Allison Okamura

About

Dr. Allison Okamura is a science fellow at the Hoover Institution. She is the Richard W. Weiland Professor of Engineering at Stanford University in the Mechanical Engineering Department and has a courtesy appointment in Computer Science. She is a deputy director of the Wu Tsai Stanford Neurosciences Institute, a founding member and Executive Committee Member of the Stanford Robotics Center, and director of graduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford.

Dr. Okamura has more than thirty years of experience in research, teaching, and development of human-centered robotics, including medical robots, soft robots, and wearable robots. She directs the Collaborative Haptics and Robotics in Medicine (CHARM) Laboratory at Stanford, which develops principles and tools needed to realize advanced robotic and human-machine systems capable of haptic (touch) interaction. She has led research projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the FBI. Dr. Okamura has also been on the advisory boards of companies developing robots for environments ranging from surgical operating rooms to warehouses. She is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and has been recognized for her leadership through numerous awards, including the 2020 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Technical Achievement Award, 2019 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Distinguished Service Award, and the 2016 Duca Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford.

Over the past fifteen years, Dr. Okamura has contributed to several iterations of the US Robotics Roadmap, a report that outlines the future of robotics in the United States, including the societal drivers, research needs, and challenges. She leads the robotics focus area of the Stanford Emerging Technology Review (SETR), a university-wide initiative led by the Hoover Institution and the School of Engineering to elucidate technology breakthroughs and their policy implications.