Matilde Antonj

Matilde Antonj is a Postdoctoral researcher in the COgNiTive Architecture for Collaborative Technologies unit at the Italian Institute of Technology, where she is involved in the MERLIN project, funded by the European Research Council as a high social impact Proof of Concept, and coordinated by PI Alessandra Sciutti. The MERLIN project focuses on the development of a technology to assist people with dyslexia: aiming to develop a method for the quantitative assessment of cognitive effort and fluency during reading, the project can provide a useful indicator to support clinicians and teachers in creating personalized interventions, reducing the effort of children in reading and promoting the use of speech.

From the very beginning of her university studies in Bioengineering, Antonj has always been fascinated by the development and use of new technologies to support human beings, with the ultimate goal of improving people's quality of life, especially in cases of disability. Following her passion, in 2019 she earned a Bachelor's Degree in Biomedical Engineering and in 2021 a Master's Degree in Bioengineering at the University of Genoa, both obtained with full marks and honors. Selected among the best students in Genoa, Antonj enriched her professional profile with technical and communication skills during the training program at the Higher Institute of the University of Genoa, receiving a Level II Master’s Degree in Change Management. In 2025, her passion for scientific research led her to earn a PhD in Bioengineering and Robotics at the University of Genoa, in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology, studying the perceptual and motor strategies of humans interacting with a humanoid robot. This project allowed her to develop a passion for studying human behavior, with the future goal of using bio-inspired algorithms as a necessary language to make robotic technologies increasingly collaborative. Driven by her desire to create a strong social impact with her research, she was able to spend a period abroad in Boston at Harvard Medical School to develop new motor rehabilitation methodologies through human-robot interaction.