Past Computing Community Consortium Council member Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), has been appointed to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The council provides advice to the White House on topics critical to U.S. security and the economy, including policy recommendations on the future of work, American leadership in science and technology, and the support of U.S. research and development.

“I’m grateful to be able to add my perspective as a computer scientist to this group at a time when so many issues involving AI and other aspects of computing raise important scientific and policy questions for the nation and the world,” Rus said to MIT News.

Rus is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and the deputy dean of research for the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing. Her research in robotics, artificial intelligence, and data science focuses primarily on developing the science and engineering of autonomy, with the long-term objective of enabling a future where machines are integrated into daily life to support both cognitive and physical tasks. The applications of her work are broad and include transportation, manufacturing, medicine, and urban planning.

While on the CCC Council from 2013-2016 Rus participated in a number of robotic initiatives including a white paper on Toward a Science of Autonomy for Physical Systems, co-organizing a visioning workshop on Interacting with the Computers All Around Us, and contributing to CCC blogs on origami-inspired robots.