25 Female Scientists in Robotics: a researcher of Sant’Anna School is included in the RoboHub annual list celebrating examples of women in science
Maria Chiara Carrozza has been just named one of the Top 25 Women in Robotics list by Robohub, a non-profit online communication platform that brings together experts in robotics research, start-ups, business, and education from across the globe. Carrozza is the only Italian scientist on the Robohub list.
Other female scientists on the list work in USA, UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Canada, Australia and Nigeria. They are early career researchers, established academics or senior scientists; the “unifying characteristic of all these women is their inspirational story, their enthusiasm, their fearlessness, their vision, ambition, and accomplishments”. Maria Chiara Carrozza has developed assistive robots at the BioRobotics Institute at Sant’Anna School. Her work focuses on the use of robotics technologies in our society to cause public awareness about the impact of robotic automation on employment.
As a member of the Italian Parliament, she presented a motion “Mozione sulla Robotica” which was adopted by unanimous consent. “I am certainly committed, she said, to promoting the Industry 4.0 and the technological changes in manufacturing system. We assessed and outlined measures that could be adopted to increase life-long learning of skilled workers which is particularly relevant in the context of Industry 4.0. We also evaluated the implications in terms of employment for those without such technological skills. One emerging theme seems to be the digitalisation of processes in public institutions as a precondition required for modern public service production in welfare states. To ensure Italy continues to build on the foundations of the digitalisation of processes, the Council of Ministers established the Agenzia per l'Italia digitale (The Agency for Digital Italy) to assess the achievements the digitalisation of processes and develop a strategy for future developments. Over the past decade, Italian governments have also highlighted the need of digital education for the young and the link between technology and economic prosperity. As well as providing computers for Italian schools, the government is currently delivering digital learning resources and online tools to support teachers”.
