Congratulations to Maria Gini – 2022 ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award Winner


GiniCCC Council Member and CRA-WP Board Member Maria Gini was recently named the recipient of the 2022 ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award, one of the major SIGAI awards. Maria Gini is Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota. She also currently serves as a co-director for the Grad Cohort Workshop for Women and the CSGrad4US Mentoring Program.

From the citation:

Professor Gini has been a leader in the field of robotics and multi-agent systems for many years, consistently bringing AI into robotics. She contributed novel algorithms to connect the logical and geometric aspects of robot motion and learning, novel robot programming languages to bridge the gap between high-level programming languages and programming by guidance, and pioneering novel economic-based multi-agent task planning and execution algorithms. Professor Gini was influential and actively participated with her students in the Trading Agent Competition for Supply Chain.  Her work has spanned both the design of novel algorithms and practical applications in warehouses and hospitals, such as surveillance, exploration, and search and rescue.  Professor Gini has been an active member and leader of the agents community since its inception. She is also a consistent mentor and role model, deeply committed to bringing diversity to the fields of AI, Robotics, and Computing, creating a wide spectrum of activities and leading women in computing organizations. Professor Gini is the former President of IFAAMAS.

About the Award
ACM SIGAI, in collaboration with the International Conference on Autonomous Agents, in 2000 instituted an annual award for excellence in research in the area of autonomous agents. The award is intended to recognize researchers in autonomous agents whose current work is an important influence on the field. The award is an official ACM award, funded by an endowment created by ACM SIGAI from the proceeds of previous Autonomous Agents conferences. Prior to 2014, it was known as the ACM/SIGART Autonomous Agents Award. Read more about the award at the ACM awards site.

Congratulations Maria!