Ruzena Bajcsy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ruzena Bajcsy
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Ružena Kučerová
May 28, 1933 Bratislava, Czechoslovakia
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| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | Slovak Technical University; Stanford |
| Known for | Artificial intelligence; Computer Vision; Robotics; Sensor Networks; Control; Biosystems; General Robotics and Active Sensory Perception Laboratory |
| Awards | Benjamin Franklin Medal (2009) ACM Distinguished Service Award (2003) Computing Research Association Distinguished Service Award (2003) ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award (2001) IEEE Robotics and Automation Award (2013) John Scott Medal (2017) Order of the White Double Cross, 2nd class (2022) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley; University of Pennsylvania |
| Doctoral advisor | John McCarthy |
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Ruzena Bajcsy (born May 28, 1933) is a famous American engineer and computer scientist. She is best known for her work in robotics. She is a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she was also the former director of CITRIS.
Before this, she was a professor and head of computer science at the University of Pennsylvania. She started the General Robotics and Active Sensory Perception (GRASP) Laboratory there. She also worked with the Neurosciences Institute. She even led a big science department at the National Science Foundation. She helped many students earn their doctoral degrees.
In 2005, she became a member of the American Philosophical Society. She is also the mother of computer science professor Klara Nahrstedt.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Ruzena Bajcsy was born on May 28, 1933, in Bratislava, which was then part of Czechoslovakia. Her family was Jewish. During World War II, most of her adult relatives were killed by the Nazis. Ruzena and her sister were the only ones who survived in their close family. The Red Cross helped them as war orphans. Ruzena grew up in orphanages and with foster families.
She was very good at mathematics. However, she chose to study electrical engineering at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. She did this because teaching math at that time in Communist Eastern Europe required following certain political ideas. She did not want to do that.
She earned her Master's and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Slovak Technical University. This was in 1957 and 1967. She then earned another Ph.D. in computer science in 1972 from Stanford University. Her Ph.D. paper was about how computers can understand textured pictures. Her advisor was John McCarthy.
In 2001, she received an honorary degree from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. From 2003 to 2005, she was part of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee. In 2002, Discover magazine named her one of the 50 most important women in science. She also received honorary degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and KTH in Sweden in 2012.
What She Studies
Ruzena Bajcsy has written over 225 articles and many book chapters. Her work focuses on several exciting areas:
- Artificial intelligence: Teaching computers to think and learn.
- Biosystems and computational biology: Using computers to understand living things.
- Control, intelligent systems, and robotics: Designing robots and systems that can act on their own.
- Graphics and human-computer interaction: How people use computers and how computers show images.
- Computer vision: Teaching computers to "see" and understand images.
- Security: Keeping computer systems safe.
Important Groups She Belongs To
Ruzena Bajcsy is a member of several important groups. These include the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine. She is also a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. She is also a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Being a "Fellow" means she is recognized as a top expert in her field.
Awards and Recognition
Ruzena Bajcsy has received many awards for her amazing work.
- In 2001, she received the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)/Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Allen Newell Award.
- In 2003, she received the ACM Distinguished Service Award. She also got the Computing Research Association Distinguished Service Award that same year.
Her recent research helped her earn recognition from The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. In 2009, Ruzena Bajcsy received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science. She won this for her new ideas in robotics and computer vision. Specifically, she improved how robots "see" and how to analyze medical images. She also won the 2009 ABIE Award for Technical Leadership.
In 2013, the IEEE honored her with the IEEE Robotics and Automation Award. This was for her important work in computer vision, active perception, and medical robotics.
She is also featured in the Notable Women in Computing cards.
On September 20, 2022, the president of Slovakia, Zuzana Čaputová, gave her the Order of the White Double Cross, Second Class. This award recognized her for helping to spread the good name of the Slovak Republic around the world.
See Also
In Spanish: Ružena Bajcsy para niños
