Gerardo Beni (born Florence, Italy 21 February 1946) is aprofessor ofelectrical engineering atUniversity of California, Riverside who, with Jing Wang, is known as the originator of the termswarm intelligence[1][2] in thecontext ofcellular robotics and the concept ofelectrowetting,[3] withSusan Hackwood. He also devised, with Xuan-Li Xie, the Xie–Beni index[4] for measuring the validity offuzzy clustering.
He is the author of "From Swarm Intelligence to Swarm Robotics" in the bookSwarm Robotics[5]
Beni is married to Susan Hackwood. They have two children.
In 1970 Beni wasadmitted to theLaurea inphysics at theUniversity of Florence,Florence,Italy.[6]
In 1974, he received hisPhD intheoretical physics atUCLA.[6]
Beni hasresearchinterests in swarm intelligence,3D animation, andfinancial engineering.[7]
Before moving toUC Riverside, he worked atUC Santa Barbara andAT&T Bell Laboratories.[6]
He helped found theJournal of Robotic Systems, and between 1982 and 2005 he was also itsdirector. The journal won theJournal of the Year Award in 1984.[6]
In 1982, Beni was made aFellow of theAmerican Physical Society. In 1999, he became a Fellow of theAAAS.[6]
Beni has been issued, either alone or in conjunction with otherinventors, severalpatents from theUSPTO:[8]