Chinwe Ekenna

Chinwe Ekenna is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and the Director of the Robotics, Algorithm and Computable Systems (RACS) Laboratory. Ekenna is a faculty advisor for UAlbany's student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery-Women (ACM-W) and participates in publicly engaged activities which encourage young women in STEM. One such activity was the Meet the Women in Robotics Workshop (WiRW) at the 2019 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference (R:SS) on June 23, 2019, which she presented with researchers from the U.S. Air Force Academy. The workshop was designed to raise the visibility of women in robotics, strengthen the community of female roboticists by bringing together women from various disciplines and subfields in robotics, provide opportunities for networking, and connect junior female robotics researchers to senior mentors in the field. The workshop was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Paul Amayo

Paul Amayo is a Senior Lecturer and Principal Investigator in the African Robotics Unit at the University of Cape Town. He has broad experience in both hardware and software development over various sectors (from self-driving cars in the UK to paratransit in Kenya) with a primary focus on robotics. He has Dphil in Engineering Science from the Oxford Robotics Institute, University of Oxford. Paul strongly believes that technology holds the key to solving some of the world's and in particular Africa's most pressing problems. His interests are therefore not only in advancement of technology through research but also in its subsequent education that ensures that this technology is adopted into communities where it would do the most good. Paul is a visiting faculty researcher at google research Africa.

Oluwami (Wami) Dosunmu-Ogunbi

Oluwami (Wami) Dosunmu-Ogunbi is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and will join Ohio Northern University as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering in Fall 2025. She completed her Ph.D. in Robotics at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on controls with applications in bipedal locomotion and engineering education. During her Ph.D., she developed the Biped Bootcamp technical document, which she is transforming into a two-tier undergraduate curriculum—introducing first- and second-year students to bipedal robotics while providing advanced coursework for juniors and seniors. She is also developing a hardware teaching platform to complement these courses, bridging the gap between theoretical learning and hands-on experience. Ogunbi is also a sought-after speaker, delivering talks on robotics, diversity in STEM, and overcoming adversity, including a TEDx talk at TEDxDetroit. More about her work and speaking engagements can be found at https://wamiogunbi.com.

Simon Adebola

Simon Adebola is a 4th year PhD student in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science(EECS) at UC Berkeley where he is advised by Ken Goldberg as a member of the AUTOLab and Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research(BAIR) Lab. His research interests are in robotics and computer vision. His current research is in Agricultural Robotics, Cloud Robotics and Manipulation of 1D Deformable Linear Objects (DLO). In the past, He graduated from MTSU Murfreesboro, where he worked with Lei Miao on robotics for fall detection and received the Outstanding Masters Research Award, College of Basic and Applied Sciences. He has also been fortunate to spend time at UCLA and Vanderbilt University.

His prior research has been featured in CISC 4/667 (011): Computing for Social Good at the University of Delaware and CSE 580: Computing for Social Good at the University of Washington.

Conrad Tucker

Conrad Tucker is the Director of Carnegie Mellon University-Africa (CMU-Africa) and the Associate Dean for International Programs-Africa. He is a Trustee Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and holds courtesy appointments in Machine Learning, Robotics, Biomedical Engineering, and CyLab Security and Privacy. His research focuses on employing Machine Learning (ML)/Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to enhance the novelty (i.e., generative designs) and efficiency (i.e., functional evaluations) of engineered systems. His research also explores the challenges of bias and exploitability of AI systems and the potential impacts on people and society. Tucker has served as PI/Co-PI on federally/non-federally funded grants from the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Army Research Laboratory, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others. In February 2016, he was invited by National Academy of Engineering (NAE) President Dr. Dan Mote, to serve as a member of the Advisory Committee for the NAE Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium. He recently served as a Commissioner on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Artificial Intelligence Commission on Competitiveness, Inclusion, and Innovation and currently serves as a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Expert Group on AI risk and accountability ONE AI. Tucker received his Ph.D., M.S. (Industrial Engineering), and MBA degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Diane Uwacu

Diane Uwacu specializes in crafting innovative planning algorithms for robotic systems and molecular contexts. With a strong passion for nurturing knowledge, Diane taught and developed curricula in AI ethics and has adeptly mentored many undergraduate students, several of whom have advanced to graduate studies. As a student leader, Diane has spearheaded initiatives to expand participation in computing. Diane's commitment to her field is grounded in a profound admiration for both the learning process and the aspiring learners, and she is driven by an unwavering desire to inspire growth and discovery. Areas of Expertise