Cynthia Breazeal is a professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, where she founded and directs the Personal Robots group at the Media Lab. She is the MIT dean for digital learning, and leads the Institute’s Open Learning research and engagement units. She is director of the MIT Initiative on Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education (RAISE). She co-founded the consumer social robotics company, Jibo, Inc. Breazeal is a pioneer of social robotics and human-robot interaction.

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Her research group actively investigates social robots applied to education, pediatrics, health and wellness, and aging, and develops design-justice frameworks for human-robot interaction and inclusive AI literacy education for underserved K-12 students. Her book, “Designing Sociable Robots” (2004), is recognized as a landmark in launching the field of social robotics and human-robot interaction.

She has spoken at prominent venues such as TED, the World Economic Forum, SXSW, and has been keynote speaker at numerous top academic conferences. She is a recipient of the National Academy of Engineering’s Gilbreth Lecture Award, Technology Review’s TR35 Award, and TIME magazine’s Best Inventions. Her design awards include Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Award, Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Award, and the Core 77 Design Award. She received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT in 2000.