BOSTON, Mass. / Sept 26, 2024 – MassRobotics, a primary robotics innovation group, launched its 2024 Robotics Medal and Rising Star recipients on the IEEE ICRA@40 conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The Robotics Medal is the world’s first predominant prize to acknowledge the wide-ranging impression of female researchers specializing within the occasion of robotics throughout the globe. The Robotics Medal is awarded to a woman-identifying, researcher-nominated professor in robotics to acknowledge their impactful contributions to the sphere and incorporates a $50K prize awarded to the particular person. The Rising Star Awards acknowledge up-and-coming woman-identifying people making strides and advancing the sphere of robotics and incorporates a $5K award given to the folks.
This 2nd Annual MassRobotics Robotics Medal award, sponsored by Amazon Robotics, could be launched to Dr. Cynthia Breazeal on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how for her necessary contributions to the sphere of robotics, notably for her work establishing the sphere of social robotics and human-robot interaction.

This 12 months two Rising Star awards have been launched. Dr. Heather Culbertson on the School of Southern California could be awarded the MassRobotics Rising Star in Robotics Medal for her progressive contributions that leverage data of the human sense of contact to create digital haptic interactions which might be indistinguishable from precise life.
Dr. Josie Hughes, at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), will receive a Rising Star Medal for her key contributions to mild robotic design and fabrication, enabling robots with novel functionalities and proposing approaches that current distributed Intelligence.


To encourage vary throughout the topic of robotics, Amazon established an endowment with MassRobotics in 2022 to help these annual awards. The intention of The Robotics Medal isn’t solely to have time explicit particular person achievements, however moreover to encourage and encourage women and completely different underrepresented groups to participate in shaping the best way ahead for the world by robotics.
“By endowing the Robotics Medal, we aspire to showcase and have time women robotics professors worldwide who’ve made a giant impression to the event of the sphere of robotics,” talked about Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics and chair of MassRobotics’ board. “It’s an honor to be the founding sponsor of the Robotics Medal and we’re grateful for the quite a few contributions and teachings made by our rising stars and legendary pioneers throughout the topic of robotics and artificial intelligence.”
Nominations for the awards obtained right here from all through the US along with Texas, Washington, Massachusetts, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, and Pennsylvania, along with all through the globe from nations along with Canada, Japan, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, and India. Submissions spanned a wide range of robotic know-how fields and areas of study, from new provides for gripping, exoskeletons and assistive utilized sciences, human robotic interaction, and motion planning.
Since 2017, MassRobotics has grown from a Massachusetts-based incubator to a worldwide robotics hub, serving to help the adoption of robotics worldwide and providing startups with the sources needed to develop and scale. Of the current 85+ startups that MassRobotics houses at its facility in Boston, higher than 50% are from out of state and 25% are from open air the U.S.
MassRobotics hosts STEM and robotics initiatives significantly developed for highschool women and continues to promote women in robotics by events and networking to ensure women are acknowledged and heard.
“We have now been thrilled by the overwhelming number of licensed nominations we acquired and impressed with the number of robotic fields and evaluation occurring all through the globe,” talked about Joyce Sidopoulos, cofounder at MassRobotics. “It shows the extremely efficient contributions women have made, and may proceed to make, to this important, vibrant, and rising topic supporting virtually all industries.”
The Robotics Medal and Rising Star recipients have been chosen by a committee of robotics specialists, led by MassRobotics, which convened quite a lot of situations and methodically evaluated the significance, depth, and originality of technical contributions each nominee has made throughout the normal topic of robotics.
“The sphere of robotics urgently needs the insights, creativity, and administration that additional female professionals can convey to drive innovation all through the science, engineering, and real-world functions of this pivotal self-discipline,” says Daniela Rus, Director of the Laptop computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT and member of the MassRobotics board. “The Robotics Medal represents far more than its monetary price; it stands as a brand of recognition and celebration of the extraordinary achievements of ladies who’ve broken new flooring in robotics. These pioneers lead by occasion, ignite curiosity and ambition throughout the subsequent period of roboticists, and encourage future innovators.”
A correct Gala awarding the medals and celebrating the recipients could be held in Boston on the MIT Samberg Conference Coronary heart on October 26, 2024. Tickets and reserved tables for the event might be discovered proper right here.
MassRobotics has created an endowment and welcomes contributions to help future cash prizes for The Robotics Medal. Contact award@massrobotics.org to review becoming an underwriter of The Robotics Medal. Nominations for the 2025 Robotics Medal and Rising Star in the intervening time are open and should be acquired by December twentieth, 2024. Further information might be found proper right here.

About MassRobotics
MassRobotics is the largest unbiased robotics hub dedicated to accelerating robotics innovation, commercialization, and adoption. Our mission is to help create and scale the next period of worthwhile robotics and AI know-how companies by providing entrepreneurs and startups with the workspace, sources, programming, and connections they need to develop, prototype, check out, and commercialize their merchandise and choices. Whereas MassRobotics originated and is headquartered in Boston, we attain and help robotics acceleration and adoption globally. We work with startups, academia, enterprise, and governments every domestically and internationally. See massrobotics.org for particulars.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by 4 guidelines: purchaser obsession comparatively than competitor focus, passion for invention, dedication to operational excellence, and long-term contemplating. Amazon strives to be Earth’s Most Purchaser-Centric Agency, Earth’s Best Employer, and Earth’s Most safe Place to Work. Purchaser evaluations, 1-Click on on buying, personalised options, Prime, Achievement by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fireside tablets, Fireside TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Merely Stroll Out know-how, Amazon Studios, and The Native climate Pledge are quite a lot of the problems pioneered by Amazon. For additional information, go to amazon.com/about and observe @AmazonNews.
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