Rosalind Picard is a scientist, inventor, entrepreneur and engineer.  She is founder and director of the MIT Media Lab’s Affective Computing Research Group, co-founder and chief scientist of Empatica, providing FDA-cleared biomarkers and a smartwatch to monitor seizures, and co-founder of Affectiva, providing Emotion-AI software (now part of Smart Eye, AB).  Picard is best-known for her book, Affective Computing, which helped launch a field, and for authoring or co-authoring nearly 400 peer-reviewed scientific and engineering articles in AI, digital health, affective computing, and human-computer interaction.  She is a named inventor on over 100 patents and a popular speaker, with a TED talk of over 2 million views.

Picard is a member of the National Academy of Inventors and the National Academy of Engineering, and has been elected a fellow of the IEEE, ACM, AAAC, and APA.  She received the 2022 International Lombardy Prize for Computer Science Research, which carries a one-million euros prize and is described as the “Nobel” in Italy.  She holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech, and Masters and Doctorate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.