Honors and Awards
Recognition for leading innovative initiatives, robust programs, and discovering new paths
Michigan Robotics faculty and staff have been recognized for their achievements in a variety of ways, including awards, grants, and fellowships. We are proud of our community members, who earn everything from a NSF Career Award to being elected to the National Academy of Engineering member.
| Award Recipient↕ | Award Year↕ | Award↕ | Award Organization↕ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samantha Price | 2026 | Staff Excellence Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2026 | Department Faculty Award | U-M Department of Robotics |
| Manvi Saxena Yihao Geng Jason Brown Dan Newman Cameron Aubin | 2026 | Image of Distinction Award | IEEE Robotics & Automation Society RoboSoft |
| Necmiye Ozay | 2026 | H. Scott Fogler Award for Professional Leadership and Service | U-M College of Engineering |
| Chad Jenkins | 2026 | Selected as ACM Fellow | Association for Computing Machinery |
| Leia Stirling | 2026 | Department Faculty Award | U-M Department of Industrial Operations and Engineering |
| Cynthia Chestek | 2026 | Wise-Najafi Prize for Engineering Excellence in the Miniature World | U-M College of Engineering |
| Necmiye Ozay | 2025 | Fellow of the IEEE | IEEE |
| Katie Skinner | 2025 | Ocean News & Technology Early Career Ocean Professional Award | Marine Technology Society |
| Mohamad Louai Shehab Alperen Tercan Necmiye Ozay | 2025 | Outstanding Student Paper Award | Conference on Decision and Control |
| Jianping Lin Gray Thomas Nikhil Divekar Vamsi Krishna Peddinti Robert Gregg | 2025 | Outstanding Paper Award | IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology |
| Patrícia Alves-Oliveira | 2025 | Rising Woman Start in Social Robotics | ICSR |
| Angshu Adhya Cindy Yang Emily Wu Rishad Hasan Abhishek Narula Patrícia Alves-Oliveira | 2025 | Human-Robot Interaction Award | ICRA |
| Jiyang Wang Youchen You Xinqi Zhang Haobo Fang Jiaqi Wang Xiaonan (Sean) Huang | 2025 | Best Poster Award in Multi-Stable and Origami-based Soft Robots | ICRA |
| Xiaohao Xu Yunkang Cao Huaxin Zhang Nong Sang Xiaonan (Sean) Huang | 2025 | Best Student Paper | CSCWD |
| Juri Miyamae | 2025 | Excellence in Research Animal Care and Use Award | University of Michigan |
| Brent Gillespie | 2025 | Departmental Faculty Award | U-M Department of Robotics |
| Katie Skinner | 2024 | Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award | Office of Naval Research |
| Bernadette Bucher | 2024 | Best Paper in Cognitive Robotics | ICRA |
| Katie Skinner | 2024 | NSF CAREER Award | National Science Foundation |
| Kira Barton | 2024 | Elected to ASME Fellow | ASME |
| Leia Stirling | 2024 | NASA Human Research Program Student Poster Award | NASA |
| Lionel Robert | 2024 | AMCIS 2024 Best Paper Award Nominee | AMCIS |
| Lionel Robert | 2024 | World’s Top 2% Influential Scientists | Stanford/Elsevier |
| Lionel Robert | 2024 | ACM Distinguished Member | Association for Computing Machinery |
| Lionel Robert | 2024 | INFORMS Senior Member | INFORMS |
| Chad Jenkins | 2024 | Richard A. Tapia Award | CMD-IT/Association for Computing Machinery |
| Dawn Tilbury | 2024 | National Academy of Engineering Member | NAE |
| Patrícia Alves-Oliveira | 2024 | NSF EAGER | NSF |
| Patrícia Alves-Oliveira | 2024 | DARPA Yong Faculty Award | DARPA |
| Robert Gregg | 2024 | Faculty Recognition Award | University of Michigan |
| Xiaoxiao Du | 2024 | Senior Member | IEEE |
| Alyssa Emigh | 2024 | Staff Excellence Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Chad Jenkins | 2024 | Departmental Faculty Award | U-M Department of Robotics |
| Cynthia Chestek | 2023 | Fellow | American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering |
| Dimitra Panagou | 2023 | George J. Huebner Jr. Research Excellence Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Elliott Rouse | 2023 | Henry Russel Award | University of Michigan |
| Elliott Rouse | 2023 | Departmental Faculty Award | U-M Department of Robotics |
| Seth Isaacson Frank Kung Ram Vasudevan Katie Skinner | 2023 | Best Paper Award | IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters |
| Leia Stirling | 2023 | HFES Occupational Ergonomics Technical Group Best Experimental Paper | HFES |
| Leia Stirling | 2023 | IEEE Senior Member | IEEE |
| Leia Stirling | 2023 | University of Michigan North Campus Deans' Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award | University of Michigan |
| Lionel Robert | 2023 | World’s Top 2% Influential Scientists | Stanford/Elsevier |
| Maani Ghaffari | 2023 | Best Paper Award Finalists | Robotics: Science and Systems |
