Riki Banerjee, PhD is the Chief Technology Officer at Synchron, a neurotechnology company with a mission to commercialize the first implantable Brain Computer Interface (BCI) for millions of people with paralysis to reconnect with the world.  Synchron has been featured in Wired Magazine, NY Times, CBS News, Ted Radio Hour amongst other leading media.   Synchron is the first company with FDA IDE approval and is currently conducting a clinical trial with implantable BCI technology.

Dr. Banerjee came to Synchron with experience commercializing world-class neurotech products that treated many different conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, chronic pain, and urinary incontinence.  She is passionate about bringing together people with deep expertise and creating team culture that drives impactful neurotech innovation and makes a difference in people’s lives. 

Prior to Synchron, Riki had various roles in engineering and management in 3M Company and Medtronic in Minnesota.  She received a PhD and Masters of Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2005 and 2003, respectively.  She completed her bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2000.

Jerome Crocco is the Chief Operating Officer of Inbrain Neuroelectronics, a leading innovator in flexible electronics for medical device applications including neurological implantable devices as well as flexible medical X-ray imaging devices when he served as CTO of DPIX (currently InnovaFlex Foundry). With a background in semiconductor manufacturing and microfabrication, he has led operational and strategic efforts to scale thin film flexible electronics for human health. His work bridges the gap between advanced materials engineering and medical device development, focusing on scalable processes and system integration. Jerome will discuss how flexible electronics are transforming the field of medical technology and enabling new therapeutic possibilities.

Wei Gao is a Professor of Medical Engineering and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator in Division of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, San Diego in 2014 as a Jacobs Fellow and an HHMI International Student Research Fellow. In 2014-2017, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.

He is an Associate Editor of Science Advances, npj Flexible Electronics, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, and Sensors & Diagnosis. He is a recipient of NSF Career Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, IAMBE Early Career Award, Sloan Research Fellowship, Pittcon Achievement Award, IEEE EMBS Early Career Achievement Award, IEEE Sensor Council Technical Achievement Award, MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35, and Falling Walls Breakthrough of the Year in Engineering and Technology. He is a World Economic Forum Young Scientist, a Highly Cited Researcher (Web of Science), and an AIMBE fellow. His research interests include wearable biosensors, digital medicine, bioelectronics, flexible electronics, and micro/nanorobotics. For more information about Gao’s research, visit www.gao.caltech.edu.

Vasiliki (Vasso) Giagka is an Associate Professor of Bioelectronics at TU Delft and Research Group Leader at Fraunhofer IZM in Berlin, where she leads the SoMa Neurointerfaces group. She received her Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from University College London (UK).

She leads interdisciplinary research at the intersection of engineering, materials science, and neuroscience, focusing on soft, multimodal neural interfaces that integrate electronic, optical, and acoustic modalities to enable precise sensing and modulation of neural activity. Her work aims to advance implantable technologies for long-term, reliable interfacing with the nervous system across spatial and temporal scales. She has been a driving force behind several neurotechnology initiatives across European and national programs, with a particular interest in the translational potential of flexible and hybrid bioelectronic systems.

Lorenzo Masia (Rome 1977) began his career in Mechanical Engineering with a degree from Sapienza University of Rome in 2003, followed by a PhD from the University of Padua in 2007. His initial steps into robotics were marked by two-year as Researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Newman Lab for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation.

He took on the role of Team Leader at the Italian Institute of Technology, specifically in the Robotics Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department. By 2013, Masia he was an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University of Singapore in the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, where he remained until 2018 and later progressed at the University of Twente, where he held the position of Associate Professor in Biodesign. Professor Masia has been at Heidelberg University in Germany (2019-2024), serving as a Full Professor in Biorobotics & Medical Technology, where he founded the ARIES Lab, focusing on Assistive Robotics and Interactive ExoSuits at the Institute of Computer Engineering (ZITI).

From the 1st of October 2024, he is Professor in “Intelligent BioRobotic Systems” and Executive Director of the Munich Institute for Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

Professor Masia's work has garnered international acclaim, evidenced by multiple international awards at leading conferences in Biorobotics and Robotic Rehabilitation, including two IEEE Best Paper Awards and three IEEE Best Student Paper Awards, among others.

