering and visual research

   He earns a degree in electronic engineering (bioengineering) from the University of Genova in 1976 and works as a research fellow and assistant professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa until 1984. At CNR's Laboratorio di Neurofisiologia, he studies visual processing in single neurons and visual perception in adults and children.

2. 1984–1996

   LIRA-Lab and MIT

   After returning to Genova in 1984, he becomes associate professor of Natural and Artificial Intelligent Systems and founds LIRA-Lab in 1990. In 1996, he visits MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab as a Visiting Scientist.

3. 2004

   Shaping IIT's robotics program

   In 2004, commissioner Vittorio Grilli appoints him as an expert in anthropomorphic robotics to help prepare IIT's initial scientific program for its Robotics and Neuroscience platform.

4. 2004–2010

   Building the iCub platform

   From 2004 to 2010, he coordinates RobotCub, an EU-funded project in which 11 European partners develop the iCub humanoid for research on human sensory, motor and cognitive development. In 2005, the project aims to create an open humanoid platform for embodied-cognition research.

5. 2006–2020

   An IIT robotics department

   In June 2006, he establishes IIT's Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences department and becomes principal investigator of its research unit. The department studies machine learning and artificial cognition. From July 2006 to November 2020, he serves as Director of Research at IIT.

6. 2017

   Cognitive Robotics committee award

   In 2017, IEEE's Robotics and Automation Society gives its Most Active Technical Committee award to the Technical Committee on Cognitive Robotics. Sandini serves as one of the committee's chairs with Matthias Scheutz, Shingo Shimoda and David Vernon.

7. 2025

   Mutual human-robot understanding

   In July 2025, he coauthors the review “Mutual human-robot understanding for a robot-enhanced society: the crucial development of shared embodied cognition” with Alessandra Sciutti and Pietro Morasso. In September 2025, he gives the keynote “Structure and Function in Developmental Robotics” at the IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning, linking robot structure and function to the search for general adaptation.

8. As of October 2026

   Professor and visiting scientist

   He is a Founding Director at IIT and a Visiting Scientist with its COgNiTive Architecture for Collaborative Technologies unit. He is also a full professor of bioengineering at the University of Genoa.