| Chad Jenkins | 2023 | Claudia Joan Alexander Trailblazer Award Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) | U-M Women in Science and Engineering |
| Mark Draelos | 2023 | ISMR 2023 Best Paper Award – Honorable Mention | IEEE International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR) |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2023 | Best Paper Award Finalist | Robotics: Science and Systems |
| Talia Moore | 2023 | Finalist ENGR 100 Section of the Year Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Talia Moore | 2023 | Nominated for the Outstanding Advisor Award | Advising Council of University of Michigan |
| Yanran Ding | 2023 | Blue Ribbon TC Award | IEEE-RAS TC on Model-Based Optimization for Robotics |
| Dan Newman | 2023 | Staff Excellence Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Kayla Dombrowski | 2023 | Team Staff Excellence Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Denise Edmund | 2023 | Team Staff Excellence Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Christina Hollis | 2023 | Team Staff Excellence Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2023 | Kalman Best Paper Award | ASME |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2023 | North Campus Deans' MLK Spirit Award | University of Michigan |
| Lionel Robert | 2022 | World’s Top 2% Influential Scientists | Stanford/Elsevier |
| Cynthia Chestek | 2022 | Miller Faculty Scholar | U-M College of Engineering |
| Dawn Tilbury | 2022 | Hideo Hanafusa Outstanding Investigator Award | International Symposium on Flexible Automation |
| Dawn Tilbury | 2022 | J. Cordell Breed Award for Women Leaders | Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) |
| Dmitry Berenson | 2022 | IEEE Senior Member | IEEE |
| Kira Barton | 2022 | Manufacturing Leadership Award | SME |
| Kira Barton | 2022 | 1 of 25 Leaders Transforming Manufacturing | SME |
| Kira Barton | 2022 | DSCD Young Investigator Award | ASME |
| Leia Stirling | 2022 | Claudia Joan Alexander Trailblazer Award Nominee | U-M Women in Science and Engineering |
| Mark Draelos | 2022 | Duke VisionFest First Place Research Talk | Duke University |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2022 | Best Paper Award | IEEE International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics |
| Talia Moore | 2022 | ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award | ORAU |
| Talia Moore | 2022 | Departmental Faculty Award | U-M Department of Robotics |
| Xiaonan (Sean) Huang | 2022 | Best Paper Award | IEEE Sensors Conference |
| Xiaoxiao Du | 2022 | Program Committee Member and Top Reviewer, SL4AD | ICML 2022 |
| Xiaoxiao Du | 2022 | Computer and Information Science and Engineering Research Initiation (NSF CRII) Award | National Science Foundation |
| Lionel Robert | 2021 | IEEE Senior Member | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| Maani Ghaffari | 2021 | Amazon Research Award | Amazon Research |
| Dawn Tilbury | 2021 | Nyquist Lecture | ASME-DSCD |
| Dawn Tilbury | 2021 | Sarah Goddard Power Award | University of Michigan |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2021 | Certificate of Appreciation for Contributions to the NxtGen STEM Scholars Program | Michigan Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (MI-LSAMP) |
| Leia Stirling | 2021 | University of Michigan Industrial and Operations Engineering Wilson Faculty Fellowship | University of Michigan |
| Leia Stirling | 2021 | AIAA Associate Fellow | AIAA |
| Lionel Robert | 2021 | Senior Editor of the Year | AIS Transactions on HCI |
| Lionel Robert | 2021 | World’s Top 2% Influential Scientists | Stanford/Elsevier |
| Patrícia Alves-Oliveira | 2021 | Best Design Paper Award | 16th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2021 | 1938E Award | University of Michigan |
| Xiaonan (Sean) Huang | 2021 | Best PhD Dissertation Award | Carnegie Mellon University |
| Yanran Ding | 2021 | Best Paper Award Finalist | Model-Based Optimization for Robotics Technical Committee (TC) |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2021 | Provost Teaching Innovation Prize | University of Michigan |
| Chad Jenkins | 2020 | MLK Spirit Award | University of Michigan |
| Cynthia Chestek | 2020 | Wise-Najafi Prize for Engineering Excellence in the Miniature World | U-M College of Engineering |
| Dawn Tilbury | 2020 | SAE Vincent Bendix Award | SAE |
| Dawn Tilbury | 2020 | Leadership in Engineering Award | Washington Academy of Sciences |
| Dawn Tilbury | 2020 | Ted Kennedy Family Faculty Team Excellence Award | Automotive Research Center |
| Dimitra Panagou | 2020 | CoE Ted Kennedy Family Faculty Team Excellence Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Elliott Rouse | 2020 | Most Innovative – Robotics Category: Neurobionics Lab Open Source Bionic Leg | Fast Company |
