Holly Yanco

Holly A. Yanco, Ph.D., is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML), where she also serves as the Distinguished University Professor and Director of the New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation (NERVE) Center. She founded the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Laboratory at UML in 2001, fostering interdisciplinary research in robotics, assistive technology, and artificial intelligence.

Education: Dr. Yanco earned her B.A. in Computer Science from Wellesley College, followed by an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Research Interests: Her work spans human-robot interaction, robotics education, assistive technologies, urban search and rescue (USAR), and multi-modal interfaces. She has led collaborative initiatives such as Artbotics, integrating art and robotics in K-12 and college curricula, and Pyro, a Python-based robotics platform recognized as Premier Courseware of 2005.

Grants & Funding: Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Army Research Office, Microsoft Research, and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Notable grants include an NSF CAREER Award (2005) and leadership roles in DARPA’s Fast Lightweight Autonomy (FLA) program.

Awards & Recognition: Dr. Yanco has received teaching awards from UMass Lowell and MIT, served as General Chair of the 2012 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, and held leadership roles in AAAI’s Executive Council (2006-2009).

Lab & Outreach: The HRI Lab engages students from high school to Ph.D. levels, emphasizing K-12 outreach through Botball tournaments, STREAM teacher workshops, and the Artbotics program in collaboration with The Revolving Museum.