Invention and Engineering

Daniela Rus

Daniela L. Rus is a Romanian-American computer scientist. She is the MIT Panasonic Professor of Computer Science and director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Rus is known for work in robotics and artificial intelligence, including distributed and networked robotics, self-reconfiguring robot systems, soft and bio-inspired robots, computational design and fabrication, human-robot interaction, autonomous systems, and adaptive machine learning. A recurring theme in her research is the integration of robot bodies, computational intelligence, and physical environments. She has described this direction publicly as Physical AI: artificial intelligence embodied in systems that can sense, move, learn, adapt, and act in the real world in a 2024 TED talk. Her work also includes AI for scientific discovery, including machine-learning and robotics methods for studying nonhuman communication through Project CETI, the Cetacean Translation Initiative. Rus has served as a principal investigator and member of the founding scientific team for Project CETI, which was launched with catalytic support from The Audacious Project and was inspired in part by the whale-song research and conservation legacy of Roger Payne. Rus is a co-founder of Liquid AI, an MIT CSAIL spinout founded with Ramin Hasani, Mathias Lechner, and Alexander Amini to develop efficient general-purpose AI systems and liquid foundation models. She has also co-founded or advised companies in robotics, transportation, trustworthy AI, and intelligent systems. Her honors include the MacArthur Fellowship, the IEEE Edison Medal, the John Scott Medal, the Engelberger Robotics Award, the High-Tech Award of the Bavarian Minister-President, and elections to the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Rus was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in AI.

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• ▸Canadian National 6213
• ▸Abdul Hai Habibi
• ▸Economic history of Scotland

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