| Leia Stirling | 2020 | University of Illinois Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award | University of Illinois |
| Leia Stirling | 2020 | IEEE Aerospace Track 8 (Spacecraft, Launch Vehicle Sys. & Technologies) Best Paper | IEEE |
| Lionel Robert | 2020 | Vincent Bendix Best Paper Award | SAE International |
| Lionel Robert | 2020 | COE Ted Kennedy Team Research Award | University of Michigan |
| Mark Draelos | 2020 | KUKA Innovation Award Finalist – Medical Robotics | KUKA |
| Patrícia Alves-Oliveira | 2020 | EECS Rising Stars | UC Berkeley |
| Patrícia Alves-Oliveira | 2020 | Future Digileader | KTH |
| Patrícia Alves-Oliveira | 2020 | Postdoctoral Researcher Award | University of Washington |
| Patrícia Alves-Oliveira | 2020 | Ada Lovelace Travel Grant | Open Hardware Summit |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2020 | Ted Kennedy Team Award | University of Michigan |
| Robert Gregg | 2020 | IEEE Transactions on Robotics Best Paper Award Honorable Mention | IEEE Transactions on Robotics |
| Elliott Rouse | 2019 | NSF CAREER Award | CBET DARE |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2019 | Googol Best New Application Paper Award | IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2019 | Certificate of Appreciation for Advocacy of Disability Issues | U-M Council for Disability Concerns |
| Lionel Robert | 2019 | AIS Distinguished Member Designation | Association for Information Systems |
| Lionel Robert | 2019 | Best Paper Award | Journal of the Association for Information Systems |
| Maani Ghaffari | 2019 | Googol Best New Application Paper Award | IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering |
| Patrícia Alves-Oliveira | 2019 | RSS Pioneer | RSS |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2019 | Best Student Paper (Advisor) | ASME Dynamics Systems and Control Conference |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2019 | Best Systems Paper Finalist | Robotics: Science and Systems |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2019 | Mechanical Engineering Department Achievement Award | University of Michigan |
| Robert Gregg | 2019 | Forchheimer Prize Paper Finalist | International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics |
| Xiaonan (Sean) Huang | 2019 | Best Paper Award | 2nd international PhD Academic Forum on Intelligent Manufacturing (IPAFIM 2019) |
| Christoforos Mavrogiannis | 2018 | HRI Pioneer | ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction |
| Cynthia Chestek | 2018 | Department of Biomedical Engineering Award | University of Michigan |
| Dmitry Berenson | 2018 | NSF CAREER Award | NSF |
| Jason Corso | 2018 | Outstanding Achievement Award | U-M EECS Department |
| Katie Skinner | 2018 | Richard and Eleanor Towner Prize for Outstanding Ph.D. Research Honorable Mention | U-M College of Engineering |
| Leia Stirling | 2018 | ONR Young Investigator Award | ONR |
| Leia Stirling | 2018 | 1938E Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Lionel Robert | 2018 | Best Late Breaking Report Award | ACM Human-Robot Interaction |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2018 | Best Paper | IEEE OCEANS |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2018 | Best Multi-Robot Systems Paper | IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2018 | Best Video Abstract | Dynamic Walking |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2018 | Young Investigator Award | Office of Naval Research |
| Ram Vasudevan | 2018 | Faculty Early CAREER Award | National Science Foundation |
| Robert Gregg | 2018 | Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergrad Research Mentoring | UT Dallas |
| Robert Gregg | 2018 | Eugene McDermott Professorship | University of Texas at Dallas |
| Robert Gregg | 2018 | ICRA Conference Editorial Board Best Associate Editor Award | ICRA Conference Editorial Board |
| Robert Gregg | 2018 | Bioengineering Undergraduate Teaching Award | University of Texas at Dallas |
| Robert Gregg | 2018 | Bioengineering Graduate Student Mentoring Award | University of Texas at Dallas |
| Talia Moore | 2018 | Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow Award | University of Michigan Postdoc Association |
| Talia Moore | 2018 | Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Innovation Grant | University of Michigan |
| Xiaonan (Sean) Huang | 2018 | Best Student Poster | Materials Research Society Symposium on Materials for Energy Applications |
| Katie Skinner | 2017 | Distinguished Leadership Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Kira Barton | 2017 | Miller Faculty Scholar | University of Michigan |