In addition to his research and teaching, Professor Masia holds significant editorial roles with several prestigious journals, IEEE Transaction on Robotics, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, IEEE Transaction on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation and Wearable Technologies. He has also played key roles as Program Chair in organizing major IEEE RAS conferences in the field, and he has been the General Chair for IEEE RAS EMBS BIOROB 2024 (1-4 September 2024, Heidelberg, Germany).

Dr Luigi G. Occhipinti is a Research Professor (Full) of Smart Electronics, Biosystems and AI at the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering. He has over 25 years of experience leading research and innovation across academia and industry, covering multiple disciplines including flexible and wearable sensor systems, biomedical devices, advanced signal processing, artificial intelligence and robotics, renewable energy systems, and nanomaterials. Since joining the University of Cambridge in 2014, he has led the Occhipinti Group, a world-leading multidisciplinary research team developing scientific discovery and groundbreaking innovation in advanced materials and intelligent wearable electronics, neuromorphic computing, and digital twin technologies for applications in healthcare and wellbeing.

His research and innovation outputs include more than 190 scientific publications, 4 books and book chapters, and over 90 patents and patent applications (52 granted, 7 as sole inventor). Professor Occhipinti is also co-founder and non-executive director of two University spinouts and two independent startups developing biomedical and sensor technologies. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and recipient of the 2024 IEEE Technical Achievement Award from the IEEE Sensors Council, recognising his contributions to 2D material-based flexible sensors with huge impact both in academia and industry.

Personal Profile: www.eng.cam.ac.uk/profiles/lgo23

Group webpage: www.occhipintigroup.com

Professor John A. Rogers began his career at Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff in the Condensed Matter Physics Research Department in 1997, and served as Director from the end of 2000 to 2002.  He then spent thirteen years at the University of Illinois, as the Swanlund Chair Professor and Director of the Seitz Materials Research Laboratory.  In 2016, he joined Northwestern University as the Simpson/Querrey Professor, where he is also Director of the Institute for Bioelectronics.  He has co-authored nearly 1000 papers and he is co-inventor on more than 100 patents.  His research has been recognized by many awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship (2009), the Lemelson-MIT Prize (2011), the Smithsonian Award for American Ingenuity in the Physical Sciences (2013), the Benjamin Franklin Medal (2019), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2021), the James Prize from the NAS (2022) and the IEEE Biomedical Engineering Award (2024).  He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Prof. Dr. Metin Sitti is the President and Professor of Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey since fall 2023. Formerly, he was a Director of the Physical Intelligence Department at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany (2014-2023), Professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland (2020-2024), Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, USA (2002-2014), and Research Scientist at UC Berkeley, USA (1999-2002). He received his BSc (1992) and MSc (1994) degrees from Boğaziçi University, Turkey, and PhD degree from University of Tokyo, Japan (1999). His research interests include wireless medical devices, small-scale mobile robots, bioinspiration, and physical intelligence.
He is a member of National Academy of Engineering in USA, Academy Europea, and Max Planck Society (2014-2023). He received the Highly Cited Researcher recognition (2021-2024), Frontiers of Science Award (2025), Materials Science Leader Award (2023-2025), Breakthrough of the Year Award in the Falling Walls World Science Summit (2020), ERC Advanced Grant (2019), Rahmi Koç Science Medal (2018), SPIE Nanoengineering Pioneer Award (2011), and NSF CAREER Award (2005). He has supervised and mentored over 70 (18 current) PhD students and 80 (10 current) postdocs, where over 65 of his group alumni are professors around the world. He has published 2 books and over 420 journal articles and has over 30 patents. He founded Setex Technologies Inc. to commercialize his lab’s gecko-inspired microfiber adhesive technology. He is the editor-in-chief of Journal of Micro-Bio Robotics journal and associate editor in Science Advances journal. 

