Prof. Mataric´ received her PhD in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from MIT in 1994, her MS in Computer Science from MIT in 1990, and her BS in Computer Science from the University of Kansas in 1987. (See her academic ancestry here.) She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a recipient of the Okawa Foundation Award, the NSF Career Award, the MIT TR100 Innovation Award, and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Career Award. At USC, she has received the Viterbi School of Engineering Service Award, the Viterbi School of Engineering Junior Research Award, the Provost's Center for Interdisciplinary Research Fellowship, the Mellon Mentoring Award, and the Academic Senate Distinguished Faculty Service Award. She is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi, and is featured in the Emmy Award-nominated documentary movie about scientists, "Me & Isaac Newton" (Movie awards, PR: The New Yorker, Forbes , USC Chronicle, Chronicle in PDF, USC Daily Trojan. Other selected media coverage of her research is found here.) She is co-editor-in-chief of the new International Journal of Social Robotics, and associate editor of three major journals: International Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, International Journal of Humanoid Robotics, and Adaptive Behavior. She has published extensively, including 1 book (and two more in press with MIT Press), 41 journal articles, 22 book chapters, 4 edited volumes, 109 conference papers, 42 workshop papers, 25 posters, and 51 technical reports. Prof. Mataric´'s research collaborations include NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and Johnson Space Center, Evolution Robotics, Microsoft Research, Boeing Phantom Works, HRL, the Free University of Brussels AI Lab, LEGO Cambridge Research Labs, GTE Research Labs, Swedish Institute of Computer Science, ATR Human Information Processing Labs, and Sandia National Labs, among others.
Prof. Mataric´'s Interaction Lab pursues research into socially assistive robotics, aimed at endowing robots with the ability to help people through individual interaction (for convalescence, rehabilitation, training, and education) and cooperative human-robot teams (for habitat monitoring and emergency response). The research involves the development of algorithms and control architectures for multi-modal, assistive human-robot interaction and spans the areas of intelligent autonomous robot control, learning, and human-robot interaction, drawing from a breadth of interdisciplinary insights and collaborations. For research details and projects, please look here; for lab members and alumni please look here.
To broaden research impact, Prof. Mataric´ is committed to educational outreach. With NSF and USC Neighborhood Outreach (UNO) Program support, and collaborations with K-12 teachers, she and her students are developing hands-on robotics curricula for students at all levels (elementary, middle- and high-school) as tools for promoting science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and recruiting women and under-represented students into those fields of study. Developed materials are freely distributed on the web: http://robotics.usc.edu/interaction/k-12/index.html. She has written a generally-accessible introductory robotics textbook, The Robotics Primer, published by MIT Press in 2007. The textbook is aimed at the diverse audience of K-12 and university robotics educators and students, and anybody interested in learning about the key concepts of robotics presented in an approachable manner. She also developed a free robotics programming workbook with illustrated exercises and solutions, available on the web: http://roboticsprimer.sourceforge.net/workbook. The textbook and workbook are complementary but can be used as stand-alone resources as well.
Prof. Mataric´ is also committed to University service. She is the Senior Associate Dean for Research in the Viterbi School of Engineering, was President of the USC Academic Senate and the faculty in 2006-07, and has served repeatedly on the University Strategic Planning Committee and the University Research Committee. Her efforts in enhancing research excellence resulted in the establishment of the USC Center for Excellence in Research (PR: USC News 5/1/07, also in the USC News Article archive; USC Chronicle 4/4/07; USC Chronicle 1/22/07, also in the USC Chronicle archive; USC Daily Trojan also found in the USC Daily Trojan on-line archive; and USC Chronicle 2/12/07) and the USC Research Salon Series, and were recognized with the Academic Senate Distinguished Faculty Service Award in spring 2009.
As part of her continuing efforts to promote diversity in engineering education and research, she recently chaired the Viterbi School of Engineering branch of the USC Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) Program.