Carnegie Mellon University, PA
United States
Research Areas
Automation, Computational and Artificial Intelligence, Human-computer Interaction, Man Machine Systems, Robot Programming, Robots
Biography
Manuela Veloso was born in Lisbon, Portugal. She completed a Licenciatura degree in Electrical Engineering and a M.Sc. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico in 1980 and 1984, respectively. She then attended Boston University, receiving a M.A. in Computer Science in 1986, and Carnegie Mellon University where she received a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1992. Following graduation she joined the CMU faculty as an Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science, later being promoted to Associate Professor in 1997 and full Professor in 2002. In 2006 she became the Herbert A. Simon Professor at CMU and in 2014 she was promoted to University Professor. Additionally she has served as Visiting Professor at MIT from 1999-2000 and Sargent-Faull Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University from 2013-2014, as well as current President-Elect of AAAI and the Past President of the International RoboCup Federation. Veloso’s research interests focus on robotics, artificial intelligence, and autonomous agents. Her contributions to the field presented her with numerous awards and honors, including the NSF CAREER Award in 1995 and the 2009 ACM/SIGART Autonomous Agents Research Award.
Interview Synopsis
In this interview, Veloso discusses her career in robotics, focusing on her activities at CMU. Outlining her contributions to the robotics community, she recounts her involvement in various robotics projects, including CoBots and the RoboCup. Reflecting on her career decisions, and commenting on the challenges of robotics and on the human-robot relationship, she provides advice for young people interested in the field.