Date: 2006.3.8 (Wed) 10:50-11:00
Speaker: Mihoko Otake
Title: Women in Robotics towards Human Science, Technology and Society: Motivation and Practice
Affiliation: Department of Frontier Sciences and Science Integration, The University of Tokyo, Japan, PRESTO JST
Type: Panel Discussion

Bibliography: Mihoko Otake, “Women in Robotics towards Human Science, Technology and Society: Motivation and Practice”, Women in Robotics towards Human Science, Technology and Society Abstract, No.1, 2006.

Abstract:
The speaker organizes a set of organized session “Women in Robotics, Human Science and Technology” and panel discussion “Women in Robotics, Human Science and Society” at the 9th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-9) [1]. In this talk, the speaker reports the progress of women in robotics activity, which emerged for IAS-9. The purpose is to explore and investigate novel research and development as well as to encourage women to enter the exciting and fulfilling careers to be found in robotics, human science and technology.

The beginning of this project was very simple. The speaker wanted to share the knowledge and experiences of work and life with her associates in the world. She called for papers to the organized session and nine women contributed their papers. Then, Prof. Tamio Arai, general chair of IAS-9, recommended her to organize panel discussion. The speaker asked Dr. Keiko Homma to join the organizing committee and she joined willingly. The organizers got to know that some of the committee members, Prof. Maria Gini and Prof. Rolf Pfeifer, are involved in activities of women in robotics and computer science. The organizers invited them to give a talk on their activities and they accepted. Prof. Hisako Ohtsubo, who is the vice president of EPMEWSE [2], was also invited for a panelist. In this way, this panel discussion evolved.

For the purpose of distributing the project, the speaker developed the community site “Women in Robotics towards Human Science, Technology and Society” [3]. In order to overview the women in robotics in the world, the organizers and voluntary members of the organized session speakers collected websites. The speaker would like to thank Ms. Fumi Seto, Ms. Kahori Kita, Dr. Yukie Nagai for their contribution. About 50 women in/around robotics are registered on the link list in February 2006, and the number is growing. Link list is valuable especially for young women looking for mentors and friends. Then, the community site started to grow. Prof. Aydan M. Erkmen with Middle East Technical University in Turkey found the community site from IAS-9 website and joined the community. Ms. Duygun Erol with Vanderbilt University found the community site by search engine. She soon became an active member of the community. She looks for women in robotics, asks them for participating the community. The numbers of registered people is growing. The speaker believes that the community contributes to explore research for the future as well as to encourage young women to be involved in robotics, human science and technology.

References:
[1] The 9th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-9) (2006) http://www.arai.pe.u-tokyo.ac.jp/IAS-9/
[2] Japan Inter-Society Liaison Association Committee for Promoting Equal Participation of Men and Women in Science and Engineering (2004) "EPMEWSE Survey Report: Diverse Visions of Scientists and Engineers in the 21st Century -For the Promotion of Gender Equality-" http://annex.jsap.or.jp/renrakukai/pdf/EPMEWSEreport.pdf
[3] “Women in Robotics towards Human Science, Technology and Society” (2006) http://women.ws100h.net/