IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2014 - 98

WOMEN IN ENGINEERING

Pioneer Women in Robotics
By Gentiane Venture

f you look around you, there are not
yet many women working in the
fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM),
and it is not easy to find women professionals with a long and successful career in robotics. There are very few
women who have seen the birth, developments, and progress of robotics.
Starting today, I would like to introduce
these leading women in our field in this
column "Women in Engineering." The
first woman I
chose is defiNaturally, the
nitely one of
perception and
these few pioneers. Prof. Rucomputations have a
z e n a B aj s c y
direct relation with
(University of
California,
the sensing and
Berkeley) has
mechanics.
been leading
rob ot ics research for the past 40 years using the
best of math, control theory, sensors,
and computer science, always with an
eye on human psychology to understand human behavior (Figure 1). Recently, I had the immense pleasure of
meeting with her to ask her a few questions about her career and vision. I am
pleased to share what I have learned.
With a father who was an engineer
and a mother who was a pediatrician
who always advocated that women
should be self-supported, it was obvious
to Bajscy that working was important.
Inspired by her father and gifted in
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2014.2314034
Date of publication: 10 June 2014

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

june 2014

Figure 1. Prof. Ruzena Bajscy.

mathematics, STEM was a natural pick.
Bajscy believes that the family environment plays an important role for children in deciding which career they will
embrace: both her daughter and granddaughter are in the STEM fields. However, in the 1950s, it required a lot of
strength and resoluteness for a woman
to become a professional in engineering. Actually, she thinks it still does,
even though things are slowly changing.
Bajscy's research and career show
her fascination with how people
behave, how the body moves, and how
math can be used to explain that. For
her, it is evident that math and engineering tools and, more particularly,
robotics can be used to explore and
explain human behavior. Naturally, the
perception and computations have a
direct relation with the sensing and
mechanics. During her career that
stretches over 50 years, she has seen the
evolution of computing power, mem-

ory, sensors, and mechanisms, but she
remembers that ideas and behaviors
were there even before this technology.
"At first, there was no practical application in mind," she says, "it only came
after, when the technology started to be
really efficient. There was not one thing
more important than another; it was a
convolution of many things that makes
robotics progress." She has never been
disappointed by the slowness of technological developments.
Bajscy calls herself a realist. She is
always working with what is available
and accepting things as they are. For
example, she did not expect better cameras for computer vision in the 1970s
but instead dealt with the available
technology without delay and without
blaming it for not being good enough,
efficient enough, or precise enough. "In
fact, technology changes faster than
humans!" she told me. Still, everything
takes time, and the collaborative effort
is tremendous. For Bajscy, robotics is
evolutionary. There are more and more
systems, but they are incremental
improvements. "I try to look at things
holistically, but it is not so clear, not so
pure. I dream of understanding fundamental dynamics of human; it is painful to see how much time it takes."
In 2002, Bajscy gave an interview for
the IEEE Global History Network
(http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.
php/Oral-History:Ruzena_Bajcsy),
which I recommend you watch. In this
interview, where she talks about her life
and career, she said something that I
found extremely important for women
trying to make their way in the STEM

http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index

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