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Department ofElectrical and Computer Engineering

Advisory Board Profiles

Nicola Diolaiti headshot
Nicola Diolaiti

Nicola Diolaiti is a managing principal at Intuitive, where he currently leads a team of controls engineers, software engineers and electrical engineers, overseeing all aspects related to hardware and software integration, control algorithms and overall user experience for the development of a new robotic surgical system.

Diolaiti has been with Intuitive since 2006; he has been the control system architect of the Da Vinci SP system, from the project inception to successful 510(k) clearance, ahead of market launch. After that, he led the system analysis team for the Ion endoluminal system, with responsibilities ranging from control algorithms, user experience and design controls for medical devices. 

Throughout his career at Intuitive, Dr. Diolaiti has been named inventor or co-inventor on several patents in the field of surgical robotics and has enjoyed recruiting and mentoring several young engineers throughout their journeys from young graduates to senior staff positions.

Diolaiti holds a master's degree in electrical engineering and a PhD in robotics from the University of Bologna (Italy). In addition, he completed post-doctoral work with the department of computer science at Stanford University.