MIT Professor Daniela Rus Honored for Pioneering Robotics Research

Daniela Rus, the Andrew and Erna Viteribi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been named a co-recipient of the 2024 John Scott Award from the board of directors at City Trusts in Philadelphia. She shares the award with Takeo Kanade from Carnegie Mellon University and Vijay Kumar from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Rus was honored for her outstanding contributions to the field of robotics. Her work focuses on developing the science and engineering of autonomy, toward the long-term objective of enabling a future with machines pervasively integrated into the fabric of life, supporting people with cognitive and physical tasks. At MIT, she directs the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where she and her colleagues research novel ways to make system machines smarter, easier to use, more secure, and more efficient.

In addition to her research and teaching endeavors, Dr. Rus has co-authored two books, The Heart and the Chop: Our Bright Future With Robots (W. W. Norton & Company, 2024) and The Mind’s Mirror: Risk and Reward in the Age of AI (W. W. Norton & Company, 2024).

Dr. Rus holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.