Zakia Hammal, a systems scientist in Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute and an assistant research professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, was named an AI Researcher of the Year at the prestigious Women in AI Awards North America 2023.

The Women in AI Awards recognize the outstanding contributions and achievements of women in the field of artificial intelligence. The awards celebrate women entrepreneurs, researchers and innovators who have made outstanding contributions to AI and have been pioneers — dreaming big and charting a path for the future of the technology.

"The heart and soul of AI innovation are found not only in the algorithms and technologies but, more importantly, in the brilliant minds that drive this transformative industry forward," the awards website announced. "We stand in awe of the exceptional women who have been recognized and celebrated for their outstanding contributions."

At CMU, Hammal leads interdisciplinary research efforts to build multimodal AI focused on understanding and modeling human emotion and physical and cognitive states. She blends computer science, machine learning, AI, and social and behavioral psychology to address a broad range of topics and applications in emotion AI and nonverbal behavior for health informatics.

Learn more about the award on the Women in AI website.