Jared Tangney is the Co-Founder, President, and CTO of Biolinq, a San Diego-based health technology company developing real-time, wearable biosensors for personalized health monitoring. He has over a decade of experience in microarray sensor research and development. Prior to Biolinq, Jared co-founded Electrozyme, where he helped pioneer early biochemical sensor technologies.  Jared received his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, and was a Business Technology Fellow at the University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. He also served as a due diligence analyst at Tech Coast Angels and began his career in engineering and manufacturing roles at Power Standards Laboratory and Design Focus. Jared’s work bridges engineering and biology, with a focus on creating wearable technologies that enable proactive, real-time health management.

Dr. Bozhi Tian earned his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Harvard University and completed postdoctoral training in regenerative medicine at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently a professor at the University of Chicago, where his research bridges physical chemistry and bioelectronics to advance both fundamental understanding and practical applications at bioelectrical interfaces. His work has enabled the creation of novel semiconductor-based materials and electronic systems designed to probe subcellular dynamics and explore the translational potential of bioelectrical platforms. His lab is particularly active in emerging areas such as photoelectroceuticals, living bioelectronics, and sustainable healthcare technologies. Dr. Tian’s contributions have been recognized with many honors, including the Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in the Physical Sciences and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

Prof. Giovanni Traverso is the Director of the Laboratory for Translational Engineering at MIT and Harvard. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a gastroenterologist in the Division of Gastroenterology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Traverso grew up in Peru, Canada, and the United Kingdom. He earned his BA from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and his PhD from Johns Hopkins University, before completing medical school at the University of Cambridge, internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital and gastroenterology fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Traverso’s early research led to the development of Cologuard, the first FDA-approved non-invasive test for colon cancer screening. During his postdoctoral work at MIT, he advanced new technologies for drug delivery and physiological sensing via the gastrointestinal tract.

Dr. Traverso’s contributions have been recognized with awards such as the Grand Prize of the Collegiate Inventors Competition, a Research Fellowship from Trinity College, inclusion in MIT Tech Review’s TR35 list, and the 2023 Acta Biomaterialia Silver Medal. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the NAM Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Scholars Program, the College of Fellows of the Controlled Release Society, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the National Academy of Inventors.

His current research focuses on developing next-generation drug delivery systems for the gastrointestinal tract and novel ingestible electronic devices for sensing a wide range of physiological and pathophysiological parameters.

Joseph Wang is a Distinguished Professor of Nanoegineering, a SAIC Endowed Professor  and the Director of the Center of Wearable Sensors (CWS) at University of California San Diego (UCSD), USA. Dr. Wang has made pioneering contributions to the fields of wearable sensors, biosensors, and microscale robots. He is a member of the US National Academy of Inventors, and of the European Academies of Engineering and of Science and Arts,  and a fellow of the RSC, ECS and AIMBE. He has authored over 1300 research papers, 12 books, and 60 patents. He has been a has been a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher since 2015 (H Index 216). Wang holds Honorary Professor from 11 different universities and is the recipient of 3 National American Chemical Society Awards for Analytical Chemistry (2024), Electrochemistry (2006) and Instrumentation (1999), of the Ralph Adams Pittcon Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry, of the  Talanta Medal, 2021 IUPAC Analytical Chemistry Medal, the Breyer Medal (Australia), Heyrovsky Medal (Czech Republic) the Speirs Medal (RSC), and the IEEE Sensor Achievement Award, 2021.

Dr. Sheng Xu is a Professor and Jacobs Faculty Scholar at UC San Diego. He earned his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Peking University and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Subsequently, he pursued postdoctoral studies at the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research group is interested in developing new materials and fabrication methods for soft electronics, with a particular focus on wearable ultrasound technology. His research has been presented to the United States Congress as a testimony to the importance and impact of funding from the National Institutes of Health. He has received numerous honors, including the NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award, NIH Trailblazer Award, Sloan Fellowship, IEEE EMBS Technical Achievement Award, ETH Zürich Materials Research Prize for Young Investigators, MRS Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award, and a finalist of the Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists. He is a Fellow of AIMBE, IEEE, and MRS.