Prof. Dr. Stefano Mintchev

Contact Details

Email: s.mintchev <at> uni-bonn <dot> de
Tel: +49 – 228 – 73 – 2368
Office: Nussallee 5, EG, room 0.004

About Me

Prof. Dr. Mintchev studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pisa and earned a PhD in Biorobotics from The BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa. Following his doctoral studies, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. From 2018 to 2020, he was co-founder and CTO of Foldaway Haptics, a company focused on developing robotic technologies for immersive human–machine interaction.

In 2020, he was awarded an SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship and became Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich, where he led the Environmental Robotics Lab until 2025. During this time, his research focused on bioinspired aerial robotics and its applications in environmental and forest monitoring. He also co-led the ETH BiodivX team, one of the winning teams of the XPRIZE Rainforest competition in 2024.

Stefano Mintchev’s research lies at the intersection of robotics and sustainability, advancing robotics as a scientific and technological interface with natural systems. He develops robots with rich sensorimotor capabilities for robust operation in complex natural environments. These novel machines enable new methods for observing, understanding, and managing ecosystems at relevant spatial and temporal scales.

At the University of Bonn, his research extends these approaches to the broader challenges of sustainable agriculture. Major areas of focus will include robotic solutions for biodiversity monitoring, automated harvesting, and precision interventions.