The selection committee for the ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award is pleased to announce that Professor Maria Gini is the recipient of the 2022 award. Professor Maria Gini is Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Professor Gini has been a leader in the field of robotics and multi-agent systems for many years, consistently bringing AI into robotics. She contributed novel algorithms to connect the logical and geometric aspects of robot motion and learning, novel robot programming languages to bridge the gap between high-level programming languages and programming by guidance, and pioneering novel economic-based multi-agent task planning and execution algorithms. Professor Gini was influential and actively participated with her students in the Trading Agent Competition for Supply Chain. Her work has spanned both the design of novel algorithms and practical applications in warehouses and hospitals, such as surveillance, exploration, and search and rescue. Professor Gini has been an active member and leader of the agents community since its inception. She is also a consistent mentor and role model, deeply committed to bringing diversity to the fields of AI, Robotics, and Computing, creating a wide spectrum of activities and leading women in computing organizations. Professor Gini is the former President of IFAAMAS.
