National Advisory Panel

Maja Mataric´ is a professor in the Computer Science Department and Neuroscience Program at the University of Southern California, founding director of USC's interdisciplinary Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems (CRES) and co-director of the USC Robotics Research Lab. She joined USC in September 1997, after 2.5 years as assistant professor in the Computer Science Department and Volen Center for Complex Systems at Brandeis University, where she founded her Interaction Lab in 1995.

Professor Mataric´'s Interaction Lab pursues research into socially assistive robotics, aimed at endowing robots with the ability to help people through individual interaction (for convalescence, rehabilitation, training, and education) and cooperative human-robot teams (for habitat monitoring and emergency response). The research involves the development of algorithms and control architectures for multi-modal, assistive human-robot interaction and spans the areas of intelligent autonomous robot control, learning, and human-robot interaction, drawing from a breadth of interdisciplinary insights and collaborations.