Early Academic Career Award in Robotics and Automation

About the Award

Description: To recognize academics who have made an identifiable contribution or contributions which have had a major impact on the robotics and/or automation fields.
Established: 1999
Prize: $1,000, Plaque and Certificate
Funding: Funded by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society through an endowment managed by the IEEE Foundation.
Eligibility: Any current member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society who is in the early stage of his/her career in the robotics and/or automation field, i.e., less than 7 years after being granted his or her highest earned academic degree up to a doctorate degree. This period is defined as the time between the date on the nominee's diploma and the close of nominations for the award.
Basis for Judging: 1) Current and potential impact of the submitted contribution (or contributions) on the fields of robotics and/or automation; 2) Contributions to the Society and the profession; 3) Educational contributions. Nominations for the award will be solicited by the Awards Committee; a nomination may be made by someone familiar with the individual’s work. Three references will be required. The nominator and the references must be Society members. 
Presentation: At the annual IEEE ICRA held in the spring of each year.

Nomination form:

• On-line Submission
• Traditional Form

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Winners of this Award

2023
Katherine Driggs-Campbell
"For contributions to the design of autonomous systems that operate in the real-world and interact safely with people"
Abhinav Valada
"For contributions to learning and perception for robot navigation"
Cosimo Della Santina
"For fundamental contributions to modeling, design, and control of soft and elastic robots"
Nikolay Atanasov
"For contributions to the advancement of autonomous navigation, simultaneous localization and mapping, and active robot perception"

2022
Dorsa Sadigh
"For contributions to learning and control algorithms for interactive robotics"
Chelsea Finn
"For pioneering contributions in deep robotic learning, and their application to vision-based robotic manipulation"

2021
Arash Ajoudani
"For contributions to the theory and technology of (ergonomic) human-robot collaboration and telerobotics"
Anca Dragan
"For pioneering algorithmic human-robot interaction"
Elliot W. Hawkes
"For major contributions to bio-inspired, origami, and soft robotics"

 

2020
Eric Diller
"For contributions to magnetic wireless micro-scale robots"
Alberto Rodriguez
"For contributions to dexterous robot manipulation"

 

2019
Jeannette Bohg
"For contributions to robot perception and learning for manipulation"
Marco Hutter
"For his major contributions to actuation, design, and control of legged robots"
Ilana Nisky
"For contributions to neuroscience-grounded analysis, design, and training in haptic, teleoperation, and robot-assisted surgery systems"

 

2018
Jens Kober
"For fundamental contributions to learning and application of versatile motor skills in robotics"
Julie Shah
"For contributions to human-robot collaboration and transition of results to real world applications"

 

2017
Sertac Karaman
"For contributions to motion planning and control algorithms for robots and autonomous vehicles"
Conor Walsh
"For contributions to soft robotics and wearable technology for rehabilitation"

 

2016
Dmitry Berenson
"For contributions to the theory and implementation of robot motion planning and manipulation"
Ludovic Righetti
"For contributions to the theory of, and experiments in, robot locomotion and manipulation"

 

2015
Sami Haddadin
"For fundamental contributions to robot safety, physical human-robot interaction, and soft-robotics control"
Robert J. Webster III
"For innovations in the design, modeling, and control of flexible minimally invasive surgical robots"

 

2014
Kyu Jin Cho
"Fundamental contributions to soft robotics and biologically inspired robot design"
Davide Scaramuzza
"For his major contributions to robot vision and visually-guided micro aerial vehicles"

 

2013
Jan Peters
"For the development of new robot learning approaches, architectures and methods and their application to anthropomorphic robots"
Cyrill Stachniss
"For his contributions to mobile robot exploration and simultaneous localization and mapping"

 

2012
Pieter Abbeel
"For contributions to apprenticeship learning and deformable object manipulation, and their application to autonomous helicopter flight and surgical and personal robotics"
Katherine Kuchenbecker
"For contributions to haptic interfaces and touch perception for robotic and telerobotic systems"

 

2011
Hisataka Maruyama
"For contributions to micro-nano robotic manipulation and sensing technologies for cell analysis and biological applications"

 

2010
Yu Sun
"For contributions to enabling microrobotic and MEMS technologies for automated cell manipulation and characterization in cell biology and clinical applications"

 

2009
Nicholas Roy
"For fundamental contributions to planning, machine learning and the development of indoor unmanned air vehicle flight"
Jun Ueda
"For fundamental contributions to robust control of robot dynamics including time-delayed telerobotics, flexible robots, cellular actuator devices, and rehabilitation robots"

 

2008
Michael Montemerlo
"For fundamental contributions to perception, SLAM, motion planning and navigation; and technical leadership on the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge winning and 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge second place teams"
Tao Zhang
"For leadership and research contributions ot automation science and engineering in the areas of parts handling and semiconductor manufacturing"

 

2007
Danica Kragic
"For contributions to visually guided manipulation"

 

2006
Warren Dixon
"For his remarkable achievements at his career stage, including impressive publication record, building a solid robotics program and attracting substantial funding, being selected to receive the National Science Foundation Career Award, receiving the ORNL Early Career Award, and for his innovative research in the areas of nonlinear control design for robotic systems, and of visual servo control"

 

2005
Yoky Matsuoka
"For contributions to the design of new robotic devices that facilitate neuromuscular assistance, learning, and rehabilitation"
Allison Okamura
"For contributions to the design and control of haptic devices and to teleoperated and needle-based robot-assisted surgery"

 

2004
Karl Bohringer
"For contributions to physical geometric algorithms and MEMS, with applications to self-assembly and part manipulation"
Katsu Yamane
"For development of algorithms and software for the dynamics of general and complex kinematic chains and their applications to humanoid robotics and computer graphics"

 

2003
Award not presented

 

2002
Lydia Kavraki

 

2001
Kevin Lynch

 

2000
Fumihito Arai
"For contributions to micro/nano robotics and automation"
Maja Mataric

 

1999 
Ning Xi
"For contributions to the development of event-based planning and control for robotic operations"