Two researchers from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) were just named by MIT Technology Review to their annual list of the top 35 innovators under the age of 35, joining the likes of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and major leaders from Apple, PayPal and other tech companies.
Fadel Adib and Julie Shah were selected by a panel of judges and the editorial staff of Technology Review for their respective research achievements in networks and robotics.
"Over the years, we’ve had success in choosing young innovators whose work has been profoundly influential on the direction of human affairs," the magazine's editor-in-chief and publisher Jason Pontin said. “We’re proud of our selections and the variety of achievements they celebrate, and we’re proud to add Fadel Adib and Julie Shah to this prestigious list.”
Adib, a graduate student in Dina Katabi’s group at CSAIL, developed WiVi, a technology that uses WiFi radio signals to “see through walls” and track the motion of people or objects. The latest iteration of the project can measure the heart rate and breathing of multiple individuals and may have important implications for personal health, elderly care, and law enforcement.
Shah is a principal investigator at CSAIL, director of the lab’s Interactive Robotics Group, and an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Her research focuses on teaching industrial robots to work safely and efficiently with people. Her research focuses on creating algorithms that enable robots to adapt to human behaviors and become better teammates for safety-critical tasks. Her recent work has translated directly to the factory floor of several large American manufacturers where robots and humans are starting to work side-by-side.
This year’s honorees will be featured online starting today, and in the September/October print magazine, which hits newsstands on Sept. 2. They will appear in person at the upcoming EmTech MIT conference Sept. 23–25.
