Women in Robotics Medal Gala Honors Ayoung Kim and Allison Okamura

MassRobotics held its 4th Annual Women in Robotics Medal Gala to recognize two women who are shaping robotics research and its applications. The evening was less an awards ceremony than a check on the pipeline: who is coming up, who is being recognized, and who is paying for it.

The room was a mix of industry leaders, academics, startup founders and students. That mix is the point. The gala is designed to connect people who build robots with those who will build them next.

Where the Pipeline Starts

Most of the evening's story starts with MassRobotics' Girls Jumpstart Fellowship Program. It's a five-month Saturday program for high school girls, covering CAD, programming, electronics and fabrication, with mentorship from industry professionals. Teaching a teenager to model a part in CAD and then to machine or print it is a useful way to get engineering habits early, and the Saturday schedule keeps the commitment realistic for students who have other obligations.

The fellowship is supported by La Fondation Dassault Systèmes, MassTech Collaborative and UMass Lowell. It has graduated 115 young women, and most of them have gone on to study STEM fields. That completion figure matters more than it might seem. Programs like this often lose students between the first exciting weekend and the fifth month, so a graduating cohort is a better measure of retention than enrollment alone.

Christiana Nguyen, a Cohort 3 alumna and now a mechanical engineering student at MIT, spoke at the event about how the program changed her direction. "Hearing how they had built their careers, I began to see engineering not only as something I loved, but as a future I could pursue with the right resources."

Her path ran through industry. As a high school senior she completed her Jumpstart internship at Maglev Aero. She went back to Maglev the following summer as a rising college senior and worked alongside a more recent fellow. "I came into the program surrounded by people who showed me what was possible, and later I found myself in a position to do the same for someone else."

That loop, from student to intern to mentor, is what the fellowship is built to produce. It also depends on volunteers. Many of the mentors give up their Saturdays for the program, and several of them were in the room that night.

Community as the Organizing Principle

Tye Brady, co-founder and Board Chair of MassRobotics and Chief Technologist at Amazon Robotics, took the stage to describe how the organization began. The founding idea was simple: good things happen when people in the same field work together. Brady stressed that real progress in robotics depends on academia, industry and public-sector bodies working side by side, and that the community has been central to MassRobotics' mission from the start.

He also explained why the medal matters. It recognizes women who are leading the field right now, and it tells students that robotics has a place for them and that their work will be noticed. That second point is easy to overlook. Visible role models often do more to shape who enters a field than any single recruiting push.

The 2026 Medal Recipients

Daniela Rus, Director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), introduced this year's recipients. She noted that nominations arrived from many countries and covered a wide range of robotics research areas, which made the selection hard. A broad nomination pool is a good sign for the medal's reach, even if it makes the judges' job harder.

Rising Star Medal: Professor Ayoung Kim, Seoul National University

Professor Ayoung Kim of Seoul National University received the 2026 Rising Star Medal for her work in robotic perception, spatial AI and navigation. Her research addresses a problem that matters in practice: getting robots to understand their surroundings and operate reliably in the messy physical world, not just in controlled test environments.

Robotics Medal: Professor Allison Okamura, Stanford University

Professor Allison Okamura of Stanford University received the 2026 Robotics Medal for her pioneering work in haptics, medical robotics and human-centered systems. Her contributions aim at robots that can interact with people with more sensitivity, dexterity and care, which is a demanding requirement when the robot is working near a patient or a worker.

Okamura told the audience, "One of the things I love about this field is that there is an opportunity for everyone to contribute. No matter your gender, age, or background, this is a field that needs not only technical expertise, but also creativity, domain expertise, and, well, humanity to have a positive impact on human health, well-being, and prosperity."

She also spoke to the students directly. Careers look planned in hindsight, she said, but they rarely feel that way while you're on them. She urged them to focus on the research, the impact robotics can have, and how to learn, teach and collaborate. "Thinking about one's career is important, but concentrating on the key research to be done, the impact that robotics can have, and how to learn and teach and collaborate together is how we ALL succeed."

Sponsors and the Next Cycle

MassRobotics thanked Amazon Robotics for establishing an endowment that lets medal recipients receive a meaningful cash award alongside the medal and the recognition. Other supporters of the evening included:

• Amazon Robotics, a founding and annual sponsor of MassRobotics, served as Platinum Sponsor for the Gala and brought a large team to the event. It also sponsors the Drone Academy, now heading into its eighth year.
• Honeywell Aerospace sponsored event photography, a Female Founders table and a Jumpstart table.
• Harmonic Drive, a founding sponsor and longtime annual supporter, provided the table centerpieces.
• Maxon, a MassRobotics sponsor for many years, provided the desserts.
• The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a steady supporter of MassRobotics programs, sponsored a Jumpstart table.
• Mintz sponsored a Female Founders table.

Attention has already moved to the next cycle. Nominations are open for the 5th Annual Women in Robotics Medal, which includes the 2027 Robotics Medal and Rising Star Medal. Submissions close December 20, 2026, at TheRoboticsMedal.org, and recipients will be announced at ICRA in May 2027. If you know someone whose work deserves a nomination, that's the deadline to watch.