Innovator-in-Residence Program

Our Innovator-in-Residence (IIR) Program was introduced in 2019-20, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor. The program supports innovative teaching and learning across all areas of the curriculum, and is now supported by an additional anonymous donor. We are grateful to the commitment of these families whose vision benefits our students every day. Through this permanent endowment, students will have direct access to innovative leaders in a diverse range of fields whose work will complement and enhance the ASL approach to interdisciplinary studies.

The focus of the Innovator-in-Residence Program changes annually and take many different forms—the program itself has the flexibility to be “innovative.” Future innovators will represent a combination of fields of interest, and the program will introduce our students to individuals with different life experiences who think and work “outside the box.” The goal is to help our students find fulfillment and purpose in their professional paths, wherever those paths may lead. Innovators-in-residence may be from abroad, or from right here in London. Innovators may hold the residency for one academic year or for shorter, more intensely focused periods of time as appropriate to their interests and work.

We look forward to the creative energy that our innovators will bring to ASL, inspiring our students to new levels of critical thinking and design-based learning, and enabling them to be well prepared for life in a changing world. 

Innovator-in-Residence 2022-23: Francesco Tamburrino

Francesco Tamburrino is a robotics engineer with a dream (and a plan) to bring truly useful AI-based robots into our daily lives. Born and raised in Italy, he relocated to the US to pursue a BS in electrical engineering at Columbia University, followed by an MS in robotics at Carnegie Mellon. Francesco moved on to leading hardware engineering teams in Spain and France, and the UK, where he started and ran Deliveroo's robotics and automation team. In 2015, Francesco mentored the ASL First Robotics Competition robotics team and carries great memories of seeing the team all the way to the regional finals win in New York. Recently, Francesco has been setting up his own robotics company.