Carme Torras - Curriculum vitae#

Full CV

Research Professor at the Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC) since 1991

Academic degrees

She received M.Sc. degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Universitat de Barcelona and the University of Massachusetts, in 1978 and 1981, respectively, and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in 1984.

Publications

Prof. Torras has coauthored 8 books, 149 journal papers, and about 220 conference papers and book chapters. She has made contributions in several areas within Robotics, Neurocomputing and Artificial Intelligence, which have appeared in prestigious journals as follows:

Robot kinematics, Motion planning and Robot vision – 13 IEEE Trans. on Robotics, 11 IEEE Robotics & Automation Letters, 4 Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 3 Autonomous Robots, 3 Intelligent Service Robotics, 2 Intl. Journal of Robotics Research, 2 IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, 2 Mechanism and Machine Theory, 2 Journal of Robotic Systems, 2 Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, IEEE Sensors, Journal of Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine.

Neurocomputing – 5 IEEE Trans. on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 4 IEEE Trans. on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, 2 Neural Networks, 2 Biological Cybernetics, Journal of Machine Learning Research, Journal of Mathematical Biology, IEEE Trans. on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems, Sensors and Actuators A-Physical, Neural Computation, Natural Computing, Theoretical Computer Science, Intl. Journal of Neural Systems, Journal of Artificial Neural Networks, Neurocomputing, Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, Journal of Interaction Studies, Connection Science, Machine Learning.

Geometric reasoning and Computer vision – 5 Artificial Intelligence Journal, 3 Pattern Recognition, 3 Engineering Applications of AI, 2 Intl. Journal of Computer Vision, 2 Image and Vision Computing, 2 AI Communications, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, Intl. J. of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence, Computer-Aided Design, Computers & Graphics, Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference, Geometriae Dedicata, Digital Signal Processing, Computer Science Review, The Visual Computer, Computer Vision and Image Understanding.

Editorial work

Carme Torras was Associate Editor and then Senior Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics (2010-18) and she currently serves in the Editorial Boards of 6 journals and one book series. Moreover, she was Associate Vice-President for Publications of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) in 2011 and 2012.

Conference organization

Prof. Torras has been Co-Chair of several international conferences, and has served in the Program Committees of the major conferences in her areas of expertise, namely ICRA, RSS, IROS, ICAR, IJCAI, AAAI, ECAI, IJCNN, ICANN, ICML, ECML, ECAL and ECCV.

Research projects

Carme Torras has been local project leader of several European projects, such as “Planning RObot Motion” (PROMotion), “Robot Control based on Neural Network Systems” (CONNY), “Self-organization and Analogical Modelling using Subsymbolic Computing” (SUBSYM), “Behavioural Learning: Sensing and Acting” (B-LEARN), the 6th framework IP project “Perception, Action and COgnition through Learning of Object-Action Complexes” (PACO-PLUS), the 7th framework projects “Gardening with a Cognitive System” (GARNICS) and “Intelligent observation and execution of actions and manipulations” (IntellAct), the H2020 project “Robots understanding their actions by imagining their effects” (IMAGINE), and she was the coordinator of the Chist-Era project “Assistive interactive robotic system for support in dressing” (I-DRESS). Currently, she leads her ERC Advanced Grant CLOTHILDE: “CLOTH manIpulation Learning from DEmonstrations” (2018-2023), and she is CSIC's leader of the Horizon Europe project SOFTENABLE: “Towards Soft Fixture-Based Manipulation Primitives Enabling Safe Robotic Manipulation in Hazardous Healthcare and Food Handling Applications” (2022-2026).

Technology transfer

Among her major technological works are an inverse kinematics software package for a space robot developed for Daimler-Benz Aerospace, a vision algorithm for vehicle navigation within a factory and outdoors, transferred to some companies like Robosoft, and the patent “Robotized cutting tool and sample extraction” (ES2395931A1, WO2013011180A1).

Thesis advisor

Prof. Torras has supervised 20 PhD theses, and some of her former students have become very renowned researchers, holding academic positions as Professor at University of Texas-Austin and winner of the IEEE Norbert Wiener Award 2011 (José del R. Millán), CSIC Research Professor (Federico Thomas), Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Canberra (Elisa Martínez), as well as executive positions in leading companies like Roca (Joan Ilari) and Bosch (Leonel Rozo).

Services to the Community

She served as member of the Area Committee of Physics Sciences and Technologies of CSIC (1993-96, 2004-08), the Administrative Committee of IEEE RAS (2016-18), and the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Spanish Research Agency (AEI) (2017-19). She is currently co-coordinator of AIHub-CSIC, and a member of the Advisory Panel of the Swiss National Center of Excellence (NCCR) in Robotics (2016-pres.), the Valencian Advisory Board on AI (ValgrAI) (2021-pres.), and the Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence of the Spanish Government (2020-pres.), among others.

Activities to promote Ethics in Robotics

Prof. Torras commitment to disseminate and discuss the social implications of robotics with wide audiences has led her to write two science fiction novels and participate in nine collective volumes, where ethical issues in technology play a key role. Her novel La mutació sentimental (Pagès Editors, 2008), winner of the Manuel de Pedrolo and Ictineu awards, has been translated into Spanish (Editorial Milenio, 2012) and into English as The Vestigial Heart (MIT Press, 2018), and published along with online materials to teach a university course on “Ethics in Social Robotics and AI”. Since 2020, she is a member of the Advisory Committee of Ethics in AI of the Catalan Government, the Ethics Committee of UPC, and Vice-President of the Ethics Committee of CSIC.

Awards

She received the “Narcís Monturiol” Medal of the Generalitat de Catalunya for her scientific and technological accomplishments (2000), she was nominated Fellow of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (2007), Member of Academia Europaea (2010), Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona (2013), Member of Institut d`Estudis Catalans (2017), and IEEE Fellow (2019). Recently, she has been awarded the 'Julio Peláez' Prize to pioneer women in science (2019), the Catalan National Research Award (2020) and the Spanish National Research Award 'Julio Rey Pastor' in Mathematics and Information and Communication Technologies (2020).