Two selected for annual robotics award

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) announced two longtime industry leaders as the winners of the 2023 Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics Awards, the world’s most prestigious robotics honor. They will be honored on May 24, 2023, during the Automate 2023 show in Detroit.

Roberta Nelson Shea, global technical compliance officer, Universal Robots, was selected as the Application winner for her outstanding work over the course of her career in global robotics safety.

Jeff Burnstein, president, Association for Advancing Automation (A3), was selected for Leadership, recognizing his four decades of commitment and vision at the global automation trade association.

Nelson Shea and Burnstein are pillars in the robotics industry and were unanimously selected by the awards committee and past chairs of the Robotic Industries Association (RIA, now A3) to win the award this year.

These awards are named after the late Joseph F. Engelberger, known throughout the world as the founding force behind industrial robotics. Since its inception in 1977, the Engelberger Awards have now been given to 136 robotics leaders from around the world for excellence in technology development, application, education, and leadership.

The winners are recommended by a panel of industry leaders based on all present and past nominations from the industry and voted upon by the past chairs of RIA. A3 is the organization that administers the award, and each winner receives a $5,000 honorarium and commemorative medallion.

“Winning the Engelberger Robotics Award for Application in Safety is a tremendous honor,” said Nelson Shea in a press release. “I remember meeting Joe Engelberger at the first R15.06 safety meeting… so many years ago. I am amazed with this award! ”

“Winning the Engelberger Robotics Award for Leadership is beyond any accomplishment I could have imagined when I started at the association 40 years ago,” said Burnstein. “The award has been described as the ‘Nobel Prize of Robotics’ for good reason as it is acknowledged globally as our industry’s pinnacle of success. As an English major with no technical background at all, I am living proof that there is a home for anyone in the robotics industry.”

– Edited from an Association for Advancing Automation (A3) press release by CFE Media. A3 is a CFE Media and Technology content partner.

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