USC’s Maja Matarić Made Groundbreaking Contributions within the Areas of Distributed Robotics, Multi-Robotic Coordination, and Socially Assistive Robotics
New York, NY, Could 22, 2024 – ACM, the Affiliation for Computing Equipment, right this moment named Maja Matarić, the Chan Quickly-Shiong Chair and Distinguished Professor of Pc Science on the College of Southern California, because the 2024-2025 ACM Athena Lecturer. Matarić, who can also be a Principal Scientist at Google DeepMind, is acknowledged for pioneering the sphere of socially assistive robotics, together with groundbreaking analysis, analysis, and expertise switch, and foundational work in multi-robot coordination and human-robot interplay. Initiated in 2006, the ACM Athena Lecturer Award celebrates girls researchers who’ve made elementary contributions to pc science.
Autonomous Cognition and Collaborative and Distributed Robotics
Maja Matarić made elementary contributions to autonomous cognition and interplay. Her early work was the primary to show that behavior-based methods (BBS) may very well be endowed with illustration and have the expressive energy to plan and study. Her well-known system, Toto, was the primary BBS to study maps on-line and optimize its habits. It’s extremely cited and stays a milestone in robotic management. Matarić pioneered distributed algorithms for scalable management of robotic groups and swarms, enabling robotic groups to collaborate on duties together with formations, exploration, and foraging. Previous to her work, practically all analysis was restricted to single robots or pairs. Her pioneering contributions to the idea and observe of multi-robot coordination confirmed that advanced collective behaviors may very well be composed of foundation behaviors in a principled means, bringing rigor to the then nascent self-discipline of distributed robotics. Her work on distributed robotics and multi-robot coordination and studying is the primary to supply formal evaluation of robotic coordination approaches, elucidating formal and sensible limitations, then contributing provably right but scalable multi-robot job allocation algorithms.
Socially Assistive Robotics
Matarić co-pioneered and her lab named the sphere of socially assistive robotics (SAR). SAR focuses on assistive human-robot interplay (HRI) enabling machines to assist by way of social moderately than bodily help. It goals to achieve novel insights into human habits by way of human-machine interplay and to develop methods that present customized assistive HRI in convalescence, rehabilitation, remedy, coaching, and schooling. Matarić’s work has developed modern HRI and SAR strategies that modeled person engagement, character, group moderation, and persuasive interplay dynamics in advanced and unsure real-world environments. Her work is understood for in depth analysis research in real-world settings (colleges, rehabilitation facilities, houses) with customers with challenges, together with in post-stroke rehabilitation, cognitive and social abilities coaching for youngsters with autism spectrum issues, cognitive and bodily train for aged customers and Alzheimer’s sufferers, examine help for college kids with ADHD, and remedy help for college kids with nervousness.
Mentoring
Matarić has been a powerful mentor and advocate for underrepresented teams. She has mentored early profession girls through CRA-W and helped to position giant numbers of girls and members of different underrepresented teams in graduate applications and school positions. Since 2019 she has additionally led USC Viterbi’s Okay-12 STEM Outreach Program, which included sending out college students and school to mentor college students in surrounding, largely low-income colleges round Los Angeles, and working courses and workshops for highschool lecturers on campus at USC. Her e-book, The Robotics Primer, is geared towards Okay-12 college students and undergraduates. The e-book explains each the principals of robots and gives a sensible information to constructing programmable hands-on robots.
“Maja Matarić has been one of many key figures answerable for important advances in robotics lately,” mentioned ACM President Yannis Ioannidis. “Her work with Toto laid the inspiration for robotic management, and the event of socially assistive robotics—which is poised to remodel schooling, eldercare, and lots of different areas—owes an amazing deal to her improvements. The Athena Award additionally acknowledges those that have devoted themselves to mentoring. Matarić has not solely guided her college students at USC, however she has taken the initiative in introducing Okay-12 college students to her subject. As a mentor and as a champion of girls in her subject, Matarić stands in a league of her personal.”
Biographical Background
Maja J. Matarić is the Chan Quickly-Shiong Chair and Distinguished Professor of Pc Science on the College of Southern California, the place she is the founding director of the USC Robotics and Autonomous Techniques Heart. She can also be a Principal Scientist at Google DeepMind.
A graduate of the College of Kansas, Matarić earned an SM in Pc Science and a PhD in Pc Science and Synthetic Intelligence from MIT. Her many publications cowl a variety of subjects, together with distributed robotics, robotic studying, human-robot interplay, and socially assistive robotics, and are extremely cited (h-index 105; over 45600 citations) .
Matarić is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AMACAD), and Fellow of the American Affiliation for the Development of Science (AAAS), the Affiliation for the Development of Synthetic Intelligence (AAAI), IEEE and ACM, and recipient of the US Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math and Engineering Mentoring.
Matarić shall be formally offered with the ACM Athena Lecturer Award on the annual ACM Awards Banquet, which shall be held this 12 months on Saturday, June 22 on the Palace Resort in San Francisco. The ACM Athena Lecturer Award carries a money prize of $25,000, with monetary help supplied by Two Sigma.
Concerning the ACM Athena Lecturer Award The ACM Athena Lecturer Award celebrates girls researchers who’ve made elementary contributions to pc science. It features a $25,000 honorarium supplied by Two Sigma. The Athena Lecturer is invited to current a lecture at an ACM occasion. Annually, the Athena Lecturer honors a preeminent lady pc scientist. Athena is the Greek goddess of knowledge; along with her data and sense of function, she epitomizes the power, willpower, and intelligence of the “Athena Lecturers.” The Athena Lecturer offers an invited speak at a significant ACM convention of her alternative.
About ACM ACM, the Affiliation for Computing Equipment, is the world’s largest academic and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers, and professionals to encourage dialogue, share assets, and deal with the sphere’s challenges. ACM strengthens the computing career’s collective voice by way of sturdy management, promotion of the best requirements, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM helps the skilled development of its members by offering alternatives for life-long studying, profession growth, {and professional} networking.