News

March 2026 Minas speaks on Physical AI and Acumino’s AI-powered robot workers at the Plug and Play Tech Center Germany AI Summit, hosted at BMW Group headquarters in Munich, alongside Jürgen Friedrich of DXC Technology.
December 2025 Minas and the Acumino team participate in iREX / 国際ロボット展 2025 in Tokyo, Japan alongside MegaChips Corporation and Universal Robots with a robot worker demo.
November 2025 Acumino wins the 2025 Startupper Award (Robotics category) from startupper.gr.
October 2025 IEEE/RSJ IROS 2025 Best Paper Award on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (in memory of Motohiro Kisoi), sponsored by IRS.
August 2025 The Humanoid Olympiad kicks off in Olympia, Greece, with expert talks, the Acumino team on site with industry demos on practical humanoid applications, and side events.
August 2025 Acumino and MegaChips Corporation open Japan’s first demonstration environment for Acumino technology at MegaChips’ premises, featuring an Acumino bimanual manipulation system with Universal Robots arms in a practical humanoid configuration — targeting the Japanese market’s labor and skill shortages.
July 2025 Minas transitions to Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Auckland.
June 2025 Plug and Play Tech Center Global Innovation Award for the cross-collaboration with DXC Technology and Schaeffler on Dexterous Package Folding — Acumino.
May 2025 Minas takes part in the Robotics side event and panel at Panathēnea. Melina Mai (Big Pi Ventures) moderates the panel.
May 2025 Acumino joins Automate 2025 in Detroit with Universal Robots, presenting cable-handling and installation demos in the show’s Electronics MFG Zone.
May 2025 Acumino signs an investment and exclusive Japan distribution agreement with MegaChips Corporation to deploy AI-powered robot workers and address labor shortages.
April 2025 Minas appointed Chief Executive Officer of Acumino.
March 2025 Acumino presents at NVIDIA GTC 2025 with Universal Robots, including an interactive tic-tac-toe demo and a bimanual pipe-assembly task.
December 2024 Minas founds the Humanoid Olympiad.
October 2024 IEEE/RSJ IROS 2024 Finalist for the Best Application Paper Award (sponsored by ICROS).
March 2024 Minas presents at MARS 2024, Jeff Bezos’ invite-only conference on Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space, with an on-stage demo.
June 2024 Minas transitions to part-time Associate Professor at the University of Auckland.
May 2024 Minas joins the Acumino Board and is appointed Chief Technology Officer.
December 2023 2023 Students’ Choice Top Teacher Award, Faculty of Engineering, University of Auckland.
May 2023 Minas joins Acumino as Chief Scientist.
March 2023 2023 IEEE Access Best Video Award for the paper “The Omnirotor Platform: A Versatile, Multi-Modal, Coaxial, All-Terrain Vehicle”.
February 2023 Minas promoted to full-time Associate Professor at the University of Auckland.
December 2022 Minas chairs the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) in Auckland, New Zealand (Dec 14–18).
October 2022 Team achieves 2nd place in the Manufacturing track of the IEEE/RSJ IROS 2022 Robotic Grasping and Manipulation Competition, Kyoto.
June 2022 Five papers accepted for presentation at IROS in Kyoto.
May 2022 IEEE ICRA 2022 Outstanding Reviewer Award (4 selected among 5,854 reviewers).
February 2022 Minas promoted to Senior Lecturer – Above the Bar, University of Auckland.
January 2022 Two papers accepted for ICRA in Philadelphia.
October 2021 IEEE/RSJ IROS 2021 Best Paper Award on Robot Mechanisms and Design.
June 2021 Seven papers accepted for IROS in Prague.
January 2021 Five papers accepted for ICRA in Xi’an.
December 2020 2020 Students’ Choice Top Teacher Award, Faculty of Engineering, University of Auckland.
November 2020 1st Prize, Assistive Devices Challenge, 2020 Hackaday Prize (sponsored by United Cerebral Palsy Los Angeles).
November 2020 3rd place in the Manufacturing track of the IEEE/RSJ IROS 2020 Grasping and Manipulation Challenge.
June 2020 Four papers accepted for IROS in Las Vegas, including one in IEEE RA-L.
April 2020 University of Auckland ranked No. 1 in the world for impact rankings (Times Higher Education) for two consecutive years.
February 2020 Minas promoted to Senior Lecturer (tenure-equivalent Associate Professor).
November 2019 1st place in the Manufacturing track of the IEEE/RSJ IROS 2019 Grasping and Manipulation Challenge.
December 2018 2018 Students’ Choice Top Teacher Award, Faculty of Engineering, University of Auckland.
January 2017 Minas joins the University of Auckland as Lecturer and founds the New Dexterity research group.
November 2015 2nd Prize, 2015 Hackaday Prize (San Francisco, CA) — OpenBionics initiative.
September 2015 2015 Robotdalen International Innovation Award (Västerås, Sweden) — OpenBionics initiative.
July 2013 Minas founds the OpenBionics initiative.