Leonardo Cappello obtained his bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Florence with the thesis “The Design of Lower Limb Prosthesis for Developing Countries” in 2009. With such thesis he won the “Tattarillo” Award 2012 - Appropriate technologies and South of the World, released by Engineers Without Borders – Florence.
In 2011 he graduated in Biomedical Engineering – master degree – with the thesis “Design of patella loading device for use during knee surgery” at University of Florence. Such thesis was written during the internship LLLP/Erasmus Placement at the European Centre for Knee Research, Smith & Nephew, Leuven (Belgium).
In 2012 he was recruited as research fellow by the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and in 2013 he was enrolled in the PhD course in “Robotics, Cognition and Interaction Technologies” in IIT – Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences department. During this period he has been collaborating in projects with University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, US), University of Bristol (Bristol, UK), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and National University of Singapore.
From Jan 2014 to Aug 2015 he was visiting PhD student at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of Nanyang Technological University under the supervision of Prof. Lorenzo Masia.
His work is mainly on the design and development of mechatronic systems for assistive technologies, but his research focus includes haptics, rehabilitation robotics and neurosciences.
1. L. Cappello The design of lower limb prosthesis for developing countries. Appropriate Technology, 2012. http://researchwebshelf.com/DocuDetails.php?SrlNo=364.
2. L. Masia, L. Cappello, P. Morasso, X. Lachenap.l, A. Pirrera, P. Weaver, and F. Mattioni, “Carapace: A novel composite advanced robotic actuator powering assistive compliant exoskeleton preliminary design,” in Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), 2013 IEEE International Conference on. IEEE, 2013, pp. 1–8.
3. F. Marini, L. Cappello, V. Squeri, P. Morasso, P. Moretti, A. Riva, L. Doglio, L. Masia, “Online modulation of assistance in robot aided wrist rehabilitation a pilot study on a subject affected by dystonia”, in Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS), IEEE, 2014.
4. L. Masia, M. Casadio, V. Squeri, L. Cappello, D. De Santis, J. Zenzeri, and P. Morasso, “Enhancing Recovery of Sensorimotor Functions: The Role of Robot Generated Haptic Feedback in the Re-learning Process”, Neuro-Robotics. Springer Netherlands, 2014. pp. 285-316.
5. L. Cappello, S. Contu, N. Elangovan, S. Khosravani, J. Konczak, and L. Masia, “Evaluation of wrist joint proprioception by means of a robotic device,” in Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (URAI), 2014 11th International Conference on. IEEE, 2014, pp. 531–534.
6. N. Elangovan, L. Cappello, S. Contu, S. Khosravani, J. Konczak, and L. Masia, “Assessing proprioceptive acuity of wrist joint using a haptic robotic device”, in Neuroscience 2014 - Society For Neuroscience Annual Meeting, 2014.
7. L. Cappello, X. Lachenal, A. Pirrera, F. Mattioni, P. M. Weaver, and L. Masia, “Design, characterization and stability test of a multistable composite compliant actuator for exoskeletons,” in Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (2014 5th IEEE RAS & EMBS International Conference on. IEEE, 2014, pp. 1051–1056.
8. L. Cappello, N. Elangovan, S. Contu, S. Khosravani, J. Konczak, and L. Masia, “Robot-aided assessment of wrist proprioception,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 9, no. 198, 2015.
9. L. Cappello, A. Pirrera, P. Weaver, and L. Masia, “A series elastic composite actuator for soft arm exosuits: design and preliminary test” in Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), 2015 IEEE International Conference on. IEEE, 2015.
10. F. Marini, V. Squeri, A. Riva, L. Cappello, L. Doglio, P. Morasso and L. Masia, “Adaptive wrist robot training in pediatric rehabilitation”, in Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), 2015 IEEE International Conference on. IEEE, 2015.
11. B. K. Dinh, L. Cappello and L. Masia, “Control implementation of compliant composite material actuators for wearable robotic exoskeleton”, in Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), 2015 IEEE International Conference on. IEEE, 2015.
12. L. Cappello, S. Contu, J. Konczak and L. Masia, “Wrist proprioceptive acuity: a comprehensive robot-aided assessment”, in Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC, 2015 Annual International Conference of the IEEE. IEEE, 2015.
