SIMON BAKER YOKY MATSUOKA PROFESSIONAL

By then Matsuoka was the director of the Neurobotics Laboratory at the University of Washington. This was part of the larger work that the MacArthur Foundation recognized in 2007. So she began studying computational neuroscience: “I thought, ‘I’m going to create a brand-new way to study artificial intelligence.’” She became a pioneer in the emerging field of neurobotics. “The limitation wasn’t in engineering or computer science but in understanding the human brain,” she says. But her tennis buddy, as she called the robot, fell short. This pursuit brought her to MIT, where she got a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science.

SIMON BAKER YOKY MATSUOKA PROFESSIONAL

After multiple injuries, she gave up her professional tennis ambitions and turned to engineering, focusing on building a robot that could play tennis with her. At 16, she came to the United States from Japan to improve her game, then attended UC Berkeley. “With the combination of technology and neuroscience, there are so many things we can achieve,” Matsuoka says. Her aim is nothing less than blending elements of each of these fields to redefine the relationship humans can have with technology. At 43, she’s a polymath who has studied computer science, electrical engineering, neuroscience, robotics, and mechanical engineering. The winner of a MacArthur “genius” award, Matsuoka was on the founding team of Google X and helped build the Nest smart thermostat. As artificial intelligence becomes integral to everything from health care to home heating systems, you can think of Yoky Matsuoka as one of the chief architects of the future.

Simon baker yoky matsuoka