Prof. Nicolescu earned her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science at the University of Southern California (2003) at the Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems. She obtained her M.S. in Computer Science at the University of Southern California (1999) and B.S. in Computer Science at the Polytechnic University Bucharest (Romania, 1995). She is a recipient of the NSF Early Development Career Award and a USC Academic Achievements Award and she is a co-chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Human-Robot Interaction. Her research has been supported by the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, and NASA. Prof. Nicolescu's research interests are in the areas of human-robot interaction, robot control and learning, and multi-robot systems.