Dana D. Damian

Dr Dana D. Damian is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield. She holds a PhD from the University of Zurich (summa cum laude) and has held visiting scholar positions at Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, and Carnegie Mellon University. Her research focuses on developing bionic and assistive robots for long-term healthcare applications, particularly in soft robotics, regenerative medicine, and medical devices. She leads the Sheffield Biomedical Robotics Lab, which designs implantable and ingestible robots for tissue regeneration and disease treatment.

Education:

• PhD in Artificial Intelligence, University of Zurich (2012)
• Diploma in Computer Science & Engineering, Technical University Timisoara (2007)

Research Interests: Dr Damian's work bridges robotics, bioengineering, and materials science. She develops soft robots that interact safely with biological systems, including robotic implants for tissue repair, biohybrid systems using living organisms, and wearable haptic devices for medical training. Her lab emphasizes fault-tolerant designs and sustainable materials for in vivo applications.

Grants & Awards:

• MRC Impact Accelerator Award (2023)
• EPSRC New Investigator Award (2019-2021)
• Best Paper in Medical Robotics, IEEE ICRA 2020
• Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowships (2011-2015)

Students & Collaborations: Dr Damian has mentored over 50 PhD and Master's students, many of whom now hold roles in academia and industry. Her lab collaborates with clinicians at Sheffield Children's Hospital and engineers at MIT on projects like robotic implants for esophageal atresia treatment and ingestible origami robots for gastrointestinal care.

Labs & Teams: The Sheffield Biomedical Robotics Lab works closely with the York Microrobotics Lab and the Insigneo Institute. Notable projects include the development of a soft robotic implant for short bowel syndrome and a self-folding origami capsule for drug delivery.