IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2018 - 122

groups and facilitating their collabora-
tions through well planned, organized,
and attended activities. In 2017 alone,
the Chapter organized the robotics
speaker series and invited professionals
and scholars in robotics and automa-
tion to give talks and workshops to
industry and academia. The Chapter
co-led and hosted the 2016 IEEE Re-
gion 1 Student Conference at Central
Connecticut State University, New Brit-
ain, and organized the conference's
panel discussion on open software and
hardware in robotics.

For the Chapter, one very impor-
tant component of the REP is to
educate and engage the younger gener-
ation and our community through
competitions, workshops, and projects.
In 2017, the Chapter was actively in-
volved in robotics competitions such
as Zero Robotics, VEX, FIRST, and
Firefighting robots as the organizer,
referee, or participant. The Chapter
provided a dozen robotics workshops
at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) Scratch conference,
local libraries, schools, universities,

and maker fairs. Collaborating with
the MIT space system's lab, the Chap-
ter hosted the Zero Robotics sum-
mer program in 2017 to teach middle
schoolers how to program a code to
move a satellite inside the International
Space Station. Engaging REP volun-
teers in the fall of 2017, the Chapter
developed a scanning robot to assist a
local library in scanning photos. Dur-
ing the spring and fall semesters of
2017, the Chapter helped a local school
develop projects on an open-source
robot platform.

2018 IEEE Robotics and Automation
Award Recipient Announced

H

eartfelt congratulations to
Matthew T. Mason, the selected
recipient of the prestigious
2018 IEEE Robotics and Au-
tomation Award for "scientific and
educational contributions to the mech-
anics of manipulation enabling real-world
robot autonomy, and for leadership in
robotics." He will receive this award
during the 2018 IEEE/RSJ International
Conference on Intelligent Robots and
Systems (IROS) in Madrid, Spain, on
1-5 October 2018.
Mason's contributions to advancing
the mechanics of grasping and manipu-
lation are essential to enabling robots to
physically interact with the world. He is
a proponent of minimalism in robotic
manipulation, and his innovative think-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2018.2822100
Date of publication: 13 June 2018

122

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

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june 2018

ing has provided simple
tive. An IEEE Fellow, Mason
solutions that have al-
is a professor of computer sci-
lowed robots to perform
ence and robotics at Car-
sophisticated tasks, such
negie Mellon University,
as in parts feeders used for
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
automatic assembly and
The IEEE Robotics and
packaging. He established
Automation Award was
the geometrical and mech-
established in 2002 by the
anical foundations for ro-
IEEE Board of Directors
botic manipulation, and
and is presented for con-
he pioneered pushing and Matthew T. Mason.
tributions in the field of
planar sliding as important
robotics and automation.
processes in manipulation.
It includes but is not lim-
As founder of Carnegie Mellon Uni- ited to manufacturing automation;
versity's Manipulation Lab, Mason robotics and automation in unstruc-
supervised the development of the ori- tured environments; sensor design;
gami-folding robot, desktop mobile integration and fusion; robot design,
manipulators; scale-invariant grasping, modeling, planning and control; meth-
throwing, striking, and regrasp; and the odologies for robotics and automation;
use of simple single actuator. He was also and the quality of the nomination. This
a key architect of the Robotics Roadmap award is sponsored by the IEEE Robot-
that led to the National Robotics Initia- ics and Automation Society.
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2018

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