IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2023 - 88

WOMEN I N EN GI N EER I N G
IDEA: A New Initiative to Foster Diversity
and Inclusion in the Robotics and
Automation Society
By Henny Admoni and Karinne Ramirez-Amaro
In 2023, the Robotics and Automation
Society (RAS) Women in Engineering
(WiE) committee launched a new initiative
called Inclusion, Diversity, Equity
and Accessibility (IDEA) to increase the
diversity of RAS members attending one
of its three flagship conferences [1].
Although RAS is among the largest of
the IEEE societies, with around 15,000
members, RAS conferences still lack representation
from women, young students,
and people from some global regions. For
example, only 18% of conference attendees
are female, 8% are graduate students,
and 8% are from underrepresented
regions like Region 9 (Latin America).
The IDEA program provides travel
support (https://www.ieee-ras.org/women
-in-engineering/idea-travel-support) to
help first-time attendees to participate at
one of the RAS-sponsored conferences,
i.e., IEEE International Conference on
Robotics and Automation (ICRA), IEEE
International Conference on Automation
Science and Engineering, and the
International Conference on Intelligent
Robots and Systems. This support is
aimed at students (from high school
to Ph.D.), researchers with disabilities,
researchers from underrepresented
countries or countries affected by disasters
or war, and researchers who want
to enter/return to the field of robotics
(e.g., due to a disease or parental leave).
The awardees receive the opportunity to
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2023.3323076
Date of current version: 12 December 2023
88
learn about state-of-the-art research in
robotics and automation presented at the
conferences. Furthermore, they receive
mentoring from RAS WiE members
who help them navigate the event,
boosting their network possibilities.
The first call for IDEA support was
launched in February 2023. The WiE
chairs selected 12 finalists from a pool of
101 highly qualified applications received
from around the world. The final four
awardees were chosen by the IDEA committee:
Katja Mombaur, Enrica Tricomi,
Karinne Ramirez-Amaro, Tamim Asfour,
Lydia Kavraki, and David Vernon. The
awardees attended the RAS ICRA 2023
conference held in London, U.K.
INTRODUCING THE IDEA AWARDEES
The first cohort of IDEA awardees is
comprised of four bright young scholars
who hail from Ukraine, Ethiopia,
Benin, and Ecuador (Figure 1). Each of
them has demonstrated a commitment
to robotics and automation.
■ Polina Oliinyk, who is continuing her
bachelor's degree in Cardiff, Wales,
after having her studies in Ukraine interrupted
by last year's invasion, is part of
the Cardiff University Computational
Robotics research team.
■ Arisema Mihretu, originally from
Ethiopia, is pursuing a Master's
degree at Carnegie Mellon University
(CMU) Africa in Rwanda, where she
researches cognitive robotics.
■ Pamely Zantou, another CMU Africa
Master's student, hails originally from
Benin and researches social robotics.
■ Dulexy Solano, studying for a bachelor
of biomedical engineering at the Yachay
Tech University in Ecuador, is highly
involved with the IEEE Engineering in
Medicine and Biology Society.
FIGURE 1. IDEA awardees who attended the ICRA 2023 conference.
IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2023
1070-9932/23©2023IEEE

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1796-2196 https://www.ieee-ras.org/women-in-engineering/idea-travel-support https://www.ieee-ras.org/women-in-engineering/idea-travel-support

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2023

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