User:Megalibrarygirl/Women in robotics

Women in robotics

Development
Ruzena Bajcsy was involved with working on robots at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) in the late 1970s. Bajcsy used a PUMA robot to test algorithms, computer interpretation of three-dimensional images and sensory input.

Lydia E. Kavraki developed the Probabilistic Roadmap Method (PRM) in the 1990s so that robots can plan paths to travel along and not collide with other robots.

Allison Okamura began working with robots as she pursued her PhD from Stanford University, where she earned her doctorate in 2000. Okamura's work in robotics deals with haptic feedback and robotic hands and fingers. Later, Okamura's work took her to Johns Hopkins University where she was involved with the Da Vinci Surgical System and designing haptics for that robot. Sara Kiesler became involved with the Nursebot project at Carnegie Mellon University in the late 1990s.

Cynthia Breazeal developed an anthropomorphic robot called Kismet in 2002. Breazeal's work focuses on human and robot interactions. Rita Cucchiara has been the leader of the Aimagelab Laboratory at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia since 2005. Her work explores artificial vision and deep learning. Other women working on human and robot interactions include Jodi Forlizzi and Andrea Thomaz, both of whom work on robots that can work with humans in a "natural way."

In the early 2010s, Ruth Schulz developed "lingodroids" at the University of Queensland to study how robots might create language and develop their own concepts of space and experience.

Education
Ayanna Howard was selected to chair the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech in 2017. Maria Chiara Carozza has worked as a professor of biorobotics at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (SSSUP) and also as the Minister of Education in Italy.

Women work to increase participation in fields connected with robotics. Stella Uzochukwu-Denis runs a SWENext club in Nigeria work to connect girls with robotics. Uzochukwu-Denis and the girls she works with face threats from Boko Haram. Girls like 12-year old Fathia Abdullahi in Nigeria have begun to prototype robots that make their lives easier. Candice Lam in Brisbane works as the chair of University of Queensland's Women in Engineering Alumni Ambassador Council and champions increasing the number of women in the field.

Exploration
Ayanna Howard started working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in 1990 where she worked with robotics. Howard's work at JPL involved artificial intelligence and work on the Mars Rover. The Mars Rover team had a large percentage of women, making up nearly half the group. The first woman to drive on Mars was Ashley Stroupe who worked at JPL. Donna Shirley started working as the head of the Mars Exploration Program in 1994 and was in charge of the Pathfinder and Sojourner missions. Heather Justice at NASA had her first solo "drive" of the Opportunity rover on January 4, 2014. Vandi Verma is one of the team that operated Curiosity on Mars. Curiosity used software, PLEXIL, that was developed in part by Verma. Kimberly Hambuchen was on the team that developed Valkyrie, a humanoid robot for NASA.

Competition
Manuela Veloso began working with artificial intelligence at the Carnegie Mellon University in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, she started building small robots and started mentoring student robotics competitions. In 2005, the Spelman College Spelbots became the first women's, all-Black undergraduate robotics team to compete in the International RoboCup. The Spelbots were started by Dr. Andrew Williams and the team created eight quadrupedal robots to compete in the event. Brentwood School sent their all-girls team to King of Bots and Robot Wars. Desert WAVE, an all women robotics team at Arizona State University (ASU) placed first in the United States and third worldwide in the RoboSub competition in August of 2019.

In 2017, an all-girls team of students from Afghanistan came to the United States to demonstrate their robot, named Better Idea of Afghan Girls, and compete against teams from around the world.. They later earned a top prize at the Robotex Festival in Estonia, which is the largest robotics event in Europe. TechSisters, a student robotics group of all young women from Canton Charter Academy were one of the winning teams at the Wonder League Robotics Competition in 2019 with a robotics project that tracked seal pups. Also in 2019, Team Acrobat from the Methodist Girls' High School in Ghana earned top places in the senior division of the World Robofest Championship.

Robotics engineers, like Lisa Winter, have been involved in competitions such as BattleBots. Winter was also a Robot Wars Middleweight World Champion. Winter's first BattleBots competition was in 1996 and she came back for the second version in 2015.

Entrepreneurship
In 2008, Helen Greiner created a startup to focus on flying robots called CyPhy Works.

Ayorkor Korsah was a co-founder of the African Robotics Network in 2012.

Karen Dolva from Norway developed a company called No Isolation in 2015 that allows children who are ill to stream lessons from their own schools through a robot called AV1. Helena Samsioe, who had worked previously as a UAV pilot, started GLOBHE, which provides drones as a service in 2015.

Jade Le Maitre co-founded Hease Robotics in 2016. Maitre wants to see robots become commonplace in the public where they can help solve problems for people interacting with them.

In 2018, Christine Spiten of Norway secured the funding for her business Blueye Robotics which will be developing underwater drones. Her company's drones can dive up to 150 meters in depth.

Art
Robotic art was created by women in the 1990s, such as Misbehaving: Media Machines Act Out by Heidi Kumao. Misbehaving includes robotic legs that each have a "rebellious and defiant" personality.

Gender gap
Women's participation in engineering fields has been very low and as a field, women are even less represented in robotics. As of 2019, only 12% of artificial intelligence (AI) researchers and developers are women. As early as 1998 Alison Adam discussed how women are left out the creation of artificial intelligence which centers male knowledge and ideals.

Until 2006, there were very few women working in the field of robotics, although women had made major contributions to the field prior to this year. In 2011, a group called Women in Robotics started meeting informally in 2011 and formalized themselves as a group in 2019.

Aimee van Wynsberghe discussed the importance of including women in robotics in 2019. Van Wynsberghe made the point that when designers are building robots women should always be present on these design teams in order to understand how robotic designs can effect the entire population, not just men. When women and people of color are not involved in developing robots, the result can be artificial intelligence that is biased and unrepresentative of the total population. Because there is a lack of diversity in the workplace, some designers, like Tessa Lau, test their robots with a diverse focus group. Sometimes women are better at dealing with robots and robotic teams. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) found that women were the best pilots of military robots, showing "more self-restraint and deliberation before employment of weapons."

Women involved in robotics are still sometimes treated as if they don't understand the issues and the technology by male colleagues.

Women in robotics fields have stated that acting as role models for girls might help inspire them to pursue careers working on robots. Studies on short-term, well-structured robotics programs for girls have also shown positive effects on eroding cultural gender stereotypes that often keep girls out of STEM fields.