| Kira Barton | 2017 | University of Michigan ME Department Achievement Award | University of Michigan |
| Leia Stirling | 2017 | Prize Paper Award | IFAC Journal on Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems |
| Patrícia Alves-Oliveira | 2017 | First Prize Best Serious Game Award | Serious Games Society |
| Robert Gregg | 2017 | Technology Inventors Award Finalist | Technology Association for North Texas |
| Robert Gregg | 2017 | NSF CAREER Award | National Science Foundation |
| Yanran Ding | 2017 | IROS Best Student Paper Award Finalist | IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent |
| Christoforos Mavrogiannis | 2016 | Travel Grant | Intl. Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics |
| Dimitra Panagou | 2016 | CAREER Award | NSF |
| Dmitry Berenson | 2016 | IEEE RAS Early Career Award | IEEE RAS |
| Jason Corso | 2016 | Best Associate Editor Award | ICRA |
| Kira Barton | 2016 | Outstanding Young Alumni Award | University of Illinois |
| Leia Stirling | 2016 | Early Career Faculty Award | NASA |
| Leia Stirling | 2016 | Director’s Fellowship | DARPA |
| Leia Stirling | 2016 | CAREER Award | NSF |
| Lionel Robert | 2016 | Best Paper Award | ACM CSCW |
| Patrícia Alves-Oliveira | 2016 | Best Design Paper Award | 11th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction |
| Robert Gregg | 2016 | Jonsson School Junior Faculty Research Award | University of Texas at Dallas |
| Robert Gregg | 2016 | IEEE Senior Member | Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers |
| Christoforos Mavrogiannis | 2015 | 2nd Place, Hackaday Prize | Hackaday |
| Christoforos Mavrogiannis | 2015 | 1st Place, International Innovation Award | Robotdalen |
| Jason Corso | 2015 | Google Faculty Research Award | |
| Kira Barton | 2015 | SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award | SME |
| Kira Barton | 2015 | NSF CAREER Award | NSF |
| Cynthia Chestek | 2014 | Technology Award | McKnight Foundation |
| Leia Stirling | 2014 | Young Faculty Award | DARPA |
| Robert Gregg | 2014 | Excellence in Biomedical Research Award | UT Dallas |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2014 | Elmer G. Gilbert Distinguished University Professor | University of Michigan |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2014 | Eta Kappa Nu ECE Professor of the Year | U-M EKN |
| Robert Gregg | 2013 | NIH Director’s New Innovator Award | National Institutes of Health |
| Dmitry Berenson | 2012 | Best Application Paper Award | CASE |
| Jason Corso | 2012 | Best Paper Award | ECDM |
| Jason Corso | 2012 | Winner Best Open Source Code 3rd Prize | IEEE CVPR |
| Leia Stirling | 2012 | Outstanding Reviewer of 2011 | IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control |
| Lionel Robert | 2012 | Best Paper Award | HICSS |
| Robert Gregg | 2012 | Career Award at the Scientific Interface | Burroughs Wellcome Fund |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2012 | Bode Prize | IEEE |
| Dawn Tilbury | 2011 | Best Application Paper Award | IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering |
| Robert Gregg | 2011 | Best Technical Paper Award | CLAWAR Conference |
| Talia Moore | 2011 | Honorable Mention Graduate Research Fellowship Program | National Science Foundation |
| Jason Corso | 2010 | Young Investigator Award | Army Research Office |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2010 | Attwood Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Dawn Tilbury | 2009 | Best Conference Paper Award | IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE) |
| Jason Corso | 2009 | CAREER Award | NSF |
| Leia Stirling | 2009 | Best Paper Honorable Mention Award | IEEE Computer Society |
| Leia Stirling | 2008 | Best Student Paper Award | IEEE Control Systems Society |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2007 | Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award | University of Michigan |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2005 | Research Excellence Award | U-M College of Engineering |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2003 | Ford Innovation Award | Ford |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2002 | George S. Axelby Award | IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2002 | Ford Innovation Award | Ford |
| Jessy Grizzle | 2001 | Ford Innovation Award | Ford |
| Jessy Grizzle | 1997 | Fellow of the IEEE | IEEE |
| Jessy Grizzle | 1993 | Henry Russel Award | University of Michigan |
| Jessy Grizzle | 1993 | College of Engineering Teaching Award | University of Michigan |
| Jessy Grizzle | 1992 | Vehicular Electronics Paper of the Year | IEEE Vehicular Technology Society |