Ten ladies shaping the way forward for robotics in 2025. | Supply: IFR
To offer ladies in robotics extra visibility and acknowledgment, the Worldwide Federation of Robotics, or IFR, this week named 10 ladies who’re shaping the robotics trade. The group mentioned it hopes the checklist will encourage women and younger ladies to pursue a profession in science, expertise, engineering, and arithmetic (STEM) or robotics and assist corporations to succeed in gender equality and overcome staffing shortages.
Presently, ladies make up 48% of the entire workforce and simply 34% of the STEM workforce, in line with the Nationwide Women Collaborative Challenge. In relation to engineering and robotics roles, the quantity is even smaller, with ladies solely making up about 16% of the workforce.
In occasions of demographic change and an growing lack of expert labor, economies across the globe can not ignore a sure share of it, mentioned the IFR. Furthermore, a extra numerous workforce has been confirmed to assist corporations enhance productiveness, competitiveness, and innovation, mentioned the group.
A examine from the Max Planck Institute for Clever Methods, or MPI-IS, just lately discovered that tutorial plus workforce range can drive extra creativity and innovation. The institute mentioned it brings extra productiveness and leads to techniques which can be wide-reaching and higher at concentrating on bias.
The IFR mentioned that whereas the gender hole is narrowing down and the feminine labor-force participation fee is growing in lots of elements of the world, there nonetheless is a big hole within the manufacturing sectors. That is particularly exacerbated relating to feminine engineers and scientists. As an example, the feminine participation fee is just half that of the service sector in Europe.
Meet the IFR’s 10 ladies shaping robotics
The IFR’s 2025 awardees are:
- Albane Dersy, co-founder and chief working officer of Inbolt, France
- Ashlie Taivalkoski, director of gross sales at SCHUNK, U.S.
- Dr. Caren Dripke, head of improvement robotics at Lorch Schweißtechnik, Germany
- Julia Astrid Riemenschneider, CEO of Rethink Robotics, U.S.
- Kari DeSantis, common supervisor, company advertising and marketing at FANUC America, U.S.
- Feng (Kate) Xu, bead of China analysis and improvement at ABB Robotics, China
- Kateryna Portmann, Senior Product Supervisor at ANYbotics, Switzerland
- Susanne Nördinger, UR+ ecosystem supervisor for EMEA and head of ecosystem success at Common Robots, Germany
- Yumie Kubota, government officer and supervisor of the AI Robotics Division at Yaskawa Electrical Corp./president of AI Dice, Japan
- Yunzhi (Amber) Qi, co-founder and common supervisor of the Abroad Enterprise Division at YOUIBOT Robotics, China
Particularly, the IFR was searching for ladies who’ve a confirmed observe file in robotics, stand out as trade leaders, or have a confirmed exercise in encouraging younger folks to enter STEM or assist females in robotics. It thought-about ladies from all around the globe, a wide range of firm sizes, and completely different ranges of expertise.
“The European Fee’s new Competitiveness Compass highlights the mixing of robotics as a key expertise to spice up innovation,” acknowledged the IFR. “Inspiring ladies to take up STEM topics and discover profession choices is vital: Numerous groups push innovation, and the robotics trade affords nice financial alternatives for high-quality jobs.”
The Robotics Summit & Expo, which might be on April 30 and Could 1 in Boston, will embrace a ticketed Girls in Robotics Breakfast on Day 2 of the occasion.
Register now so you do not miss out!
