When the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) first convened 40 years ago, the robotics community shared a clear vision: robots would one day combine elegant mathematical models with advanced computation to handle complex tasks. Four decades later, the community is divided over how to reach that goal. That divide was on full display this May in Atlanta, where ICRA marked its anniversary with a unique closing keynote: a live Oxford-style debate on whether “data will solve robotics and automation.”

When ChatGPT or Gemini gives what seems to be an expert response to your burning questions, you may not realize how much information it relies on to give that reply. Like other popular artificial intelligence (AI) models, these chatbots rely on backbone systems called foundation models that train on billions or even trillions of data points.

Diffusion models like OpenAI’s DALL-E are becoming increasingly useful in helping brainstorm new designs. Humans can prompt these systems to generate an image, create a video, or refine a blueprint, and come back with ideas they hadn’t considered before.

In an office at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), a soft robotic hand carefully curls its fingers to grasp a small object. The intriguing part isn’t the mechanical design or embedded sensors – in fact, the hand contains none. Instead, the entire system relies on a single camera that watches the robot’s movements and uses that visual data to control it.

CSAIL Alliances is excited to recognize Dr. Luis Muniz of Bayer as the recipient of the 2025 CSAIL Alliances Connector Award. As Bayer’s Director of Global IT External Partnerships, Dr. Muniz exemplifies what it means to be a Connector: a bridge-builder and strategic thinker who brings people together for real, measurable impact.