Maja Matarić

Maja Matarić is the Chan Soon-Shiong Professor of computer science, neuroscience, and pediatrics at the University of Southern California, Founding Director of the U.S.C. Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center and interim Vice President of research. She received a Ph.D. and an M.S. in computer science from M.I.T. and a B.S. in computer science from the University of Kansas. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), IEEE, and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI); recipient of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM); the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award for innovation, the Okawa Foundation Prize, National Science Foundation CAREER award, M.I.T. TR35 innovation award, and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Career Award. Matarić is the author of the popular textbook “The Robotics Primer” and has published extensively. She has served on a number of advisory boards, including the National Science Foundation CISE division, Willow Garage and Evolution Robotics. She is active in K-12 educational outreach and the empowerment of girls and women in STEM. A founder of the field of socially assistive robotics, her research is endowing robots with the ability to help people through nonphysical assistance in convalescence, rehabilitation, training and education, scenarios that demand motivation and commitment to challenging behavior change and allow robots to augment instead of automate human ability, thereby also addressing a human-centered future of work. Her research has developed robot-assisted therapies for children with autism spectrum disorders, stroke and traumatic brain injury survivors and individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. She is also Co-Founder of Embodied, Inc.