Professor Pietro Valdastri began his academic career with a Laurea degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pisa in 2001, followed by a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in 2006 under Prof. Paolo Dario. He served as Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna's BioRobotics Institute, focusing on implantable medical devices and surgical robotics.
In 2011, he joined Vanderbilt University as Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, with secondary appointments in Electrical Engineering and Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. He founded the Science and Technologies Of Robotics in Medicine (STORM) Lab, specializing in medical capsule robots for gastrointestinal endoscopy and abdominal surgery.
Since 2016, Professor Valdastri has been Chair of Robotics and Autonomous Systems at Leeds, holding primary roles in Electronic and Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. He directs the STORM Lab and contributes to the Surgical Technologies Research Group.
His achievements include being a Royal Society Wolfson Research Fellow, Senior Member of IEEE, Editor for Medical and Rehabilitation Robotics at IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, and involvement in the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES) and International Society for Medical Innovation and Technology (iSMIT).
He co-founded WinMedical (now part of AB Medica), receiving awards like the ERC Consolidator Grant, NSF CAREER Award, and Best Paper Awards from conferences such as IEEE and ASME.
Selected publications from PubMed
A Dataset for Depth in Robotic Endoscopy with Dynamic Scenarios (DRENDS).
Loza-Galindo G, Magro M, Calmé B, Hu J, Ruffaldi E, Jones D, De Momi E, Ali S, Valdastri P
Sci Data. 2026 Aug 10;13(1) doi: 10.1038/s41597-026-07775-2.
SurgRIPE challenge: Benchmark of surgical robot instrument pose estimation.
Xu H, Weld A, Xu C, Roddan A, Cartucho J, Karaoglu MA, Ladikos A, Li Y, Li Y, Shen D, Lee G, Park S, Shin J, Fothergill L, Jones D, Valdastri P, Sarikaya D, Giannarou S
Med Image Anal. 2025 Oct;105:103674 doi: 10.1016/j.media.2025.103674.
Towards Autonomous Robotic Minimally Invasive Ultrasound Scanning and Vessel Reconstruction on Non-Planar Surfaces.
Marahrens N, Scaglioni B, Jones D, Prasad R, Biyani CS, Valdastri P
Front Robot AI. 2022;9:940062 doi: 10.3389/frobt.2022.940062.
Ethical implications of AI in robotic surgical training: A Delphi consensus statement.
Collins JW, Marcus HJ, Ghazi A, Sridhar A, Hashimoto D, Hager G, Arezzo A, Jannin P, Maier-Hein L, Marz K, Valdastri P, Mori K, Elson D, Giannarou S, Slack M, Hares L, Beaulieu Y, Levy J, Laplante G, Ramadorai A, Jarc A, Andrews B, Garcia P, Neemuchwala H, Andrusaite A, Kimpe T, Hawkes D, Kelly JD, Stoyanov D
Eur Urol Focus. 2022 Mar;8(2):613-622 doi: 10.1016/j.euf.2021.04.006.
Establishing key research questions for the implementation of artificial intelligence in colonoscopy: a modified Delphi method.
Ahmad OF, Mori Y, Misawa M, Kudo SE, Anderson JT, Bernal J, Berzin TM, Bisschops R, Byrne MF, Chen PJ, East JE, Eelbode T, Elson DS, Gurudu SR, Histace A, Karnes WE, Repici A, Singh R, Valdastri P, Wallace MB, Wang P, Stoyanov D, Lovat LB
Endoscopy. 2021 Sep;53(9):893-901 doi: 10.1055/a-1306-7590.
Help your network discover Dr. Pietro Valdastri's clinical expertise.
