Member Spotlight: Dr. Mahdi Tavakoli

By: Treena Hein

Dr. Mahdi Tavakoli: “The transition from digital AI to physical AI will be one of the defining technological developments of the coming decade”

Mahdi Tavakoli is a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Alberta, a Senior U of A Engineering Research Chair in Healthcare Robotics and Co-Director of the Mechatronics & Robotics Co-op Engineering Program. Previously, he did research at Canadian Surgical Technologies and Advanced Robotics (CSTAR) and was an NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard University. Dr. Tavakoli’s research interests involve medical robotics, image-guided surgery and rehabilitation robotics. He is the lead author of ‘Haptics for Teleoperated Surgical Robotic Systems’ and serves as editor at several journals.

1/ What attracted you to the field of robotics?

I came into robotics through control engineering. I was initially fascinated by the challenge of making complex, dynamic systems behave in predictable and useful ways. During my PhD and postdoctoral work, that interest led me into telerobotics, haptics and medical robotics. I began to see that the theories and algorithms we develop as engineers could be used not only to control machines, but also to extend human capabilities.

That remains one of the main reasons I want to stay in the field. In healthcare, a robot can help a surgeon work more precisely, assist a person recovering from an injury or allow specialized care to reach a remote community. I am particularly interested in collaborative intelligence: keeping people in control while robots contribute precision, endurance, perception and increasingly, the ability to learn and understand context.

2/ What are your greatest achievements so far?

Inside robotics, I am proudest of building a healthcare-robotics research program at the University of Alberta that has produced a range of systems for surgery, rehabilitation, assistance and telehealth. These include surgeon-assist systems that improve the accuracy of needle-based cancer treatments, smart walkers that adapt to people with asymmetric strength, and AI systems that learn surgical and rehabilitation tasks. I am especially proud when a technical idea progresses from equations and simulation to a working system in the real world.

Outside the technical work itself, I view my greatest achievement to be mentorship. Seeing former students become professors, scientists and engineers is more meaningful than any individual paper or award.

I have also tried to create opportunities beyond my own laboratory, through educational programs, conferences, and interdisciplinary initiatives, where students and researchers can connect with one another.

3/ Please tell us your goals for the next year.

My most immediate goal is to successfully deliver the 2026 IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics in Edmonton. This will be the first time BioRob has been held in Canada, and I want it to leave behind stronger connections among Canadian researchers and companies vis-a-vis international partners.

My second goal is to continue building the local robotics ecosystem. Through Alberta Robotics, the new Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering Co-op program at the University of Alberta, and the annual Robotics and Intelligent Systems Expo (RISEx), I want to create stronger pathways connecting education, research and industrial needs, commercialization, and highly qualified talent.

Last but not least, I aim to move our AI-enabled surgical and assistive robotics closer to real-world use. This includes advancing our surgical simulation and autonomy research, as well as intelligent mobility devices that can understand a user’s movement, language, and surrounding context.

4/ Why did you join the Canadian Robotics Council?

Canada has outstanding robotics researchers, innovative companies, excellent students, and internationally recognized strength in artificial intelligence. However, these capabilities are often distributed across institutions, provinces, industries, and application areas. I joined the Canadian Robotics Council because Canada needs a national forum that helps these communities see one another, work together, and speak with a more coordinated voice.

Its immediate value is in creating connections between universities and companies, knowledge developers and knowledge users, established organizations and startups, and the robotics sector and government. Going forward, the Council can also help identify national priorities, strengthen the talent pipeline, inform public policy, improve awareness of Canadian capabilities, and address the difficult gap between a strong laboratory prototype and a real product.

Robotics will affect healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, resources, transportation, construction and many other sectors important to Canada. A strong national council can help ensure that Canada does not merely conduct excellent robotics research but also translates that excellence into social and economic impact.

5/ Something that has influenced your thinking recently?

I’ve been influenced recently by the growing body of work on embodied (physical) AI.

The idea that the next major wave of AI will involve intelligent systems acting in the physical world through robots is fascinating. AI is becoming increasingly capable of understanding language, images and context; robotics gives those capabilities a physical presence that can sense, move, manipulate and collaborate with people. This combination could transform healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, construction, and many other sectors.

What interests me most is not robots replacing people, but collaborative intelligence: humans contributing judgment, creativity and social understanding while robots contribute precision, endurance and repeatability. I believe this transition from digital AI to physical AI will be one of the defining technological developments of the coming decade.