Staff Profile

• 2008: PhD in biomedical engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.
• 2007: Visiting student (6 months) @ MIT, Boston, MA, USA.
• 2004: MS in Biomedical Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.
• 2002: BSc in Biomedical Engineering, “Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma”, Italy.

• March 2022 – to date: Professor of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, Newcastle University.
• July 2020 – to date (on leave): Associate Professor in Industrial Bioengineering, School of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.
• July 2017 – June 2020: Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Industrial Bioengineering at the School of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.
• August 2018: Visiting professor at the Human Robotics Group, Bioengineering Department, Imperial College London.
• 2014 – 2018: Visiting scientist at the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Division of Mechatronics & Design, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
• December 2010 – December 2016: Assistant Professor in Industrial Bioengineering at the School of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.
• Mach 2008 – November 2010: Post-doc Fellow at the Laboratory of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.

• November 2010 – present: Coordinator of the “Bionic Systems and Neuroengineeering” class at the School of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.
• November 2018 – present: Coordinator of the “Mechatronics for Biomedical Systems” class at the School of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.
• March 2012 – June 2018: Coordinator of the “Laboratory of Bio-engineering” class at the School of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.
• September 2017 – June 2018: Coordinator of the “Biodesign” class at the School of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.
• November 2011 – June 2018: Lecturer of the “Biomechatronics” class at the School of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.
• September 2008 – October 2010: Tutor/Teaching Assistant of the “Neuroengineeering” class at the School of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.
• September 2007 – 2009: Tutor/Teaching Assistant of the “Anatomy and Physiology” class at the School of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Italy.

2020 – to date  Coordinator of the EU project CONBOTS - CONnected through roBOTS: physically coupling humans to boost handwriting and music learning (H2020-ICT-09-2019-2020 #871803, Total budget: 4.8 M€; DF's Research Unit budget: 1.2 M€).

2020 – to date  PI of the EU project NIMA: Non-invasive Interface for Movement Augmentation (H2020-FETOPEN-01-2018-2019-2020 #899626, Total budget: 3 M€; DF's Research Unit budget: 500 k€).

2014 – 2018     Co-PI of the PDmeter research project, an early career grant awarded by the Italian Ministry Health under the “Ricerca Finalizzata - Giovani Ricercatori” program for “young researchers” (Total budget: 340000 €; DF's Research Unit budget: 99 k€).

2014 – 2018     Overseas collaborator in the H-MAN project: Two weeks per year as visiting scientist at the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Division of Mechatronics & Design, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (Total budget: 1100000€; DF's Travel expense budget: 18 k€).

2015               ERC starting Grant 2015: ENCODE project has received the panel score "A: Fully meets the ERC's evaluation criteria, and is considered as a fundable proposal" (not funded for budget limitations).

2010 – 2014     Co-PI of the TOUM project, an early career grant awarded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research under the “FIRB - Futuro in Ricerca” program for “young researchers” (Total budget: 605 k€; DF's Research Unit budget: 314 k€).

2007 – 2007     Six months as visiting student at the Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (MA), within the MOTHER project for staff exchange, funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research.

• 2021 Feb – "Robotics for Neuroscience and Neuroscience for Robotics", FNNDSC Lecture Series, Harvard Medical School & Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, USA (available here).
• 2020 Jun 5 – "Technologies 4.0 for biomedical applications in everyday life scenarios", Keynote speaker, 2020 IEEE MetroInd4.0&IoT (MetroInd 2020), Rome, Italy.
• 2019 Dec 20 – "Neuroengineering: an engineering approach to neuroscience", seminar at the Department of Electronic Engineering, University of York, UK.
• 2019 Jun 24 – "Technologies and methods for quantitative assessment of brain pathologies: application to Stroke and Parkinson Disease", Workshop on Neurorehabilitation after cognitive and motor impairment, 16^th IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR 2019), Toronto, Canada.
• 2018 Aug 17 – "The stiffness of the wrist in Parkinson’s Disease patients and healthy controls", seminar at the Human Robotics Group, Bioengineering Department, Imperial College London.
• 2007 May 21 - Seminar at the Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (MA), USA.

