DRF Lunchtime Clinic - Dr Chapa Sirithunge and Dr Guangming Wang

Join us on January 16, 2026, for two talks by Dr. Chapa Sirithunge and Dr. Guangming Wang, showcasing innovative research in robotics, from enhancing human safety in complex environments to advancing intelligent world models for robotic perception and control. 

Human-Centred Robotic Control for Safety in Complex Environments - Dr. Chapa Sirithunge

Beyond Digital Twins: World Models for Robotics - Dr Guangming Wang Abstract Abstract Hazards around machinery in the construction sector result in billions in losses and cost lives each year. The use of robotic control in semi-automated tasks, such as heavy machinery operation, has shown strong potential for enabling close human–machine collaboration while reducing accidents. This talk will explore how robots and robotic control can be used to improve the safety of both machines and workers in complex environments. The concept of digital twins dates back nearly a century and has played a foundational role in advancing engineering, as well as fields such as biology and chemistry. With advances in AI, the idea of world models has re-emerged as a central paradigm. This talk explores how world models differ from digital twins in robotics and introduces recent advances in world models and embodied intelligence in robotics. It discusses the new perspectives and capabilities they bring, the fundamental challenges they aim to address, and how they reshape the way robots perceive, reason about and interact with the physical world.  About the speaker About the speaker Chapa Sirithunge, PhD, AFHEA, is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow in the Future Roads Programme at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on designing robots to better understand human behavior and inform assistive robotics. Beyond research, she is committed to public engagement and the outreach of fundamental research. She founded the Women in Robotics Cambridge initiative, aiming to foster inclusive communities and create lasting impact across academia and society. Guangming Wang is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on enabling general-purpose robotic perception and manipulation in unstructured environments. Guangming has published multiple works in top-tier robotics and AI journals and conferences, including The International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (T-PAMI), ICRA, IROS, NeurIPS, CVPR, ICCV, and ECCV.