Kramer-Bottiglio Named National Academy of Engineering Gilbreth Lecturer

Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, the John J. Lee Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, has been selected as one of the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) Gilbreth Lecturers.

She will present her talk, “Shape-shifting Soft Robots that Adapt to Changing Tasks and Environments” at the NAE’s National Meeting in Irvine, CA on February 10th.

Kramer-Bottiglio leads The Faboratory, working at the intersection of materials, manufacturing, and robotics. She is developing “soft robots” that can adapt their properties, morphology, and behavior for different tasks or environments. Her lab is also creating soft, responsive sensors and actuators, and developing new multi-functional materials that are designed to reduce the complexity of responsive systems.

The Gilbreth Lectures were established in 2001 by the Council of the National Academy of Engineering as a means of recognizing outstanding young American engineers and making them more visible to the NAE membership. The lectures are named for the first woman elected to the Academy, Lillian Gilbreth, a pioneer in human factors engineering.