Information
Membership Number: FCA3526
Membership Type: Fellowship
Division: Engineering and Applied Sciences
Corresponding Email: MSITTI@ku.edu.tr
Homepage(s): https://oop.ku.edu.tr/en/professor-metin-sitti/
https://is.mpg.de/people/sitti
Present and Previous Positions
Previous Positions
Founder and Director, Physical Intelligence Department, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart (2014–2023)
Professor, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Professor, School of Medicine and College of Engineering, Koç University, Turkey
Former Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University (2002–2014)
Former Research Scientist and Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley (1999–2002)
Fields of Scholarship and Research Interests
Professor Metin Sitti is an outstanding scholar in robotics, bio-inspired engineering and physical intelligence, with pioneering contributions to microrobotics, soft robotics and wireless medical devices.
His research focuses on designing and understanding small-scale mobile robots that integrate sensing, actuation, control and materials science to operate in complex environments — especially within biological systems. He has advanced fundamental knowledge and practical technologies in: Wireless miniature and soft medical robots, capable of navigating and performing functions inside the human body. Bio-inspired mechanisms and materials, such as gecko-inspired microfiber adhesives and stimuli-responsive composites. Physical intelligence and autonomous mobility, exploring how robot bodies themselves can encode sensing, computation and control at small scales. His work bridges electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, materials science and biomedical engineering, and has influenced both academic research and emerging medical robotics applications worldwide.
Honors, Awards and Other Membership
Sitti has pioneered many research areas, including wireless miniature medical soft robots, gecko-inspired microfiber adhesives, bio-inspired miniature robots, and physical intelligence. He is an IEEE Fellow, European Center for Living Technology Fellow, member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences, and member of the Turkish American Scientists and Scholars Association (TASSA).
As selected awards, he was named as a Highly Cited Researcher (2021), and he received the Breakthrough of the Year Award in the Engineering and Technology Category at the Falling Walls World Science Summit (2020), an ERC Advanced Grant (2019), the Rahmi Koç Medal of Science (2018), Best Paper Award at the Robotics Science and Systems Conference (2019), IEEE/ASME Best Mechatronics Paper Award (2014), SPIE Nanoengineering Pioneer Award (2011), Best Paper Award in the IEEE/RSJ Intelligent Robots and Systems Conference (1998, 2009), and NSF CAREER Award (2005).
Selected Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YU4Ce_MAAAAJ&hl=en
Other Information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metin_Sitti
https://www.nae.edu/312448/Prof-Metin-Sitti