Leonel Rozo, director of the “PHI – Phisical Holistic Intelligence” R&D Lab.
AI4I completes the first phase of its R&D Labs network with the appointment of Leonel Rozo, originally from Bogotá, Colombia (born 1983), as director of the PHI – Physical Holistic Intelligence Unit. This marks a strategic step in developing trustworthy AI systems that integrate advanced learning models with rigorous physical and geometric principles to power the next generation of smart factories.
Rozo holds an MSc and PhD in Robotics and AI from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). He began his career at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), advancing from postdoctoral researcher to team leader. He then spent over seven years as a lead research scientist at the Bosch Center for AI in Germany, where he also headed a Bosch Industry-on-Campus Lab in collaboration with the University of Tübingen. His work has resulted in over 60 publications in top-tier venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, R:SS, T-RO, IJRR), 3 paper awards (2 CoRL, 1 R:SS), and more than 15 patents.
At AI4I, Rozo focuses on safe and explainable AI by grounding machine learning and generative models in the foundations of differential geometry, control theory, and physics. This approach enables the development of AI frameworks with robust safety guarantees, interpretable decision-making, and reliable performance across industrial domains.
The PHI Lab will pioneer trustworthy AI solutions for robotic manipulation, human-robot collaboration, and industrial automation, driving transformative applications in smart manufacturing, automotive, and aerospace.
With this appointment, AI4I finalizes the leadership team of its four R&D Labs, marking the start of full operational research across its scientific infrastructure.
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