Allison Okamura and Ayoung Kim received MassRobotics’ Robotics Medal and Rising Star Medal. | Source: MassRobotics
MassRobotics revealed the winners of its 2026 Robotics Medal and Rising Star awards during the IEEE ICRA conference held in Vienna.
The Robotics Medal honors the broad influence of women researchers dedicated to advancing robotics worldwide. It is awarded to a nominated woman in the robotics field in acknowledgment of her significant contributions. The prize includes a $50,000 award given directly to the recipient.
The 4th Annual MassRobotics Robotics Medal, sponsored by Amazon Robotics, was awarded to Dr. Allison Okamura. She holds the Richard W. Weiland Professorship in the School of Engineering, serves as a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and is a science fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Okamura was selected for her groundbreaking work in haptics, medical robotics, and robotic system design. She was also acknowledged for her efforts in open-access robotics education, mentoring, and championing women in the robotics community.
The Rising Star Medal celebrates emerging women who are making notable progress and pushing the boundaries of robotics, and it comes with a $5,000 prize. This year, MassRobotics presented the Rising Star in Robotics Medal to Dr. Ayoung Kim, a professor at Seoul National University.
Kim received the recognition for her pioneering contributions to Scan Context for lidar-based place recognition and her advancements in resilient multi-sensor SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) for robust autonomous systems. This research was supported by widely adopted open datasets and tools.
“We were excited by the sheer volume of exceptional nominations we received this year and were struck by the breadth of robotic research taking place around the world,” said Joyce Sidopoulos, co-founder and chief of operations at MassRobotics. “This award highlights the impact women in robotics have already made and serves as an inspiration for the next generation who will shape this ever-growing field.”
MassRobotics will host a formal gala to present the medals and honor the recipients at the MIT Samberg Conference Center in Cambridge, Mass., on November 7. Tickets, reserved tables, and sponsorship opportunities for the event can be found online.
The 2025 Women in Robotics Gala, hosted by MassRobotics. | Source: MassRobotics
Women remain underrepresented in the STEM workforce
Although women account for 48% of the overall workforce, they represent only 35% of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce. In engineering and robotics positions specifically, women make up just 16% of the workforce, according to the National Girls Collaborative Project.
Nominations for the medals were submitted from across the U.S. and around the world. Entries covered a wide spectrum of robotic technology fields and research areas, ranging from novel gripping materials to exoskeletons, assistive technologies, human-robot interaction, and motion planning.
A panel of robotics experts led by MassRobotics selected the winners. The committee met multiple times and carefully assessed the significance, depth, and originality of each nominee’s technical contributions to the broader field of robotics.
“Robotics flourishes when it embraces diverse perspectives and approaches — and the contributions of leading female researchers have been pivotal in tackling some of the field’s most complex and urgent challenges,” said Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT and a member of the MassRobotics board. “The Robotics Medal celebrates the caliber of outstanding scientific achievement and technical innovation that propels our entire discipline forward.”
Previous recipients have come from the University of California – San Diego, the University of Southern California, the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
Amazon and MassRobotics champion women in STEM
To foster greater diversity in robotics, Amazon created an endowment with MassRobotics in 2022. The Robotics Medal is designed not only to honor individual accomplishments but also to motivate and encourage women and other underrepresented groups to engage in the robotics field.
“As the founding sponsor of the Robotics Medal, our goal is to celebrate and recognize female robotics professors worldwide who have made remarkable contributions to advancing robotics technology,” said Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics and chairperson of the MassRobotics board. “We are deeply appreciative of the work that both Dr. Okamura and Dr. Kim have contributed to the physical AI community, and we are proud to acknowledge and celebrate their outstanding achievements.”
Since 2017, MassRobotics has expanded from a Massachusetts-based incubator into a global robotics hub. It has helped accelerate the adoption of robotics worldwide and equipped startups with the resources necessary to grow and scale. Of the roughly 100 startups housed at MassRobotics’ Boston facility, more than 50% are from outside Massachusetts, and 25% are from outside the United States.
MassRobotics runs STEM and robotics programs specifically designed for high school women. The organization continues to advocate for women in robotics through events and networking opportunities.
Over the past six years, the MassRobotics Jumpstart Fellowship program has graduated close to 120 students who have gone on to enroll at prestigious universities, including MIT, Harvard University, Cornell University, Northeastern University, Boston University, Stanford, Princeton, Georgia Tech, the University of Michigan, Purdue University, and the University of Massachusetts.
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