Monica Nicolescu, assistant computer science and engineering professor, received the distinguished Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation.

The $410,000 award supports an educational research program dedicated to developing and evaluating innovative algorithms for robotic systems that learn from demonstration and interaction with human users.

"Robotic technologies hold an enormous potential for improving the quality of people's lives." Nicolescu said. "The results of this project will enable the development of robots that can provide effective support, improve productivity, and reduce the workload for people in a broad range of applications."

Yaakov Varol, computer science and engineering chair, said it means a lot for the department for one of its faculty to win the award.

"This award is certainly a great accomplishment for her personally and we are very proud to have her as a colleague," Varol said.

Nicolescu joined the university as an assistant professor in 2003 after receiving her doctorate from the University of Southern California. She now directs the university's Robotics Research Laboratory and has eight students working under her supervision: one undergraduate, five in the masters program and two pursuing their doctorates.

"It is a great joy to receive an award from the NSF," Nicolescu said. "It allows me to work more in an area I am very interested in and also allows the robotics research and development to grow at the university."

Nicolescu's research covers a wide range of topics in the area of human-robot interaction, focusing on the issues of communication, learning, social interactions and teamwork.

"Monica Nicolescu is the third faculty member in the department to receive this prestigious award from the National Science Foundation since our department was established in 1990," Varol said. "For a relatively new and small department like ours, I consider this to be an outstanding achievement."

Nicolescu has also been involved in numerous collaboration efforts within the University, having received funding for joint projects with faculty in within her own department as well as civil engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry and internal medicine. In addition, Nicolescu is currently collaborating with faculty from Brown University on learning by demonstration in the field of human-robotic interaction.

Her research is currently funded by the University, the Office of Naval Research, Nevada Nanotech Systems and the National Science Foundation. She is also a member of organizing committees for leading robotics conferences.