Carol E. Reiley facts for kids

Carol Elizabeth Reiley (born 1982) is an American businesswoman, computer scientist, and model. She is famous for her work with robots that can be controlled from far away (teleoperated) or that can work by themselves (autonomous). These robots are used in many important areas like surgery, exploring space, helping in disasters, and even in self-driving cars.

Carol Reiley has worked for big companies like Intuitive Surgical, Lockheed Martin, and General Electric. She also helped start and was the president of Drive.ai, a company that worked on self-driving cars. Today, she is the CEO of a company that helps with healthcare. She also advises the San Francisco Symphony and is a brand ambassador for Guerlain Cosmetics. Carol has written children's books and was the first female engineer on the cover of MAKE magazine. She is known as a top entrepreneur and scientist by magazines like Forbes.

Early Life and Learning

Carol Elizabeth Reiley was born in Flint, Michigan, in 1982. Her family later moved to Vancouver, Washington. Her dad is an engineer and her mom was a flight attendant. Carol says they both helped her become interested in technology and helping people around the world. She grew up speaking Mandarin Chinese at home.

Carol's first invention was a kind mousetrap she made when she was eight. She wanted to catch her pet hamster safely! When she was ten, she started her first business, inspired by the Babysitters Club books. At 15, she worked on a local TV show called Homework Helpline. She answered math and English questions for students on air.

Carol went to Santa Clara University and earned a degree in computer engineering in 2004. She focused on robotics research there. Then, she got a master's degree in computer science from Johns Hopkins University in 2007. She studied haptics, which is about touch and feedback in technology. She also started a Ph.D. program, focusing on computer vision and artificial intelligence. She left her Ph.D. program early to start her own company in Silicon Valley.

In 2014, Carol married Andrew Ng. They are known as an "AI power couple" by the MIT Technology Review. They have two children.

Career and Companies

Carol Reiley has helped build many cool things. She worked on robots for surgery at Intuitive Surgical. She also worked on space robots at Lockheed Martin. Later, she helped create self-driving cars at Drive.ai.

She also taught classes at Johns Hopkins University. These included "Haptics For Surgical Robotics" and "Developing Facebook Apps."

Carol is an entrepreneur, which means she starts and runs many businesses. She also invests in other companies and helps good causes. She started an education company called Squishybotz. She also wrote and published a children's book called Making a Splash (2015). This book teaches kids about having a "growth mindset," which means believing you can always learn and improve.

In 2015, Carol helped start Drive.ai and became its president. She even used money from her wedding fund to help get the company started! In 2018, she began a new company focused on healthcare.

Carol is on the advisory boards for companies like Harman Kardon and Santa Clara University's Engineering department. She also advises and invests in many new startup companies. She is a mentor for All Raise, an organization that helps women and diverse groups in tech. She is also part of NEO, a group that helps new leaders in technology.

Carol has given two TED Talks. She has also spoken at many big events like the MIT Technology Review Conference and the World Government Summit. She has written articles for IEEE Spectrum and Techcrunch.

Research and Inventions

When Carol started college, she began doing research on underwater robots. She even got her scuba diving license! Her research grew to include haptics and industrial robots. She was chosen as a Computing Research Association fellow.

Carol also received a special award called the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. This helped her research how humans and robots can work together better. She was also elected to the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society board. She was the youngest person to serve on this board, helping thousands of graduate students.

By 2018, Carol Reiley had eight technical patents. This means she invented and officially registered eight new things. She has also written more than a dozen scientific papers that have been published.

A "Maker" and Creator

Carol Reiley is known as a "DIY hacker." This means she loves to build things herself and share how she does it. She has published guides for projects like "Air Guitar Hero." This project helps people with amputations exercise. She also made a DIY blood pressure monitor for people in developing countries. She has given talks at Maker Faire and the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Her 3D printed designs have even been shown at fashion shows!

In 2011, Carol started Tinkerbelle Labs. This company helped people build their own low-cost projects.

Arts and Modeling

In 2018, Carol Reiley became a spokesmodel for Guerlain and Harper's Bazaar China. She helped launch a new international beauty campaign. She has also been featured in magazines like British Vogue, The New York Times, and Wired for her work in AI. When she was in graduate school, she worked as a model for fashion companies. She was the first female engineer to be on the cover of Make magazine because of her work in the open-source community.

In 2018, Carol joined the San Francisco Symphony. She became a founding member of their creative advisory board.

In 2020, she helped start DeepMusic.ai with violinist Hilary Hahn. This project uses AI to help make human creativity even better in music. Carol is the CEO of this organization.

Helping Others

Carol Reiley is a strong supporter of diversity in engineering and AI. This means she works to make sure people from all backgrounds have a chance to succeed in these fields. At Johns Hopkins, she helped start the Graduate Women's Organization. She also helped with the Engineering Diversity Board. At Santa Clara University, she helped start student groups for the Association for Computing Machinery and the Society of Women Engineering.

She led events like the JHU Robotics Systems Challenge. She also organized workshops for thousands of students from different backgrounds. She even published a study about how diverse middle and high school students were in robot competitions.

Awards and Honors

• Women's Entrepreneurship Day Science Pioneer Award at the United Nations (2023)
• Forbes Top 50 women in tech (2018)
• Quartz founder index (Ranked #18, 2018)
• Inc. Magazine's Most Innovative Women Entrepreneurs (2017)
• Silicon Valley's Most Influential Women in 2016
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2008–2010)
• Society of Women Engineers top graduate award (2007)
• Computing Research Association Distributed Undergraduate Research Fellow (2003)

See also

In Spanish: Carol E. Reiley para niños