Fathi H. Ghorbel is a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering
and Materials Science at Rice University, Houston, Texas,
where he also serves as the Director of Graduate
Studies. Dr. Ghorbel has a joint appointment at the
Department of Bioengineering. In addition, he is the
Director of the Robotics and Intelligent Systems
(RiSYS) Lab. His research is in the areas of dynamic
systems and control, robotics, and biomedical
engineering systems.
Dr. Ghorbel received the B.S. degree with honors from the
Pennsylvania State University in 1985, the M.S. degree from
Carnegie-Mellon University in 1987, and the Ph.D. degree
from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1991
all in Mechanical Engineering. In 1988, he spent one year
at the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research
Laboratory in Champaign, Illinois, as a Research Assistant.
During his doctoral studies, he was a Research Assistant at
the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of
Illinois where he was also a visiting Postdoctoral Research
Associate in 1991. From 1992 to 1994, Dr. Ghorbel was a
Research Associate at the Institut d'Automatique, Ecole
Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He
joined Rice University in 1994.
Dr. Ghorbel's current research program covers projects in
nanorobotics and nanomanipulation, robotic rehabilitation,
in-pipe robotic sensing and inspection, modeling and
control of complex closed-chain mechanical systems
including parallel robots, and nonlinear transmission
attributes in mechanical systems including flexibility,
friction, hysteresis and kinematic error. In the
bioengineering area, Dr. Ghorbel is conducting research in
bio-systems dynamic analysis and control.
Dr. Ghorbel is a Member of the ASME, a Senior Member of the
IEEE, a member of Sigma Xi, IFAC, SIAM, IASTED, ASEE, and
past President of the Tunisian Scientific Society (TSS). He
is a Founding Member, Member of the Board of Directors, and
Vice-President of the Arab Science and Technology
Foundation (ASTF). He was the recipient of the medal of
"Order of National Merit in the field of education and
sciences" by order of the president of Tunisia. He is the
past Vice-Chair then Chair of the ASME Biomechanical
Systems Panel, and the past Chair of the IEEE Control
Systems Society's Technical Committee on Manufacturing
Automation and Robotic Control. He is an Associate Editor
for the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, an
Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems,
Measurement, and Control, an Associate Editor for the IEEE
Control Systems Society Conference Editorial Board, and a
past Associate Editor for the International Journal of
Robotics and Automation. Dr. Ghorbel served in conference
organization and program committees at different
organizational levels including Conference Chair,
Conference Co-General Chair, Publication Chair, Publicity
Chair, Finance Chair, and Member of several national and
international conference Program Committees.
Dr. Ghorbel is the founder, Chairman of the Board, and
Chief Technology Advisor of itRobotics Inc., a startup
pioneering technology company operating to provide
state of the art non-destructive inspection solutions
for small diameter energy pipes using the latest
robotics technology. It aims to increase the safety
and security of the energy industry around the world.
itRobotics' technology was initiated at Dr. Ghorbel's
Robotics & Intelligent Systems Lab
at Rice University.