Senior Researcher
amura@ibecbarcelona.eu
+34 934012545

Anna Mura is a biologist with a Ph.D. in natural sciences, she has pursued her education and research in several Universities in the USA (Arizona University Tucson, University of California, San Diego) and in Europe at the University of Cagliari, Italy, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology-ETH Zurich where she obtained her PhD.  Since 2007  she is part of the SPECS-lab first at the ETIC Department of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona and since 2018 at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC). Anna has worked in brain research for many years where her main interests were the physiological and anatomical understanding of brain degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. The results of her work have been published in relevant scientific journals such as Neuroscience, Experimental Neurology, Gene Therapy, Movement Disorders and the Journal of Neuroscience.

When joining the SPECS-lab Anna has focused on the question of behavior and creativity in artificial and biological systems. As part of this, she became interested in large-scale multi-modal interactive systems and explored the narrative content, dramaturgy, and scenography of a human-accessible mixed reality space eXperience Induction Machine (XIM) and has produced a number of public performances and exhibits including re(PER)curso, the Synthetic Oracle and the Brain Orchestra. This multimodal space XIM is used as an experimental environment for the controlled empirical investigation of human perception, cognition and behavior and the construction of autonomous artificial creative systems.

Anna has also directed her interest on the issue of multidisciplinary education and the development of educational and research programs in the field of biomimetics, biohybrids and artificial systems and she is the co-editor of two e-books for the Convergent Science Network project (CSN Book Series) and co-editor of the Living Machines conference procedures (2012 to 2108). She is also involved in projects that investigate learning principles using robots and human-robot interaction methodologies.

Investigating the principles of learning and creativity is also important to address fundamental challenges in education, cultural heritage and human experience.

In this context, she is responsible for a number of scientific and educational events such as school and conferences as well as exhibits and
public performances, some of which are listed below:

– Teaching
2017-2019 Neuro-robotics as a tool to understand the brain BIYSC la Pedrera
2017-2109 Robotics and AI in the classroom
2008-2017. Teaching Professor, basic neuroscience. Master program Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media (CSIM) at University Pompeu Fabra, in Barcelona.

– Schools & Conferences
2009-2018 Chair of the Barcelona Cognition Brain, and Technology Summer school
2012-2018 Organizing Committee and chair: Living Machines. The International conference for Biomimetics and Biohybris Systems;
2015-2019 Workshop Convergent Science of Mind and Brain. Wood Hole US;
2012 Brain, Music and Artificial Intelligence;
2011 Award for the best exhibition “The future of biomimetic machines” EU FET flagship event.

– Outreach: exhibitions and performances
2016-2017 Maker fair & Sonar, Barcelona
2010-2018 Festival Ciencia, Barcelona
2013 Brain on Stage CCCB
2012 Neurociència i Música, Fabra I Coat; Barcelona
2010-2007-2008 Synthetic Oracle: presented in Tenerife, ESOF and PRBB, Barcelona
2009 Prague Multimodal Brain Orchestra (MBO for FET);
2009-2007 re(PER)curso: Mercat de las Flores, MACBA, Barcelona.