USC Today

Maja J. Matarić

Robotics expert specializing in assistive, humanoid and team robotics
  • Soon-Shiong Chaired and Distinguished Professor and Interim Vice President of Research
  • Interim Vice President of Research, USC
  • Founding director, Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems
  • Co-director, Robotics Research Laboratories
  • Professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience and Pediatrics
Office: 213 740-6709
Links:

Expertise

  • Founder/pioneer of socially assistive robotics/social robots for health, aging, education, training, therapy, rehabilitation
  • Creating robots that help people through non-physical social support by providing motivation, coaching, and companionship
  • Technology for behavior change
  • Robot-assisted therapies for children with autism spectrum disorders, stroke and traumatic brain injury survivors, and individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia
  • Human-robot interaction
  • Robots for children, for the elderly, for special needs users
  • Augmentation vs. automation: augmenting human ability instead of automating work and causing job loss
  • Co-founder and former chief science officer of Embodied, Inc.

Languages

  • English
  • Serbian
  • Serbo-Croatian

Additional Information

  • Recipient of the US Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) in 2011
  • Fellow of AAAS
  • Fellow of AAAI
  • Fellow of IEEE
  • USC Distinguished Professor
  • Author, The Robotics Primer (MIT Press)
  • Expertise in robotics for autism therapy, stroke rehabilitation, Alzheimer’s care, elder care
  • Long-term experience in K-12 STEM outreach
  • Expertise in mentoring and policy on women in research and diversity in research