13. S. Contu, L. Cappello, J. Konczak and L. Masia, “Preliminary analysis of non-dominant proprioceptive acuity and interlimb asymmetry in the human wrist”, in Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC, 2015 Annual International Conference of the IEEE. IEEE, 2015.
Best Student Paper Award - IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics 2015 (Singapore)
"Tattarillo" Award - Appropriate Technologies and South of the World - Engineers Without Borders (Florence)
L’Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) è una fondazione di diritto privato - cfr. determinazione Corte dei Conti 23/2015 “IIT è una fondazione da inquadrare fra gli organismi di diritto pubblico con la scelta di un modello di organizzazione di diritto privato per rispondere all’esigenza di assicurare procedure più snelle nella selezione non solo nell’ambito nazionale dei collaboratori, scienziati e ricercatori ”.
IIT è sotto la vigilanza del Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca e del Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze ed è stato istituito con la Legge 326/2003. La Fondazione ha l'obiettivo di promuovere l'eccellenza nella ricerca di base e in quella applicata e di favorire lo sviluppo del sistema economico nazionale. La costruzione dei laboratori iniziata nel 2006 si è conclusa nel 2009.
Lo staff complessivo di IIT conta circa 1440 persone. L’area scientifica è rappresentata da circa l’85% del personale. Il 45% dei ricercatori proviene dall’estero: di questi, il 29% è costituito da stranieri provenienti da oltre 50 Paesi e il 16% da italiani rientrati. Oggi il personale scientifico è composto da circa 60 principal investigators, circa 110 ricercatori e tecnologi di staff, circa 350 post doc, circa 500 studenti di dottorato e borsisti, circa 130 tecnici. Oltre 330 posti su 1400 creati su fondi esterni. Età media 34 anni. 41% donne / 59 % uomini.
Nel 2015 IIT ha ricevuto finanziamenti pubblici per circa 96 milioni di euro (80% del budget), conseguendo fondi esterni per 22 milioni di euro (20% budget) provenienti da 18 progetti europei, 17 finanziamenti da istituzioni nazionali e internazionali, circa 60 progetti industriali
La produzione di IIT ad oggi vanta circa 6990 pubblicazioni, oltre 130 finanziamenti Europei e 11 ERC, più di 350 domande di brevetto attive, oltre 12 start up costituite e altrettante in fase di lancio. Dal 2009 l’attività scientifica è stata ulteriormente rafforzata con la creazione di dieci centri di ricerca nel territorio nazionale (a Torino, Milano, Trento, Parma, Roma, Pisa, Napoli, Lecce, Ferrara) e internazionale (MIT ed Harvard negli USA) che, unitamente al Laboratorio Centrale di Genova, sviluppano i programmi di ricerca del piano scientifico 2015-2017.
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) is a public research institute that adopts the organizational model of a private law foundation. IIT is overseen by Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca and Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze (the Italian Ministries of Education, Economy and Finance). The Institute was set up according to Italian law 326/2003 with the objective of promoting excellence in basic and applied research andfostering Italy’s economic development. Construction of the Laboratories started in 2006 and finished in 2009.
IIT has an overall staff of about 1,440 people. The scientific staff covers about 85% of the total. Out of 45% of researchers coming from abroad 29% are foreigners coming from more than 50 countries and 16% are returned Italians. The scientific staff currently consists of approximately 60 Principal Investigators, 110 researchers and technologists, 350 post-docs and 500 PhD students and grant holders and 130 technicians. External funding has allowed the creation of more than 330 positions . The average age is 34 and the gender balance proportion is 41% female against 59% male.
In 2015 IIT received 96 million euros in public funding (accounting for 80% of its budget) and obtained 22 million euros in external funding (accounting for 20% of its budget). External funding comes from 18 European Projects, other 17 national and international competitive projects and approximately 60 industrial projects.
So far IIT accounts for: about 6990 publications, more than 130 European grants and 11 ERC grants, more than 350 patents or patent applications, 12 up start-ups and as many which are about to be launched. The Institute’s scientific activity has been further strengthened since 2009 with the establishment of 11 research nodes throughout Italy (Torino, Milano, Trento, Parma, Roma, Pisa, Napoli, Lecce, Ferrara) and abroad (MIT and Harvard University, USA), which, along with the Genoa-based Central Lab, implement the research programs included in the 2015-2017 Strategic Plan.
