Paolo Rocco is a Full Professor in automatic control and robotics with the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy. He is also a Co-Founder of Smart Robots, a spin-off company of Politecnico di Milano.

He is a member of the Board of Governors of Politecnico di Milano and head of the Systems and Control area in the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering.

He serves in the Board of Directors of euRobotics, the association of all stakeholders in robotics in Europe, and of I-RIM, the Italian Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines. He is also scientific responsible for projects in MADE, the Industry 4.0 Competence Center in Milan.

Prof. Rocco has served in various positions in the editorial boards of journals and conferences. At present, he serves as a Senior Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering and as an Associate Editor for other journals.
He has authored about 200 papers in the areas of robotics, motion control, and mechatronics. His current research interests include industrial robotics, with a particular focus on safe and productive human–robot interaction. He has been in charge of several research projects with industrial partners and public bodies.