On October 26, 2024, the robotics group gathered on the MIT Samberg Heart for MassRobotics’ 2nd annual Girls in Robotics Medal Gala, celebrating three girls who’re advancing robotics with visionary analysis and innovation. This one-of-a-kind occasion, hosted by MassRobotics, was an evening of recognition and inspiration for trailblazing feminine roboticists. The gala showcased the significance of empowering girls in tech and highlighted the very important position mentorship performs in constructing a various robotics ecosystem.
The night started with gratitude towards MassRobotics’ founding sponsors, together with Amazon Robotics, which has supported a considerable endowment, enabling money prizes for honorees. Different key sponsors included the Massachusetts Expertise Collaborative, Rethink Robotics, Harmonic Drive, MITRE, and HarborOne Financial institution. Every sponsor’s help demonstrated a dedication to fostering an inclusive robotics panorama that encourages innovation and collaboration throughout trade and academia.
Joyce Sidopolous, MassRobotics co-founder and Chief of Operations, highlighted the distinctive function of the Girls in Robotics Medal, created to have fun girls’s achievements in a discipline historically underrepresented by feminine professionals. “Previous to this award, there had by no means been a recognition with a money prize and medal particularly for girls roboticists,” Sidopolous stated, underscoring the importance of the night’s honors.
The spotlight of the gala was the medal shows, recognizing excellent contributions in robotics analysis. The celebrated Robotics Medal was awarded to Prof. Cynthia Breazeal, a famend professor at MIT and founding father of the Private Robots Group at MIT’s Media Lab. Professor Breazeal’s groundbreaking work in social robotics and human-robot interplay was acknowledged as transformative, marking her as a real pioneer within the discipline. Her early work with the expressive robotic Kismet helped set up the social robotics self-discipline, and her keynote speech on the gala inspired the viewers to “dare mighty issues” and “raise others as we climb.”
The Rising Star Awards, celebrating up-and-coming expertise in robotics, went to 2 modern younger professors:
- Prof. Heather Culbertson of the College of Southern California, acknowledged for her work in haptic expertise. Her HaRVI Lab explores the human sense of contact, creating digital interactions that really feel actual. Prof. Culbertson’s contributions to digital and augmented actuality environments are pushing the boundaries of immersive coaching and human-machine communication.
- Prof. Josie Hughes from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), honored for her cutting-edge analysis in delicate robotics and distributed intelligence. Her work advances the event of versatile, adaptive robots, with potential purposes in fields starting from healthcare to environmental monitoring.
The gala additionally offered an inspiring platform to acknowledge the MassRobotics Jumpstart Fellowship Program, a five-month initiative designed to introduce highschool women to robotics and engineering. Launched 4 years in the past and supported by La Fondation Dassault Systèmes, the Jumpstart program meets each Saturday, providing a curriculum of CAD, programming, electronics, and fabrication. It additionally builds a supportive group for younger girls by means of mentorship and networking with trade professionals. This system culminates in a paid internship, permitting individuals to realize hands-on expertise in high tech corporations.
A memorable spotlight of the night was the shifting speech by Ruth Shiferaw, an alumna of the very first Jumpstart cohort and now a senior at MIT learning mechanical engineering. Ruth spoke of her journey from a curious little one concerned with the Science Membership for Ladies to a MassRobotics Jumpstart Fellow, the place she developed technical expertise and connections in her discipline. She fondly recalled studying to solder, program, and work with an Arduino throughout her Saturdays at MassRobotics. Her internship at ActivSurgical as a excessive schooler uncovered her to medical robotics, sparking a ardour for creating applied sciences that enhance human security.
Reflecting on her journey, Ruth emphasised the worth of mentorship, sharing that she later turned a mentor to the most recent Jumpstart Fellows by means of her internship at GreenSight. “It was a full-circle second,” she stated, “standing on the opposite facet, surrounded by the following era of younger girls in robotics.” Ruth’s phrases resonated deeply with the viewers, embodying the night’s message of paying it ahead and supporting younger girls getting into the sphere.
Tye Brady, Chief Technologist of Robotics at Amazon and co-founder of MassRobotics, together with Professor Daniela Rus, Director of MIT’s Pc Science and Synthetic Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), had been integral to establishing the Girls in Robotics Medal, championing the mission to acknowledge girls’s contributions and encourage a extra inclusive future for the sphere.
Nominations for the 2025 Robotics Medal and Rising Star Awards at the moment are open till December 20, 2024, with recipients to be introduced on the Worldwide Convention on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) subsequent Could in Atlanta, GA. The gala closed with a heartfelt thanks to the MassRobotics crew and mentors who make packages like Jumpstart doable. Attendees had been then invited to take pleasure in dessert, espresso, and continued networking.
The 2024 Girls in Robotics Gala was not only a celebration of particular person achievements however a strong reminder of the significance of group, mentorship, and lifting each other as we pave the best way for a extra inclusive future in robotics.
