Short biography
Amir is an Associate Professor in Robotics and AI at the University of Sheffield, where he leads the Robotics and Autonomous Systems Theme within the Centre for Machine Intelligence (joint between Computer Science and Electrical & Electronic Engineering).
Before joining Sheffield, he was Associate Professor and Robotics Theme Lead at the University of Surrey (2023–2025). Prior to this, he was Associate Professor at the University of Lincoln, where he led the Selective Harvesting Robotics research theme within the Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology (2021–2023), and Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science (2018–2021). From 2015 to 2018, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham.
Amir earned his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (Fluid Mechanics) from the University of Urmia (2004), an M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (Systems, Vibration, and Control) from Iran University of Science and Technology (2008), an M.Sc. in Automatic Control Engineering from Politecnico di Torino (2010), and a Ph.D. in Information Technology (Robot Learning) from Politecnico di Milano (2015).
His research focuses on robotic manipulation, learning, and predictive control, with strong application to real-world challenges. Past projects include robotic and autonomous systems for nuclear sorting and segregation, selective harvesting of strawberries, and early breast cancer detection. A selection of past research works can be viewed on the Intelligent Manipulation Lab YouTube channel.
Highlights
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12 May 2026: External examiner for the PhD thesis of Dr. Yongliang Wang at rug.nl. The thesis, titled "Learning Target-Driven Robotic
Manipulation in Constrained Clutter," was successfully defended, and Dr. Wnag's research contributions were highly praised by the examination committee.
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12 May 2022: The Talent Foundry organised Tech and Robotics (sponsered by Dell). It was amazing
to talk to over 200 disadvantaged students (12-13) across the UK and encourage them about robotic.
Read mode about it.
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28 Apr 2026 – Invited to the UK Parliament for the APPG AI × APPG Fusion Energy Joint Event: AI, Fusion Energy, and the Future of UK Innovation and Infrastructure, held at the House of Commons, UK Parliament. The event brought together leaders from academia, industry, and policy to discuss the role of artificial intelligence in accelerating fusion energy and strengthening UK innovation and infrastructure. Speakers included representatives from UKAEA, IBM Research Europe, and the Centre for Net Zero.
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12 Nov 2025: Participated as an External Examiner in a PhD defence ceremony at a Dutch university, joining digitally as part of the PhD Examining Committee. The role involved evaluating the candidate’s doctoral research, contributing to the formal examination process, and supporting international standards of research quality and doctoral education.
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12 Apr 2022: Excited to have the first RSS paper from my research group. Kudos to Willow Mandil and Kiyanoush Nazari for their excellent work. You can find more details in the Dataset, the Codes and the paper.
to talk to over 200 disadvantaged students (12-13) across the UK and encourage them about Robotic
Technology by presenting some examples of our research in Agri and health robotics.
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10 Feb 2022: Amazing experience talking to North London Collegiate School (12-13) students and share some of robotic research. I always enjoy inspiring students to build better future.
to talk to over 200 disadvantaged students (12-13) across the UK and encourage them about Robotic
Technology by presenting some examples of our research in Agri and health robotics. Find more HERE.
