By Aishwarya Banik
Robotics, an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering involves the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Robotics is the way of the future and women are leading the way for these most helpful technologies. The influential women in Robotics are strong role models for many.
Robotics designs machines that can help and assist humans. As the number of leading women influencers in robotics grows so does the combined global impact of their efforts, increasing the visibility of women in the field who may otherwise go unrecognized. The role models these women represent are diverse. The world’s first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace faced a battle in times when women were not encouraged to pursue a career in science. From Ada to women involved in Robotics today, the list of top influential women in robotics in 2023 will surely inspire many to consider robotics as a career.
Women are involved in all facets of robotics, leading the way for the most accommodative advancements since robotics is the approach of the future. Here is the list of the top 10 influential women in robotics in 2023:
1. Danielle Applestone
Danielle Applestone, founder and CEO of Daughters of Rosie, and former CEO at Bantam tools is working to bring women into the growing backlog of well-paying jobs in American manufacturing with a purpose for advancement and benefit to address the labor crisis in the American manufacturing sector in. She developed the Other Machine, a desktop CNC machine with user-friendly machine control software funded by DAPRA.
2. Crystal Chao
Crystal Chao is AI/Robotics technology leader whose expertise in AI for human-robot interaction including social robotics, conversational systems, design or visualization tool, etc. She oversees a team at Huawei that operates in Silicon Valley, Boston, Beijing, and Tokyo as the Company’s chief scientist and Global lead of Robotics Projects.
3. Emily Cross
Emily Cross, a cognitive neuroscientist based her research using complex action learning paradigms, social interaction manipulations, and robots, in combination with brain imaging and brain stimulation, to explore how brain and behavior are shaped by different kinds of experience. Currently, she works as the principal investigator for “Social Robots” 2016-2021.
4. Alice Agogino
Alice Agogino is the CEO of Squishy Robotics, Inc., and Roscoe and Hughes are professors of Mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley. The Squishy robots developed from research at BEST Lab or Berkeley Emergent Space Tensegrities Lab, are instantly deployable mobile sensing robots for disaster rescue, remote monitoring, and space exploration. She received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring in 2018.
5. Sussane Bieller
Sussane Bieller is the general secretary of the International Federation of Robotics, a non-profit group that represents more than 50 national robot associations and manufacturers of industrial robots from over twenty countries. She managed projects for the European Robotics Association’s EUnited Robotics and was elected among the ‘top 10 Women in Robotics Industry’.
6. Cynthia Breazeal
Cynthia Breazeal is a professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, where she founded and directs the Personal Robots group at the Media Lab. She is a pioneer of social robotics and human-robot interaction. Her recent work focuses on the theme of “living with AI” and understanding the long-term impact of social robots that can build relationships and provide personalized support as helpful companions in daily life.
7. Heather Justice
Heather Justice, a software engineer, holds an ideal position as Mars Exploration Rover Driver. After watching the first Rover land on Mars as a 16-yeat old, she decides to pursue her career in computer science and engineering. She did her internships at three different NASA locations and also worked in a variety of research fields. She pursued her M.S. from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in 2011.
8. Ayorkor Korsah
Ayorkor Korsah is the head of the Department of Computer Science at Ashesi University in Ghana. She is also a robotics professor at Asheshi University and a founding member of the group that shared resources for robotics in 2012, the African Robotics Network.
9. Madeline Ganon
Madeline Ganon, also known as ‘The Robot Whisperer’ specializes in convincing robots to do from transforming giant robots into living, breathing, mechanical creatures. She is thinking of new ways to communicate with technology. Her interactive business, Minus, received an Honorable Mention for the 2017 Ars Electronica STARTS Prize.
10. Kanako Harada
Kanako Harada, the project manager oversees the Cabinet Office of Japan’s ImPinitiativetive, “Bionic Humanoids Propelling New Industrial Revolution.” She held positions with Hitachi Ltd., the Japan Association for the Advancement of Medical Equipment, and the Italian Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. Her study focuses on surgical robotics and surgical skill evaluation. (Analytic Insight)