BOSTON / May 22, 2025 – MassRobotics, a leading robotics innovation organization, announced its 2025 Robotics Medal and Rising Star recipients at the IEEE ICRA conference in Atlanta. The Robotics Medal is the world’s first major award to recognize the wide-ranging impact of female researchers focusing on the development of robotics around the globe. The Robotics Medal is awarded to a nominated woman researcher in robotics to recognize her impactful contributions to the field and includes a $50K prize awarded to the individual. The Rising Star Medal recognizes up-and-coming women making strides and advancing the field of robotics and includes a $5K award given to the individual.
The 3rd Annual MassRobotics Robotics Medal award, sponsored by Amazon Robotics, is presented to Dr. Maja Matarić, Chaired and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, for her pioneering work in the field of socially assistive robots and for making significant advancements to the field of distributed robots and learning in human-robot systems.
Dr. Tania Morimoto, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, is awarded the MassRobotics Rising Star in Robotics Medal for her contributions to novel soft and flexible medical robots and human-machine interfaces designed to improve access to high-quality care.
To encourage diversity in the field of robotics, Amazon established an endowment with MassRobotics in 2022 to support these annual awards. The purpose of The Robotics Medal is to not only celebrate individual achievements, but to inspire and encourage women and other underrepresented groups to participate in shaping the future of the world through robotics.
“As the founding sponsor of the Robotics Medal, we aim to recognize and honor female robotics professors around the globe who have made remarkable contributions to advancing robotics technology,” explained Tye Brady, who serves as both the chief technologist at Amazon Robotics and chairperson of MassRobotics’ board. “We are deeply grateful for the invaluable insights and educational contributions provided by both Dr. Matarić and Dr. Morimoto to our physical AI community and we’re proud to support this recognition in honor of their achievements.”
Since 2017, MassRobotics has grown from a Massachusetts-based incubator to a global robotics hub, helping support the adoption of robotics worldwide and providing startups with the resources needed to grow and scale. Of the current 95+ startups that MassRobotics houses at its facility in Boston, more than 50% are from out of state and 25% are from outside the U.S.
MassRobotics hosts STEM and robotics initiatives specifically developed for high school women and continues to promote women in robotics through events and networking to ensure women are recognized and heard. Over the past five years the MassRobotics Jumpstart Fellowship program has graduated nearly 100 students who have since enrolled in notable universities including MIT, Harvard, Northeastern, Boston University, Stanford, Georgia Tech, University of Michigan, Purdue University, and the University of Massachusetts.
Although strides are being made and women now make up 48 % of the total workforce, just 34% of the STEM workforce is made up of women, and only 16% are in engineering and robotics roles, according to the National Girls Collaborative Project.
Nominations for these awards came from around the United States including Texas, Washington, Massachusetts, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, and Pennsylvania, as well as across the globe from countries including Canada, Japan, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, and India. Submissions spanned a wide range of robotic technology fields and areas of research, from new materials for gripping, exoskeletons and assistive technologies, human robot interaction, and motion planning.
“We were thrilled by the overwhelming number of qualified nominations we received and impressed with the diversity of robotic fields and research happening across the globe,” said Joyce Sidopoulos, cofounder at MassRobotics. “It reflects the contributions women have made, and inspires the next generation who will make an impact in this expanding field touching nearly every industry.”
The Robotics Medal and Rising Star recipients were selected by a committee of robotics experts, led by MassRobotics, which convened several times and methodically evaluated the significance, depth, and originality of technical contributions each nominee has made in the overall field of robotics.
“Robotics as a field advances most rapidly when it draws from diverse intellectual perspectives and technical approaches. The contributions of leading female researchers have been instrumental in solving some of the most challenging problems in our discipline,” said Daniela Rus, Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT and member of the MassRobotics board. “The Robotics Medal recognizes the exceptional scientific achievement and technical innovation that has fundamentally advanced the field.”
A formal Gala awarding the medals and celebrating the recipients will be held in Boston at the MIT Samberg Conference Center on October 25, 2025. Tickets, reserved tables, and sponsorship opportunities for the event are available here. MassRobotics has created an endowment and welcomes contributions to support future cash prizes for The Robotics Medal. Contact award@massrobotics.org to learn about becoming an underwriter of The Robotics Medal. Nominations for the 2026 Robotics Medal and Rising Star are open until December 20th, 2025. More information can be found here.
