Here's a Women in Robotics Spotlight, where we share stories from women who are working on all sorts of interesting projects who haven't yet been featured in our Annual Showcase. We hope these stories provide inspiration to everyone to join us working in the field of robotics. And if you're a woman working in robotics, why not contribute your story too! "I love robots however I do find it frustrating when the code that was working the day before doesn't work. I also find it hard supplying my robots with power. I learn online although I do have a few mentors that help me but it's really not easy learning on my own. My favourite thing about robotics is making them, and when they work like they should. My robots make people really happy so I love that. I also love succeeding – the feeling when my robots come to life is unbelievable."

Women in Robotics is a grassroots community involving women from across the globe. Our mission is supporting women working in robotics and women who would like to work in robotics. We formed an official 501c3 non-profit organization in 2020 headquartered in Oakland California. We'd like to introduce our 2021 Board of Directors: Andra Keay founded Women in Robotics originally under the umbrella of Silicon Valley Robotics, the non-profit industry group supporting innovation and commercialization of robotics technologies. Andra's background is in human-robot interaction and communication theory.

Introducing the seventh post in our new series of Women in Robotics Updates, featuring Melonee Wise, Maren Bennewitz and Alicia Casals and from our first "25 women in robotics you need to know about" list in 2014. These women have pioneered foundational research in robotics, created organizations of impact, and inspired the next generations of robotics researchers, of all ages. There are 180 more stories on our 2013 to 2020 lists. Why not nominate someone for inclusion next year! And we encourage #womeninrobotics and women who'd like to work in robotics to join our professional network at http://womeninrobotics.org

Welcome to the first of our Women in Robotics Spotlights, where we share stories from women who haven't yet been featured in our Annual Showcase but who are working on all sorts of interesting projects. We hope these stories provide inspiration to everyone to join us working in the field of robotics. And if you're a woman working in robotics, why not contribute your story too! "Making robots communicate with humans in natural language is a fascinating challenge. There is a lot going on during interactions between robots and humans. Humans make gestures, observe or interact with visible objects in the environment, and display emotions. What motivates me is equipping social robots with the ability to interact seamlessly, by recognizing a given situation and talking about it" says Dimitra Gkatzia who specializes in Natural Language Generation for Human-Robot Interaction.

Introducing the second of our new series of Women in Robotics Updates, featuring Maja Mataric and Arianna Menciassi from our first "25 women in robotics you need to know about" list in 2013. Since we started Women in Robotics has focused on positive role models in robotics, highlighting women's career work, but we'd like to point out just how much energy that these amazing women extend to outreach, to inspiring and supporting their junior colleagues and to science management, supporting and advancing the increasingly complex machinery of research. For example, Ariana Menciasi has held many editorial and technical committee roles, and manages both European and extra-European research projects, which involves extensive collaboration efforts. And Maja Mataric started the US Women in Robotics Research Database, which inspired similar initiatives in Canada, with the goal that you should always be able to find a female robotics researcher for interviews, positions, panels and conferences. There are 180 more stories on our 2013 to 2020 lists.

"Girls of Steel Robotics (featured 2014) was founded in 2010 at Carnegie Mellon University's Field Robotics Center as FRC Team 3504. The organization now serves multiple FIRST robotics teams offering STEM opportunities for people of all ages. Since 2019, Girls of Steel also organizes FIRST Ladies, an online community for anyone involved in FIRST robotics programs who supports girls and women in STEM. Their mission statement reflects their commitment to empowering everyone for success in STEM: "Girls of Steel empowers everyone, especially women and girls, to believe they are capable of success in STEM." One is a PhD student in Robotics at CMU, two are working as engineers, and one is a computer science teacher.

"Fearless Girl should provide the spark to inspire more female engineers", writes Elizabeth Croft, Dean and Faculty of Engineering at Monash University. "Girls are natural engineers, highly capable in maths and physics. We need to show them that these tools can be used to design a better world.So far, we've done a poor job of communicating to girls the very powerful impact they can make through an engineering career." Croft continues, providing us with the inspiration to introduce the second of our new series of Women in Robotics Updates, featuring Elizabeth Croft, Helen Greiner and Heather Knight from our first "25 women in robotics you need to know about" list in 2013. There are 180 more stories on our 2013 to 2020 lists.