MassRobotics Honors Women in Robotics at the 2nd Annual Gala

On October 26, 2024, the robotics area collected at the MIT Samberg Facility for MassRobotics’ second yearly Females in Robotics Medal Gala, commemorating 3 females that are progressing robotics with visionary research study and advancement. This distinctive occasion, held by MassRobotics, was an evening of acknowledgment and motivation for pioneering women roboticists. The gala showcased the value of equipping females in technology and highlighted the important function mentorship plays in developing a varied robotics environment.

The night started with gratefulness towards MassRobotics’ beginning enrollers, consisting of Amazon Robotics, which has actually sustained a considerable endowment, making it possible for prize money for guest of honors. Various other vital enrollers consisted of the Massachusetts Innovation Collaborative, Rethink Robotics, Harmonic Drive, MITRE, and HarborOne Financial institution. Each enroller’s assistance showed a dedication to cultivating a comprehensive robotics landscape that urges advancement and cooperation throughout sector and academic community.

Joyce Sidopolous, MassRobotics founder and Principal of Workflow, highlighted the distinct function of the Females in Robotics Medal, developed to commemorate females’s success in an area typically underrepresented by women experts. “Before this honor, there had actually never ever been an acknowledgment with a prize money and medal particularly for females roboticists,” Sidopolous stated, emphasizing the relevance of the night’s honors.

The emphasize of the gala was the medal discussions, acknowledging impressive payments in robotics research study. The respected Robotics Medal was granted to Prof. Cynthia Breazeal, a distinguished teacher at MIT and creator of the Personal Robots Team at MIT’s Media Laboratory. Teacher Breazeal’s cutting-edge operate in social robotics and human-robot communication was recognized as transformative, noting her as a real leader in the area. Her very early deal with the meaningful robotic Kismet aided develop the social robotics technique, and her keynote speech at the gala urged the target market to “attempt magnificent points” and “lift others as we climb up.”

The Climbing Celebrity Honors, commemorating promising ability in robotics, mosted likely to 2 cutting-edge young teachers:

Prof. Heather Culbertson of the College of Southern The golden state, identified for her operate in haptic modern technology. Her HaRVI Laboratory checks out the human feeling of touch, developing digital communications that really feel actual. Prof. Culbertson’s payments to digital and increased truth atmospheres are pressing the limits of immersive training and human-machine interaction.
Prof. Josie Hughes from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), recognized for her innovative research study in soft robotics and dispersed knowledge. Her job breakthroughs the advancement of adaptable, flexible robotics, with prospective applications in areas varying from medical care to ecological tracking.

The gala additionally gave a motivating system to identify the MassRobotics Jumpstart Fellowship Program, a five-month campaign created to present senior high school women to robotics and design. Introduced 4 years earlier and sustained by La Fondation Dassault Systèmes, the Jumpstart program fulfills every Saturday, supplying an educational program of CAD, shows, electronic devices, and manufacture. It additionally develops a helpful area for girls with mentorship and connecting with sector experts. The program finishes in a paid teaching fellowship, permitting individuals to get hands-on experience in leading technology business.

A remarkable emphasize of the night was the relocating speech by Ruth Shiferaw, an alumna of the really initial Jumpstart mate and currently an elderly at MIT researching mechanical design. Ruth mentioned her trip from an interested youngster entailed with the Scientific research Club for Women to a MassRobotics Jumpstart Other, where she created technological abilities and links in her area. She lovingly remembered discovering to solder, program, and deal with an Arduino throughout her Saturdays at MassRobotics. Her teaching fellowship at ActivSurgical as a high schooler revealed her to clinical robotics, stimulating an enthusiasm for creating modern technologies that boost human safety and security.

Assessing her trip, Ruth stressed the worth of mentorship, sharing that she later on came to be an advisor to the most recent Jumpstart Fellows with her teaching fellowship at GreenSight. “It was a full-circle minute,” she stated, “basing on the opposite side, bordered by the future generation of girls in robotics.” Ruth’s words reverberated deeply with the target market, personifying the night’s message of paying it onward and sustaining girls getting in the area.

Tye Brady, Principal Engineer of Robotics at Amazon and founder of MassRobotics, together with Teacher Daniela Rus, Supervisor of MIT’s Computer technology and Expert System Research Laboratory (CSAIL), were essential to developing the Females in Robotics Medal, promoting the objective to identify females’s payments and motivate a much more comprehensive future for the area.

Nominations for the 2025 Robotics Medal and Rising Star Awards are now open until December 20, 2024, with receivers to be introduced at the International Meeting on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) following Might in Atlanta, GA. The gala gathered a sincere thanks to the MassRobotics group and coaches that make programs like Jumpstart feasible. Participants were after that welcomed to take pleasure in treat, coffee, and proceeded networking.

The 2024 Females in Robotics Gala was not simply a party of private success yet an effective suggestion of the value of area, mentorship, and raising each other as we lead the way for a much more comprehensive future in robotics.