Allison Okamura and Ayoung Kim received MassRobotics’ Robotics Medal and Rising Star Medal. | Supply: MassRobotics
MassRobotics introduced its 2026 Robotics Medal and Rising Star recipients on the IEEE ICRA convention in Vienna.
The Robotics Medal acknowledges the wide-ranging influence of feminine researchers specializing in the event of robotics across the globe. It goes to a nominated girl in robotics to acknowledge her impactful contributions to the sphere. The award features a $50,000 prize awarded to the person.
The 4th Annual MassRobotics Robotics Medal award, sponsored by Amazon Robotics, was introduced to Dr. Allison Okamura. She is the Richard W. Weiland Professor within the College of Engineering, a professor within the Division of Mechanical Engineering, and a science fellow within the Hoover Establishment at Stanford College.
Okamura earned the award for her foundational analysis in haptics, medical robotics, and robotic design. She was additionally acknowledged for her contributions to open entry robotics schooling, mentorship, and promotion of ladies in robotics.
The Rising Star Medal acknowledges up-and-coming girls making strides and advancing the sphere of robotics and features a $5,000 award. MassRobotics this 12 months awarded Dr. Ayoung Kim, a professor at Seoul Nationwide College, its Rising Star in Robotics Medal.
Kim earned the respect via her work in pioneering Scan Context for lidar place recognition and superior resilient multi-sensor SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) for sturdy autonomy. Extensively used open datasets and instruments supported this work.
“We have been thrilled by the overwhelming variety of excellent nominations we obtained this 12 months and have been impressed by the variety of robotic analysis occurring throughout the globe,” stated Joyce Sidopoulos, co-founder and chief of operations at MassRobotics. “This award displays the contributions girls in robotics have made, and conjures up the following era who will make an influence on this increasing discipline.”
MassRobotics will maintain a proper gala awarding the medals and celebrating the recipients on the MIT Samberg Convention Middle in Cambridge, Mass., on Nov. 7. Tickets, reserved tables, and sponsorship alternatives for the occasion can be found online.
The 2025 Ladies in Robotics Gala, hosted by MassRobotics. | Supply: MassRobotics
Ladies nonetheless make up a minority of the STEM workforce
Whereas girls comprise 48% of the overall workforce, simply 35% of the STEM (science, expertise, engineering, and arithmetic) workforce is made up of ladies. In terms of engineering and robotics roles, girls solely make up 16% of the workforce, according to the Nationwide Women Collaborative Mission.
Nominations for the medals got here from across the U.S. and throughout the globe. Submissions spanned a spread of robotic expertise fields and areas of analysis. This included something from new supplies for gripping to exoskeletons, assistive applied sciences, human-robot interplay, and movement planning.
A committee of robotics consultants led by MassRobotics chosen the winners. The committee convened a number of instances and methodically evaluated the importance, depth, and originality of technical contributions every nominee made within the total discipline of robotics.
“Robotics thrives when it embraces numerous views and approaches – and the contributions of main feminine researchers have been central to fixing a number of the discipline’s most advanced and urgent challenges,” stated Daniela Rus, director of the Pc Science and Synthetic Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT and member of the MassRobotics board. “The Robotics Medal honors the form of distinctive scientific achievement and technical innovation that strikes our whole discipline ahead.”
Previous recipients have included girls from the College of California – San Diego, the College of Southern California, the College of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, Boston College, the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how, and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
Amazon and MassRobotics spend money on girls in STEM
To encourage variety within the discipline of robotics, Amazon established an endowment with MassRobotics in 2022. The aim of The Robotics Medal isn’t just to have fun particular person achievements. It additionally goals to encourage and encourage girls and different underrepresented teams to take part in robotics.
“Because the founding sponsor of the Robotics Medal, our mission is to have fun and honor feminine robotics professors all over the world who’ve made extraordinary contributions to advancing robotics expertise,” stated Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics and chairperson of the MassRobotics board. “We’re deeply grateful for the work that each Dr. Okamura and Dr. Kim have dropped at the bodily AI neighborhood, and we’re proud to acknowledge and have fun their exceptional achievements”.
Since 2017, MassRobotics has grown from a Massachusetts-based incubator to a worldwide robotics hub. It has helped assist the adoption of robotics worldwide and offered startups with the assets wanted to develop and scale. Of the roughly 100 startups that MassRobotics homes at its facility in Boston, greater than 50% are from out of state, and 25% are from outdoors the U.S.
MassRobotics hosts STEM and robotics initiatives that it particularly developed for highschool girls. The group continues to advertise girls in robotics via occasions and networking.
Over the previous six years, the MassRobotics Jumpstart Fellowship program has graduated practically 120 college students who’ve since enrolled in notable universities. These embody MIT, Harvard College, Cornell College, Northeastern College, Boston College, Stanford, Princeton, Georgia Tech, the College of Michigan, Purdue College, and the College of Massachusetts.
Submit your session concept for the 2026 RoboBusinessThe put up MassRobotics pronounces the winners of 2026 Robotics Medal and Rising Star awards appeared first on The Robotic Report.
