In February 2025, Maja Matarić, the Chan Soon-Shiong Chair and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience and Pediatrics, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the field’s highest honor.

She was one of 128 new members and 22 international members in the NAE’s Class of 2025. With her election, 24 USC Viterbi faculty have been elected to the NAE since 2008.

“Maja has been a pioneer in the area of socially assistive robotics and more generally, in human-robot interaction. We are thrilled to see her recognized for her outstanding work across research, teaching and outreach,” said USC Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos. “It is also fitting that her election adds a continuing thread to the excellence of robotics at USC, started by the late George Bekey (also an NAE member) and continuing with so many USC Viterbi talented roboticists.”

Matarić, the founding director of the USC Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center, is known for her groundbreaking work in the field of socially assistive robotics, where her research lab designs intelligent robots that interact with humans to provide personalized assistance. Her research has been applied in various domains, including therapy, rehabilitation, education, and eldercare.

A pioneer in the study of socially assistive robotics, or “robots that care,” at the USC School of Advanced Computing, Matarić combines robotics, artificial intelligence, human-centered design, neuroscience and psychology to develop robots that can aid people with physical or cognitive differences. This includes helping children in the hospital to communicate about their pain levels and fostering learning for children on the autism spectrum.

With research published in prominent journals, Matarić has pushed both the field and people within it forward, mentoring graduate-level students who have gone on to prestigious academic institutions and companies, as well as nearly a thousand undergraduates who have discovered research in her lab.

One of her Interaction Lab’s more recent projects, funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, involves testing the use of socially assistive robots to address student anxiety.

Reacting to her NAE election, Matarić said: “I am deeply honored to now be in the NAE with Yannis Yortsos, who has been an unwaveringly supportive dean and role model, with his leadership of kindness and integrity, and Rodney Brooks, who was a great Ph.D. adviser and role model, with his intellectual fearlessness and reinvention. I am also grateful to my colleagues and to my amazing past, current and future students who fill the work of research with great joy and deeper purpose.”

Her work has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including the ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Computing, the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring and the Mass Robotics Medal.  In 2023, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.