Faculty Research Fellows Lunch with Allison Okamura

Allison Okamura: "Women’s participation and leadership in robotics."

As in many STEM fields, women are underrepresented in the interdisciplinary field of robotics. I will discuss recent analysis performed to reveal the current state of gender diversity in the field, both for participants (society membership, conference attendees, authors of research publications, etc.) and leaders (conference chairs, editorial board members, etc.), nationally and internationally. I will hypothesize reasons for underrepresentation that are particular to the field of robotics and seek suggestions for approaches to improve the situation.

Allison Okamura is Professor of Mechanical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Computer Science.