Short Bio

Prof. Piazza received a B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering, a M.S. in Automation and Robotics Engineering and a PhD degree in Robotics (summa cum laude, 2019) from the University of Pisa (Italy). During her PhD, she had a prominent role in the participation to several international competitions: Mechanical Design Expert of the team UNIPI-IIT-QB in Robotic Grasping and Manipulation Competition at IROS 2016 (I place) and of the team SoftHand Pro in Cybathlon Powered Arm Prosthesis 2016 (V place), and Team Leader of the SoftHand Pro team in Cybathlon Powered Arm Prosthesis Global Edition 2020 (II place). She subsequently moved to Chicago (USA) where she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University and the Regenstein Foundation Center for Bionic Medicine, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (former Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago). Since 2020, Prof. Piazza is tenure track assistant professor for Heathcare and Rehabilitation Robotics at the Technische Universität München (TUM). 

Prof. Piazza is currently co-chair of the IEEE/RAS Technical Committees for Robotic Hand, Grasping and Manipulation (since 2022), and IEEE/RAS Technical Committees for Cyborgs and Bionic Systems (since 2023). She is Associate Editor for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters journal since 2023 and Editor-in-Chief for the conference IEEE/RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob) 2024. She has served as Associate Editor for the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and IEEE/RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob) from 2020 to 2024. Prof. Piazza was General Chair of the 16th International Symposium on Human Friendly Robotics (HFR) 2023, and Financial Chair for IEEE/RAS/EMBS Biorob 2024 and IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII) 2025.

Dr. Piazza has received several academic awards, including the best paper award at the conference IEEE Humanoid 2012, the Dr. Kanako Miura Award, and PhD Talent 2019 award for the best PhD Thesis at the University of Pisa.

The research activity of Professor Piazza focuses on the areas of rehabilitation and assistive robotics. Her main research interests include the study of human movement, the design of artificial devices based on soft robotics technologies, the development of innovative control algorithms to address different levels of amputation and their assessment for robotic and prosthetic applications. The ultimate goal is to build intelligent prostheses and promote a natural integration of bionic limbs. She has also experience in designing and conducting clinical trials with subjects with limb loss, in close collaboration with national and international clinical partners.