Auke Ijspeert.

Auke Ijspeert

Professor of biorobotics
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

Auke Ijspeert is professor of biorobotics and head of the Biorobotics Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), where he is also an IEEE Fellow. His research interests are at the intersection between robotics and computational neuroscience. He is interested in using numerical simulations and robots to gain a better understanding of animal locomotion and movement control, and in using inspiration from biology to design novel types of robots and locomotion controllers. He is also interested in assisting people with limited mobility, using exoskeletons and assistive furniture.

Ijspeert has a B.Sc./M.Sc. in physics from the EPFL and a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh. With his colleagues, he has received paper awards at the 2002 and 2024 International Conference on Robotics and Automation; the 2005, 2015 and 2019 Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots; the 2007 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots; the 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication; and the 2018 International Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior. He is associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics and was a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors of Science from 2016 to 2025.

Explore more from The Transmitter

Fruit flies use memory to track odors

When flies encounter a tasty smell, they stroll in and out of the odor plume—a process that depends on encoding a memory of the angle needed to travel back to the plume, according to a new study.

By Calli McMurray
8 September 2026 | 2 min watch
Map of genome variation.

New methods to contextualize autism-linked genes, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 7 September.

By Jill Adams
8 September 2026 | 2 min read
Illustration of folded origami.

Dimensionality—neuroscience’s red herring?

Placing too much emphasis on a specific interpretation of dimensionality, or treating it as an end-all quantification of some aspect of neural computation, may hinder progress in understanding the brain.

By Matthew Perich
7 September 2026 | 8 min read