Daniela Rus is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and serves as Director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), the university's largest interdisciplinary research laboratory. Born in Romania, she immigrated to the United States with her family and earned a Bachelor of Science with majors in computer science and mathematics from the University of Iowa in 1985 before completing her Master's and PhD in computer science at Cornell University under John Hopcroft. She began her academic career as a professor at Dartmouth College, where she founded the Dartmouth Robotics Laboratory, and subsequently joined MIT in 2004, eventually becoming CSAIL Director in 2012. In her leadership role, she has established numerous research initiatives including the AI Accelerator program, Toyota-CSAIL Joint Research Center, and the METEOR postdoctoral program while serving as Deputy Dean of Research for the Schwarzman College of Computing.
Professor Rus pioneers the science and engineering of autonomy through her research on networked and distributed robotic systems that seamlessly integrate into human environments. Her work focuses on developing machines that can reason, learn, and adapt to complex tasks in human-centered settings, with applications spanning transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, environmental monitoring, underwater exploration, and in-home assistance. She has made significant contributions to collaborative robotics where multiple machines work together to achieve common goals, creating intuitive interfaces for human-robot interaction and developing tools for rapid robot design and fabrication. Her research addresses critical gaps between current robotic capabilities and the vision of pervasive robots supporting humans with cognitive and physical tasks, driving innovation in fields from smart cities to medical applications.
As a leading figure in robotics and artificial intelligence, Rus has cultivated extensive influence through her roles as Director of the Toyota-CSAIL Joint Research Center, USA expert member for the Global Partnership on AI, and member of the Scientific American board of advisers and Defense Innovation Board. She has been instrumental in shaping the research agenda for autonomous systems through her leadership of CSAIL's Distributed Robotics Laboratory and has mentored numerous students and researchers who have gone on to advance the field across academia and industry. Her recognition as a MacArthur Fellow in 2002 foreshadowed her continued impact on robotics, further evidenced by her 2017 Engelberger Robotics Award and membership in the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Rus continues to advance the frontier of robotic autonomy with her vision of machines becoming ubiquitous assistants that enhance human capabilities across diverse domains of everyday life.
