Dawn Tilbury, professor of mechanical engineering and former associate dean for research at the University of Michigan‘s College of Engineering, will become the Assistant Director for Engineering (ENG) at the National Science Foundation in June.

She has been a professor at the University of Michigan since 1995 and has a wide range of active research projects in the theory and application of control. Recently, she has been conducting research in manufacturing systems, mobile robotics, and modeling of physiological systems. She is the inaugural chair of the Robotics Steering Committee at the University of Michigan, and has identified and capitalized on opportunities to advance robotics research at the university.

NSF Director France Córdova said that she is “…thrilled to have that kind of leadership for the Engineering Directorate, which makes imagination real and future technologies possible. She is also passionate about mentoring junior faculty, particularly junior women faculty, in their careers—a passion shared across NSF as we seek to develop STEM talent from all sectors and groups in our society.”

Tilbury’s interest in mobile robotics and roles within the robotics community is very exciting for computer science. Perhaps we can look forward to even more collaborative work between the Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) directorate and ENG in the field of robotics.

To find out more about Dawn Tilbury’s move to NSF read the press release from the University of Michigan, and to learn about the CCC’s work in the robotics space check out the AI and Robotics task force page.