Edson Prestes is Professor at Institute of Informatics of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. He is leader of the Phi Robotics Research Group, past head of the Theoretical Informatics Department, co-head of the Intelligent Robotics and Computation Vision CNPq Group and CNPq Research Fellow. He received his B.Sc. in Computer Science from the Federal University of Pará (1996), Brazil, and MSc (1999) and Ph.D. (2003) in Computer Science from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

Edson is IEEE Senior Member and Member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE RAS) and IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA). Over the past years, he has been working in different international initiatives related to Standardisation, Humanitarian Activities, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Ethics. In these groups, Edson has been served in various roles as chair, vice-chair and member. For instance, he is chair of the IEEE RAS/SA P7007 - Ontological Standard for Ethically Driven Robotics and Automation Systems Working Group; vice-chair of the IEEE RAS/SA Ontologies for Robotics and Automation Working Group (ORA WG); founding chair of the IEEE South Brazil RAS Chapter; member of the Affective Computing and Embedding Values into Autonomous Intelligence Systems Committees at IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems; member of the IEEE RAS Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology and member of several IEEE RAS/SA Standardisation Working Groups (p1872.1, p1872.2,..). 

Among his contributions, one can highlight the following. In 2015, IEEE ORA WG published the very first IEEE RAS standard, called IEEE 1872-2015 Ontologies for Robotics and Automation, and was the recipient of the IEEE-SA Emerging Technology Award. This standard was cited broadly including in the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan, elaborated by the US White House, in 2016. Due to the relevance of this achievement, Edson received the IEEE SA Plaque of Appreciation and IEEE RAS Certificate of Appreciation for being the vice-chair of the IEEE ORA WG. In 2015, Edson was one of the recipient of the Jabuti Award, the most important Brazilian literary award, for co-organising the book entitled Robótica Móvel (in Portuguese). 

During his academic life, Edson has served as guest editor of special issues for international journals like Elsevier Robotics and Autonomous Systems and Elsevier Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing; as co-chair of workshops in mainstream conferences in Robotics like IEEE ICRA and IEEE/RSJ IROS; as co-organiser of IEEE-RAS Humanitarian Robotics and Automation Technology Challenge on “Autonomous Landmine Detection using Ground Mobile Robots” since 2014; as member of program committee and reviewer boards in several international conferences and journals; and as reviewer for Internacional Funding Agencies.