Dr Dana D. Damian

PhD

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Senior Lecturer

Dana Damian
Profile picture of Dana Damian
d.damian@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Dr Dana D. Damian
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Amy Johnson Building
Portobello Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Profile

Dana D. Damian received her diploma in computer science and engineering from the Technical University Timisoara, Romania in 2007. In the same year she joined the Intelligent Systems Laboratory at University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to work on her diploma thesis with Prof. Nicu Sebe and Prof. Mihai Micea. At the end of 2007, she became a PhD candidate at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland under the supervision of Prof. Rolf Pfeifer.

In 2011 she was a Visiting Scholar for one year at the Haptics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, US and at the Collaborative Haptics in Robotics and Medicine, Stanford University, U.S.A. working with Prof. Allison Okamura. In 2012 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Soft Machines Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University, U.S.A., working with Prof. Carmel Majidi. From 2013 to 2015, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard University, Boston, USA, working with Prof. Pierre Dupont in the Pediatric Cardiac Bioengineering Laboratory. Since 2011, she is also a founder of the Private Library "Damian" in Romania.

Research interests
  • Bionic & Assistive Robotics: Developing life-like, long-term operational systems for adaptive healthcare
  • Physical Intelligence: Exploiting the computational interplay between material structures and mechanics
  • Soft Robotics & Bioengineering: Designing flexible, biocompatible systems
  • Embodied AI: Integrating artificial intelligence within physical robotic forms
  • Medical & Biological Devices: Robotic implants
    • Prosthetic wearables (tactile sensors and haptic devices)
    • Plant prostheses
Publications

Journal articles

  • Jones J & Damian DD (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, 7(3), 1329-1340.
  • Soliman M, Forbes F & Damian DD (2025) . Cyborg and Bionic Systems, 6.
  • Esendag K, McAlindon ME, Rus D, Miyashita S & Damian DD (2024) . IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics, 6(4), 1300-1308.
  • Pontin M & Damian DD (2024) . Science Robotics, 9(92).

Book chapters

  • Chen X, Tulasi SRS, Nnam CO, Damian D, Kinoshita S & Miyashita S (2026) , Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 293-303). Springer Nature Switzerland

Conference proceedings

  • Jones J, Pontin M & Damian DD (2024) . 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Proceedings (pp 7672-7678). Yokohama, Japan, 13 May 2024 - 13 May 2024.
  • Liu J, Soliman MA & Damian DD (2024) . 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Proceedings (pp 7665-7671). Yokohama, Japan, 13 May 2024 - 13 May 2024.
  • Esendag K, McAlindon M, Rus D, Miyashita S & Damian D (2023) . Proceedings of The 15th Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics 2023 (pp 105-106)
Grants
  • A new treatment for short bowel syndrome using a soft-matter robotic implant 鈥 a preclinical study, MRC, 10/2023 - 09/2024, 拢174,943, as PI
  • Tissue-RIMOTE: Tissue-Responsive Robotic Implants for In Vivo Mechanostimulation-Based Tissue Regeneration, EPSRC, 10/2019 - 08/2022, 拢260,698, as PI
  • Swiss National Foundation, Advanced Postdoc Mobility, 2014-2015, P300P2_151248, sole applicant
  • Swiss National Foundation, Prospective Researcher Fellowship, 2013, PBZHP2_143344, sole applicant
  • Swiss National Foundation, Prospective Researcher Fellowship, 2011, PBZHP2-135917, sole applicant
  • Swiss National Foundation, Dynamical Coupling in motor-sensory function substitution, 2010, #CR23I2_132702/1, co-applicant
Teaching activities

Module leader

  • ACS231 Mechatronics 

Also teaches on 

  • ACS6502 Mechatronics for Robotics

Guest lecturer

  • Introduction to Bioengineering, 爆料TV, Fall 2015
  • Artificial Life course, University of Zurich, 2009
  • Neural Networks course, University of Zurich, 2008
  • Introduction to Robotics lecture, 鈥淟ucian Blaga National High School鈥, Sebes, Romania