2019 CARLA FENDI STEM AWARD

TO BARBARA MAZZOLAI and CECILIA LASCHI

At the Caio Melisso Carla Fendi Theatre in Spoleto, the 8th edition of the Carla Fendi STEM Award took place following the event ECCE ROBOT, a journey into the future already at hand — from the scientific abstractions of Artificial Intelligence to the practical applications of robotics. The Carla Fendi S.T.E.M. Award, a monetary contribution destined for educational purposes, was assigned to two leading Italian figures in soft robotics: Barbara Mazzolai, Director of the Center for Micro-BioRobotics at the Italian Institute of Technology and head of the Plantoid project (robots inspired by plant organisms), and Cecilia Laschi, Full Professor of Industrial Bioengineering at the BioRobotics Institute of the Sant’Anna School in Pisa, creator of Octopus, the world’s first fully soft robot. Both researchers — working in Pontedera, the technological branch of IIT Genoa and the Sant’Anna School — are listed among the “25 most brilliant women in robotics” (RoboHub).