PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — For their research that has revolutionized the science of robotics while dramatically improving the quality of human life, three world leaders in robotics science will share the coveted 2024 John Scott Award.

The Scott Awards, presented annually in Philadelphia to honor the scientific legacy of Benjamin Franklin, will this year recognize Dr. Daniela Rus, Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT; Dr. Takeo Kanade, Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University; and Dr. Vijay Kumar, Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Penn. 

The Awards, which include a cash prize of $10,000 for each of the winners, will be presented at the American Philosophical Society – founded by Benjamin Franklin – on Wednesday, November 20, 2024.  The Award ceremony is hosted by the Board of Directors of City Trusts, which administers the John Scott trust in addition to 118 other public charitable trusts on behalf of the City of Philadelphia.

Endowed in 1815 by Scottish chemist and pharmacist John Scott, the Scott Award is presented annually in honor of Ben Franklin. It has become one of the most prestigious honors in science. Among the previous awardees are 20 winners of the Nobel Prize, including Marie Curie, Guglielmo Marconi, R. Buckminster Fuller, Baruch Blumberg, Kary Mullis, K. Barry Sharpless, and most recently, 2023 Nobel laureates Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, whose breakthrough mRNA research led to the development of COVID vaccines.

The 2024 Scott Award winners share a common research specialty – the science of robotics – though each brings a different focus to this work.  For Dr. Kanade, considered by many to be the world’s foremost expert in computer vision, it has been to provide robots and other machines with “the function of human eyesight” through advanced mathematical algorithms that mimic the processes underlying human vision.  For Professor Rus, it’s a focus on the use of artificial intelligence to equip robots to address real problems, in real time, in the real world.  And for Dean Kumar, it is creating the next generation of flying robots with vastly expanded capability to cooperate with each other and make instantaneous decisions, likely based on computer programs that may not even be written.

Takeo Kanade, considered by many as the world’s foremost authority in the field of computer vision, began his life’s work as an undergraduate student in Japan.  Upon earning his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Kyoto University in 1973 for his work in creating the first facial recognition computer program, Dr. Kanade joined the faculty in the Department of Information Science.  He was appointed to the faculty at Carnegie Mellon in 1980, and in 1992 he became the Director of the University’s Robotics Institute, serving until 2002.  He also founded the Digital Human Research Center in Tokyo.

His work led to a wide range of advancements based on the use of computer vision, including early versions of “no hands” driving (featuring a demonstration drive from Pittsburgh to San Diego).  And along the way, he found himself explaining one of his newest achievements to a worldwide audience during Super Bowl XXXV in January 2001.

Later, Dr. Kanade’s work led to advancements in the field of computer assisted surgery featuring robotic cameras that navigate inside the human body to treat hip and knee injuries, heart problems, among others.

During his career, Dr. Kanade has been the principal investigator for multiple robotics projects at Carnegie Mellon.  He holds nearly two dozen patents, and he is the author of more than 400 technical papers.  In 2016, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology. Other awards include the Franklin Medal Bower Award, the ACM/AAAI Allen Newall Award, BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Pioneer Award.  He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he is a Fellow of the American Association of Artificial Intelligence, among others. 

Daniela Rus specializes in developing the science and engineering of “autonomy,” which expands the ability of machines to reason and learn so that they can become “pervasive” in performing daily tasks that improve quality of life for people.

She envisions a future where cars are robots that drive themselves, shopping carts can autonomously follow shoppers, furniture can reconfigure itself to transform a dining room into a cozy living room, robot wheelchairs that streamline patient transport to and from physical therapy, drones can deliver fresh produce to the doorstep, and the technology will exist that empowers blind individuals to navigate in the world with far greater freedom

Dr. Rus holds a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics from Iowa, and she earned her Master’s and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University.  She began her career as a professor of computer science at Dartmouth College before joining the faculty at MIT in 2004, and she was named Director of MIT’s world-renowned Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in 2012.  She has authored scores of technical papers and books, including Computing the Future, The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots, and The Mind’s Mirror: Risk and Reward in the Age of AI.

Dr. Rus served on GPAI (Global Partnerships in AI), the Defense Innovation Board, and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. She is a 2002 MacArthur Fellow, a senior visiting Fellow at MITRE, a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, The National Academy of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was awarded The Engelberger prize for robotics, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical and Pioneer awards, and the IJCAI John McCarthy award. She is a co-founder of startups LiquidAI, Venti Technologies, ThemisAI, and The Routing Company.

Dean Vijay Kumar has built an international reputation in the field of cooperative and multi-agent robotics, with a focus on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – commonly known as drones – and developing their capability to cooperate in the execution of increasingly high-end tasks.  His research has been used extensively for mapping, reconnaissance, and search and rescue operations in places where it is too dangerous for humans to operate.  He envisions a world where drone “swarms” work cooperatively to improve the quality of human life on initiatives like increased crop production for farmers, or in certain aspects of commercial construction, or even to enter the human body to assist in certain medical treatments.

A native of India, Dean Kumar earned a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, and later his Ph.D. from Ohio State University.  A member of the faculty in Engineering at Penn since 1987, Dean Kumar also has served as the Assistant Director of Robotics and Cyber Physical Systems for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  Through his work with Pennovation, the University’s business incubator, laboratory, and collaborative hub for entrepreneurs, Dean Kumar’s lab has helped multiple robotics startup companies such as KMel Robotics, Exyn Technologies, Treeswift, and Vertiq.  He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the IEEE, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

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SOURCE Board of Directors of City Trusts