The National Bioengineering Group has initiated the award Premio del Gruppo Nazionale di Bioingegneria (GNB) to recognize academic excellence and high quality research methods in Bioinformatics, Medical Informatics and Clinical Engineering; Physiological system modelling; Biomechanics, rehabilitation & assistive technologies, prosthetics; Biomaterials, Cell & Tissue Engineering; Biomedical Signal Processing and Imaging; Neural Engineering, Biorobotics, and Micro and Nano-technologies fields.

The award is presented each year at the Scuola Annuale del Gruppo Nazionale di Bioingegneria – Bressanone. The Award Committee, chaired by Professor Maria Chiara Carrozza, nominates annually the recipients of the GNB Prize. This year, 11 awards are given on September 11 to undergraduate students and 8 to doctoral students among a pool of 102 applicants for undergraduate thesis and 52 for doctoral thesis.

The following is a list of the winners from the Biorobotics Institute, theses titles and supervisors:

undergraduate thesis

• Angela Mazzeo: Award “Silvio Cavalcanti” for “3D Bioprinted Perfusable Renal Proximal Tubule Model with Different ECM Compositions” - supervisors Leonardo Ricotti and Veronica Iacovacci;
• Nicolò Meneghetti: Award “Vincenzo Tagliasco” for “Ultrasound modulation of neural activity in leech and zebrafish” - supervisors  Silvestro Micera, Alberto Mazzoni and  Francesca Dedola;
• Elena Losanno: Award “Nearlab” for “Design and implementation of spinal cord electrical stimulation protocols for the recovery of reaching and grasping in non-human primates” - supervisors  Silvestro Micera, Marco Capogrosso and  Beatrice Barra;
• Chiara Milieri, Award “Mario Stefanelli" (ex-aequo) for “Progettazione e sviluppo di un bypass per la teleoperazione di mani artificiali” - supervisors  Marco Controzzi and  Francesco Clemente;
• Pasquale Martucci: Award “Laboratorio di Robotica Biomedica e Biomicrosistemi” (ex-aequo) for “Design and Development of an Adaptive Finger Mechanism for Application in Body Powered Prostheses and Orthoses” - supervisors Marco Controzzi and  Dick Plettenburg.

doctoral thesis

• Donato Romano: Award "Gruppo Nazionale di Bioingegneria & Patron” (ex aequo) for “Mixed societies and biohybrid systems as tools for biological investigation and bioinspired design” - supervisor Cesare Stefanini;
• Martina Maselli: Award “Istituto di BioRobotica” (ex-aequo) for “Soft and Flexible Sensors: technologies and biomedical application” - supervisor Cecilia Laschi.