Girls in robotics you’ll want to learn about 2025

October 1 was Worldwide Girls in Robotics Day, and we’re delighted to introduce this yr’s version of “Girls in Robotics You Must Know About”! Robotics is now not confined to factories or analysis labs. At this time, it’s serving to us discover house, take care of individuals, develop meals, and join throughout the globe. Behind these breakthroughs are ladies who lead analysis teams, launch startups, set security requirements, and encourage the subsequent technology. Too usually, their contributions stay under-recognized, and this checklist is a method we are able to make that work seen.

This yr’s checklist highlights 20 ladies in robotics you’ll want to learn about in 2025. They’re professors, engineers, founders, communicators, and mission leaders. Some are early of their careers, others have already formed the sphere for many years. Their work ranges from tactile sensing that offers robots a human-like sense of contact, to swarm robotics for drugs and the atmosphere, to embodied AI which will someday dwell in our properties. They arrive from internationally, together with Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA. Collectively, they present us simply how extensive the world of robotics actually is.

We publish this checklist not solely to have fun their achievements, but in addition to counter the persistent invisibility of girls in robotics. Illustration issues. When ladies’s contributions are missed, we danger reinforcing the false notion that robotics shouldn’t be their area. The honorees you’ll meet right here show the alternative. They’re making discoveries, main groups, beginning corporations, writing the requirements, and pushing the boundaries of what robots can do.

The 2025 honorees

• Heba Khamis
  Heba Khamis is lecturer at UNSW and co-founder of Contactile, start-up making tactile sensors that give robots a human sense of contact to allow them to carry out tough materials dealing with duties.
• Kelen Teixeira Vivaldini
  Kelen Teixeira Vivaldini is a professor at UFSCar, Brazil, researching autonomous robots, clever techniques, and mission planning, with functions in environmental monitoring and inspection.
• Natalie Panek
  Natalie Panek is a senior engineer in techniques design and works within the robotics and automation division of the house know-how firm, MDA. She was named on Forbes 2015 30 below 30 and one in all WXN’s 2014 High 100 award winners.
• Joelle Pineau
  Joelle Pineau is a Canadian AI researcher and robotics chief and a professor at McGill. She additionally served as Meta AI’s vice‑president till 2025. She co‑directs the Reasoning & Studying Lab, co‑based SmartWheeler and Nursebot and champions reproducible analysis.
• Hallie Siegel
  Hallie Siegel is a science communicator and former Robohub editor, constructing world networks that join researchers and the general public.

• Xiaorui Zhu
  Xiaorui Zhu co-founded DJI and RoboSense and directs Galaxy AI & Robotics, with award-winning analysis in UAVs, autonomous driving and cell robotics.
• Lijin Aryananda
  Lijin Aryananda is a robotics researcher with 15+ years’ expertise in humanoids, automation & medical gadgets. At ZHAW she develops AI strategies for tomography, bridging academia & trade with inclusive management.
• Georgia Chalvatzaki
  Georgia Chalvatzaki, professor at TU Darmstadt and head of the PEARL Lab, advances human-centric robotic studying. Her work blends AI and robotics to provide cell manipulators the power to collaborate safely and intelligently with individuals.
• Mar Masulli
  Mar Masulli is CEO & co-founder of BitMetrics, utilizing AI to provide robots & machines imaginative and prescient and reasoning. She additionally serves on the Spanish Robotics Affiliation board.
• Alona Kharchenko
  Alona Kharchenko is co-founder & CTO of Devanthro, constructing embodied AI for properties, and was acknowledged by Forbes as 30 Underneath 30.

• Nicole Robinson
  Nicole Robinson is the co-founder of Lyro Robotics, deploying AI pick-and-pack robots for trade.
• Dimitra Gkatzia
  Dimitra Gkatzia is an affiliate professor at Edinburgh Napier, advancing pure language technology for human-robot interplay.
• Sabine Hauert
  Sabine Hauert is a professor on the College of Bristol, co-founder of Robohub, and a pioneer in swarm robotics for nanomedicine and the atmosphere.
• Monica Anderson
  Monica Anderson is a professor on the College of Alabama, researching distributed autonomy and inclusive human-robot teaming.
• Shilpa Gulati
  Shilpa Gulati is an skilled engineering chief with over 15 years of expertise in constructing and scaling groups to unravel complicated issues in Robotics utilizing state-of-the-art applied sciences.

• Shuran Music
  Shuran Music is a Stanford professor and robotics researcher, constructing low-cost techniques for robotic notion and releasing influential open datasets.
• Kathryn Zealand
  Kathryn Zealand is co-founder of Skip, constructing powered clothes, “e-bikes for strolling”. She spun the mission out of X and has a background in theoretical physics.
• Ann Virts
  Ann Virts is a NIST mission chief creating check strategies for cell and wearable robots, acknowledged with a U.S. DOC Bronze Medal.
• Carole Franklin
  Carole Franklin directs requirements growth for robotics on the Affiliation for Advancing Automation (A3), main ANSI & ISO robotic security work. With a background at Booz Allen & Ford, she champions protected, efficient deployment of robots.
• Meghan Daley
  Meghan Daley is a NASA mission supervisor who leads groups to develop and combine simulations for robotic operations to organize astronauts on the ISS and past.

We’ll be spotlighting 5 honorees every week all through October, so keep tuned for deeper profiles and tales of their work.

Why it issues

Robotics isn’t just about know-how; it’s about individuals. By showcasing these people, we hope to encourage the subsequent technology, join the neighborhood, and advance the values of range and inclusion in STEM

📢 Be a part of the dialog on social media with #WomenInRobotics and assist us have fun the individuals making robotics higher for everybody.

The article was cross-posted from Girls in Robotics. Learn the unique right here.