Robin R Murphy

Digital Library

ACM Fellows

USA - 2019

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For contributions in founding and advancing the field of computing for disasters and robotics

Press Release

ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions within Computer Science and Informatics

USA - 2014

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For pioneering work in humanitarian disaster response through search and rescue robotics, to the benefit of both survivors and responders

Dr. Murphy is a key founder of the important emerging field of disaster robotics. Through her Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue she has applied robotics and artificial intelligence to 17 deployments of small ground, aerial, and marine robots to disasters in the US, Germany, Japan and Italy. This is the most deployments by any group in the world and includes the first use of rescue robots at the 9/11 World Trade Center collapse, helping to search for survivors; the first use of small unmanned aerial systems for disaster response during Hurricane Katrina providing reconnaissance of communities cut off from road traffic; and the first use of small unmanned water-surface vehicles during Hurricane Wilma, verifying damage to bridges and docks. Dr. Murphy has striven to bridge the gap between research, industry, and practitioners, hosting 28 exercises with participants from 45 universities from 8 countries, 31 companies, and 35 agencies. She created the Roboticists Without Borders program to match commercial and military robotics technology to the unique needs of different types of disasters. Finally, she has trained over 760 responders on robots, including state, federal, and UN urban search and rescue teams, and including a recent workshop with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on helping the robotics community address the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
Press Release

2019 ACM Fellows Recognized for Far-Reaching Accomplishments that Define the Digital Age

ACM has named 58 members ACM Fellows for wide-ranging and fundamental contributions in areas including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, combating cybercrime, quantum computing and wireless networking. The accomplishments of the 2019 ACM Fellows underpin the technologies that define the digital age and greatly impact our professional and personal lives. ACM Fellows comprise an elite group that represents less than 1% of the Association’s global membership.

"Computing technology has had a tremendous impact in shaping how we live and work today,” said ACM President Cherri M. Pancake in announcing the 2019 ACM Fellows. “All of the technologies that directly or indirectly influence us are the result of countless hours of collaborative and/or individual work, as well as creative inspiration and, at times, informed risk-taking. Each year, we look forward to welcoming some of the most outstanding individuals as Fellows. The ACM Fellows program is a cornerstone of our overall recognition effort. In highlighting the accomplishments of the ACM Fellows, we hope to give credit where it is due, while also educating the public about the extraordinary array of areas in which computing professionals work."

Underscoring ACM’s global reach, the 2019 Fellows hail from universities, companies and research centers in Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States.

The contributions of the 2019 Fellows run the gamut of the many sub-disciplines of the computing field―including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, computer graphics, computational biology, data science, security and privacy, software engineering, quantum computing, and web science, to name a few.

Additional information about the 2019 ACM Fellows, as well as previously named ACM Fellows, is available through the ACM Fellows site.

News release

Robin Roberson Murphy Recognized For Pioneering Work In Search And Rescue Robotics

Robin Roberson Murphy is the 2014 recipient of the Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions within Computer Science and Informatics for pioneering work in humanitarian disaster response through search and rescue robotics, to the benefit of both survivors and responders. Her research is in artificial intelligence for mobile robots as applied to disaster robotics. Working with responders and agency stakeholders, she deploys ground, aerial, and marine robots to disasters in order to understand how human-robot systems can save lives, mitigate unfolding dangers, and speed economic recovery. Murphy is Raytheon Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Fellow for Innovation in High-Impact Learning Experiences at Texas A&M University.

Press Release