Daniela Rus receives Bavarian Minister-President's High-Tech Prize

Daniela Rus, director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Panasonic Professor of Computer Science, has received the 2026 High-Tech Prize of the Bavarian Minister-President for her contributions to robotics, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems. Awarded jointly by the Bavarian State Government and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, it is the most highly endowed award for technology and engineering in Germany.

Rus accepted the prize on July 23 at the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residence. The selection committee cited four strands of her work: self-organizing robot collectives, soft robotics, autonomous mobility, and brain-inspired artificial intelligence. Together they describe a 30-year effort to build machines that hold up outside the lab, in conditions no one scripted in advance.

That effort has arrived at a moment when physical AI has become a preoccupation for industry leaders and policymakers alike. When human-robot collaboration comes up, the examples tend to be household chores or the factory floor. Rus…