Dear MassRobotics Community,

As we close out a challenging year, I want to begin by thanking our resident startups. You are the heartbeat of MassRobotics, and you make our ecosystem vibrant, inspiring, and never boring. Week after week, we see exciting headlines: new product launches, major partnerships, funding announcements and every time I’m reminded why MassRobotics exists. Our measure of success is simple: we succeed when our startups succeed. With more than 90 current resident start-ups (and over 250 supported start-ups) from all over the world growing, innovating, and pushing boundaries, we couldn’t be prouder.

This year brought many milestones worth celebrating:

Physical AI Initiative
Physical AI emerged as a major focus for us. We worked with our start-ups to analyze their needs in this rapidly growing domain and brought in experts from Toyota Research, Amazon and others to help. We launched the inaugural Physical AI Fellowship with AWS and NVIDIA and selected 8 amazing companies for the 1st cohort. Applications for the next fellowship are already open, and we’re excited to continue supporting boundary-pushing innovation.

MassRobotics STEM Initiatives
We reached nearly 2200 students offering hands-on robotics education. We celebrated our 5th anniversary of the girls’ Jumpstart Fellowship program and initiated BOOST, a similar boys’ program. We also hosted our 7th Drone Academy and our 3rd Robotics in BlueTech Academy.

RoboBoston
RoboBoston was once again our biggest ever public-facing event. (I know I say that every year!). This year set a new bar that will be hard to top. From the massive crowds to the unforgettable robot parade and a ribbon cutting with Boston’s Mayor, it was truly one of the highlights of the year. And making it onto NBC’s Today Show was the cherry on top. My team is already gearing up for next year, so get ready – we’ll be back in full force.

Women in Robotics
Our Women in Robotics community is stronger than ever. Each quarterly meetup has been standing-room-only, and the third annual Women in Robotics Gala had an incredible turnout. This momentum is inspiring, and we look forward to expanding the community even more next year.

International Engagement

We increased our global reach, welcoming many foreign governments and organizations. We strengthened our collaborations with Australia’s ARM Hub and South Korea’s KAIST University, building valuable international connections and bringing some of their start-ups to MassRobotics to get immersed in our great community.

Finally, to our sponsors: thank you for your continued support, trust, and belief in our mission. Your partnership enables us to empower startups, grow this ecosystem, and build the future of robotics together.