1. A. Noccaro, A. Mioli, M. D’Alonzo, M. Pinardi, G. Di Pino, D. Formica, “Development and validation of a novel calibration methodology and control approach for robot-aided Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)”, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 68 (5), pp. 1589-1600, 2021.
2. L. Raiano, J. Di Tocco, C. Massaroni, G. Di Pino, E. Schena, D. Formica, “A PCA-based method to select the number and the body location of piezoresistive sensors in a wearable system for respiratory monitoring”, IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 21 (5), pp. 6847-6855, 2021.
3. L. Raiano, G. Di Pino, L. di Biase, M. Tombini, N.L. Tagliamonte, D. Formica, “PDMeter: A Wrist Wearable Device for an at-home Assessment of the Parkinson’s Disease Rigidity”, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 28 (6), pp. 1325-1333, 2020.
4. H.-Y. Huang, A. Arami, I. Farkhatdinov, D. Formica, E. Burdet, “The influence of posture, applied force and perturbation direction on hip joint viscoelasticity”, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 28 (5), pp. 1138-1145, 2020.
5. E. Tamilia, D. Formica, A. Scaini, T. Taffoni, “An Automated System for the Analysis of Newborns’ Oral-Motor Behavior”, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 24(12), pp. 1294-1303, 2016.
6. F. Taffoni, E. Tamilia, M. Giorgino, G. Morbidoni, A. Rosi, A. Scaini, A.M. Visco, E. Schena, D. Formica, “A Novel System to Study the Coordination of Sucking and Breathing in Newborns During Bottle Feeding”, IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 16(23), pp. 8589-8596, 2016.
7. L. Ricci, F. Taffoni, D. Formica, “On the orientation error of IMU: investigating static and dynamic accuracy targeting human motion”, PLoSOne, vol. 11(9), Article ID e0161940, 2016.
8. L. Ricci, D. Formica, L. Sparaci, F.R. Lasorsa, F. Taffoni, E. Tamilia, E. Guglielmelli, “A new calibration methodology for thorax and upper limbs motion capture in children using magneto and inertial sensors”, Sensors, vol. 14(1), pp. 1057-1072, 2014.
9. D. Formica, S. K. Charles, L. Zollo, E. Guglielmelli, N. Hogan, H. I. Krebs, “The Passive Stiffness of the Wrist and Forearm”, Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 108 (4), pp. 1158-1166, 2012.
10. D. Campolo, D. Accoto, D. Formica, E. Guglielmelli, “Intrinsic Constraints of Neural Origin: Assessment and Application to Rehabilitation Robotics”, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 25 (3), pp. 492-501, 2009.

My research interests lie at the intersection of robotics/mechatronics and neuroscience, and include the areas of mechatronic technologies for studying human motor control, quantitative assessment of patients with neuromuscular disorders, and novel robotic devices to improve motor learning. On these topics I have published more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers on international journals and conference proceedings.

I have actively contributed to several important National and EU-funded projects, and in particular I am the European Coordinator of the EU project CONBOTS and the PI of the EU project NIMA.

My main areas of research are in the fields of:

• Robotic and mechatronic technologies with applications in biomechanics and motor neuroscience, with particular attention to neurodevelopment of children from birth onwards.
• Study of human sensorimotor control, focusing on the simplifying motor strategies adopted by the brain to perform redundant tasks.
• Design and validation of quantitative algorithms for clinical assessment of patients with neuromuscular disorders.
• Design and development of novel robotic devices for rehabilitation motor therapy after neurological injury, with special attention to the issue of interaction control, and clinical validation of the developed solutions.

• Article

  • Romano C, Formica D, Schena E, Massaroni C. Investigation Of Body Locations For Cardiac And Respiratory Monitoring with Skin-Interfaced Inertial Measurement Unit Sensors. IEEE Sensors Journal 2023, 23(7), 7806-7815.