Maja Mataric is the Chan Soon-Shiong Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics at the University of Southern California, founding director of the USC Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center and her Interaction Lab. She received a PhD and MS from MIT and BS from the University of Kansas. She is Fellow of AAAS, IEEE, and AAAI, and recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award in Innovation, NSF Career, MIT TR35 Innovation, and IEEE RAS Early Career Awards. A pioneer of the field of socially assistive robotics, her research enables robots to use human-robot interaction to aid in therapy, rehabilitation, training, and education and has been validated with children with autism, stroke survivors, Alzheimer's patients and other populations. She is also very involved in K-12 STEM outreach and mentoring of women and other under-represented groups.