A Mississippi State Computer Science and Engineering Professor and CAVS Researcher Recognized as One of the World’s Top Leaders in the Field of Robotics.

June 26, 2020

Cindy Bethel, a CAVS researcher and professor in Mississippi State’s James Worth Bagley College of Engineering, has been named as one of the “World’s 50 Most Renowned Women in Robotics” by Analytics Insight magazine. The recognition comes in the magazine’s June 2020 edition.

“I am surprised and deeply honored to be selected,” Bethel said. “I am excited to be named along with all of these talented and amazing women in robotics and to be recognized in such a wonderful way.”

According to the magazine, Analytics Insight selected “the top 50 dynamic women in the robotics industry who are leading their way to unprecedented excellence. These innovative leaders are excelling beyond the prevailing gender-diversity challenges and revolutionizing how the mechanism of robots is being leveraged to bring about transformation.”

Bethel’s research at Mississippi State focuses on robotics and human-robot interaction. She also studies interface designs, human-computer interaction, affective computing, and cognitive science. Specifically, she has helped design robots that aid trauma victims and mobile robots to assist law enforcement and first responders.

Bethel is the director of the Social, Therapeutic, and Robotic Systems (STaRS) Lab and was a 2019 U.S. – Australian Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. She was previously an NSF Computing Innovation Postdoctoral Research Fellow (CIFellow) at Yale University.

Bethel holds the Billie J. Ball Endowed Professor in Engineering and has been elected to the Bagley College of Engineering Academy of Distinguished Teachers. She was recently named as one of 2019’s “30 women in robotics you need to know about” by Robohub.com and has been elected to serve on the board of directors of the Computing Research Association.

The Bagley College of Engineering is online at www.bagley.msstate.edu and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube at @msuengineering.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.

By Philip Allison