Amy LaViers is director of the Robotics, Automation, and Dance (RAD) Lab. She is a recipient of a 2015 DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) and 2017 Director’s Fellowship. Her teaching has been recognized on UIUC’s list of Teachers Ranked as Excellent By Their Students, with Outstanding distinction. Her choreography has been presented internationally, including at Merce Cunningham’s studios, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, the Ferst Center for the Arts, and the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology. She is a co-founder of three startup companies: AE Machines, an award-winning automation software company; caali, an embodied media company; and, Soma Measure, Inc, a wearable-enabled home fitness company. Previously, she held positions as an assistant professor in mechanical science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and in systems and information engineering at the University of Virginia. She completed a two-year Certification in Movement Analysis (CMA) in 2016 at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS) and her Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at Georgia Tech with a dissertation that included a live performance exploring stylized motion. Her career began with her award-winning undergraduate thesis at Princeton University where she earned a certificate in dance and a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering.