MassRobotics, a robotics innovation group, introduced its 2026 Robotics Medal and Rising Star recipients on the current IEEE ICRA convention in Vienna.
The Robotics Medal is the world’s first main award to acknowledge the wide-ranging influence of feminine researchers specializing in the event of robotics across the globe.
The Robotics Medal is awarded to a nominated girl researcher in robotics to acknowledge her impactful contributions to the sphere and features a $50,000 prize awarded to the person.
The Rising Star Medal acknowledges up-and-coming girls making strides and advancing the sphere of robotics and features a $5,000 award given to the chosen particular person.
The 4th Annual MassRobotics Robotics Medal award, sponsored by Amazon Robotics, is offered to Dr Allison Okamura, Richard W. Weiland Professor within the Faculty of Engineering, Professor within the Division of Mechanical Engineering, and Science Fellow within the Hoover Establishment at Stanford College, for foundational analysis in haptics, medical robotics, and robotic design, contributions to open entry robotics training, and mentorship and promotion of ladies in robotics.
Dr
Ayoung Kim, Professor at Seoul Nationwide College, is awarded the MassRobotics Rising Star in Robotics Medal for her work in pioneering Scan Context for LiDAR place recognition and superior resilient multi-sensor SLAM for sturdy autonomy, supported by broadly used open datasets and instruments.
To encourage range within the discipline of robotics, Amazon established an endowment with MassRobotics in 2022 to assist these annual awards.
The aim of The Robotics Medal is to not solely have fun particular person achievements, however to encourage and encourage girls and different underrepresented teams to take part in shaping the way forward for the world via robotics.
“Because the founding sponsor of the Robotics Medal, our mission is to have fun and honor feminine robotics professors around the globe who’ve made extraordinary contributions to advancing robotics know-how,” mentioned 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 group, 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, serving to assist the adoption of robotics worldwide and offering startups with the assets wanted to develop and scale.
Of the present practically 100 startups that MassRobotics homes at its facility in Boston, greater than 50 p.c are from out of state and 25 p.c are from outdoors the US.
MassRobotics hosts STEM and robotics initiatives particularly developed for highschool girls and continues to advertise girls in robotics via occasions and networking to make sure girls are acknowledged and heard.
Over the previous six years, the MassRobotics Jumpstart Fellowship program has graduated practically 120 college students who’ve since enrolled in notable universities together with MIT, Harvard, Cornell, Northeastern, Boston College, Stanford, Princeton, Georgia Tech, College of Michigan, Purdue College, and the College of Massachusetts.
Though strides are being made and ladies comprise 48 p.c of the overall workforce, simply 35 p.c of the STEM workforce is made up of ladies, and solely 16 p.c are in engineering and robotics roles, in accordance with the Nationwide Ladies Collaborative Undertaking.
Nominations for these awards got here from round the US and throughout the globe. Submissions spanned a variety of robotic know-how fields and areas of analysis, from new supplies for gripping, exoskeletons and assistive applied sciences, human robotic interplay, and movement planning.
“We had been thrilled by the overwhelming variety of excellent nominations we acquired this yr and had been impressed by the range of robotic analysis occurring throughout the globe,” mentioned Joyce Sidopoulos, cofounder at MassRobotics.
“This award displays the contributions girls in robotics have made, and evokes the following technology who will make an influence on this increasing discipline.”
The Robotics Medal and Rising Star recipients had been chosen by a committee of robotics specialists, led by MassRobotics, which convened a number of occasions and methodically evaluated the importance, depth, and originality of technical contributions every nominee has made within the general discipline of robotics.
“Robotics thrives when it embraces various views and approaches – and the contributions of main feminine researchers have been central to fixing a few of the discipline’s most complicated and urgent challenges,” mentioned Daniela Rus, director of the Laptop Science and Synthetic Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT and member of the MassRobotics board.
“The Robotics Medal honors the type of distinctive scientific achievement and technical innovation that strikes our whole discipline ahead.”
Previous recipients have included girls from College of California – San Diego, College of Southern California, College of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, Boston College, Massachusetts Institute of Know-how, and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
A proper Gala awarding the medals and celebrating the recipients will likely be held in Boston on the MIT Samberg Convention Heart on November 7, 2026. Tickets, reserved tables, and sponsorship alternatives for the occasion can be found right here.
MassRobotics has created an endowment and welcomes contributions to assist future money prizes for The Robotics Medal. Contact award@massrobotics.org to find out about turning into an underwriter of The Robotics Medal. Nominations for the 2027 Robotics Medal and Rising Star are open till December 31th, 2026. Extra data could be discovered right here.
