Who we are

Prof. Blanke is founding director of the Center for Neuroprosthetics and Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Cognitive Neuroprosthetics at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He also directs the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience at EPFL and is Professor of Neurology at Geneva University Hospital and Geneva’s new Campus Biotech. Blanke’s research focuses on the neuroscience of multisensory perception, consciousness, and the self with impact in psychology, philosophy, neurology and engineering. Most recently, Blanke has pioneered the development of cognetics by integrating technologies from robotics, virtual reality, and neuroscience. His medical activities (cogniceuticals) are dedicated to the application of these neurotechnological breakthroughs to novel diagnostics and therapeutics in orthopaedic and neurological patients (chronic pain) and psychiatric disease (robotic psychiatry).

Simon has 10 years of experience pioneering the development of wearable and flexible multimodal haptic interfaces and their applications in different fields such as healthcare and entertainment. His haptic interfaces contributed to restoring the sensation of walking in spinal cord injury patients and were featured in the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

He is the main inventor of our groundbreaking life-like tactile technology. He holds 3 patent applications and one granted patent on the design of new robotic interfaces to engineer experience.

Dr. Rognini has 10 years of research and development at the intersection of robotics and neuroscience to investigate and enhance human body perception and consciousness. He has collaborated with the neurotechnology startup Mindmaze on the design of robotic interfaces for motor rehabilitation, and he is an early investor of DistalMotion, an innovating company developing a new medical robotic surgical platform. He holds 3 patent applications and 3 granted patents on the design of new robotic interfaces to engineer experience and restore motor functions.

Diego dedicated over thirty years to external scientific research and internal meditative exploration of the mind and consciousness within their respective settings (ETH Zürich; Dialectic School IBD, India). For the purpose of sharing these years of experience and insights, he has developed the Wheel of Mental Balance to teach the tools and methods proven to realize mental balance. Have a look here.

Multiskill engineer with experience in mechanical and electronic design, Laurent has over 6 years experience designing and controlling industrial robots.

Passionate about developping solutions enhancing well-being and overcoming body deficiencies, Mathilde joined the team to lead a project exploring the potential application of STill for sleep.
After successfully graduating from EPFL in Robotics, with a minor in Neuroprosthesis, Mathilde now explores new applications of MetaTouch for improving mental health and for neurotechnology.