Spotlight on Carme Torras
She’s an ELLIS Fellow, member of the ELLIS Unit Barcelona and ELLIS Program “ELLIS Robot Learning: Closing the Reality Gap!”
She works on assistive robotics, with emphasis on cloth manipulation. By combining mathematical modelling, physics simulation and machine learning algorithms, her team has developed robot prototypes for feeding people, helping them to dress and providing cognitive training.
To close the reality gap, the prototypes are co-created with the involved stakeholders, including health system managers, innovation experts, care providers, ethics advisors, and patient associations.
She says she wanted to take part in this campaign because, “It is very important that women participate in technological development, and most so in the case of such disruptive and impactful technologies as AI/ML that are shaping society and the future. Placing female researchers on the spotlight as this campaign does is a valuable step for other women to realize that they can join as well, and for men to gain awareness of the difficult path some of these women have faced or will face.”