Jeff Burnstein of A3, Roberta Nelson Shea of UR win Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics awards

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) named Jeff Burnstein and Roberta Nelson Shea as winners of the 2023 Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics awards.

Burnstein, president of A3, was selected for leadership, recognizing his four decades of commitment and vision at the global automation trade association.

“Winning the Engelberger Robotics Award for leadership is beyond any accomplishment I could have imagined when I started at the association 40 years ago,” said Burnstein. “The award has been described as the ‘Nobel Prize of Robotics’ for good reason as it is acknowledged globally as our industry’s pinnacle of success. As an English major with no technical background at all, I am living proof that there is a home for anyone in the robotics industry.”

Nelson Shea, global technical compliance officer at Universal Robots, was selected as the application winner for her outstanding work over the course of her career in global robotics safety.

“The Engelberger Robotics Award for application in safety is a tremendous honour to me and to all those who have embraced and contributed to robotic safety,” said Nelson Shea. “I remember meeting Joe Engelberger over 40 years ago and never imagined receiving this award. I view the award to be honouring the industry’s progress in optimizing safety and productivity. The journey has been amazing!”

A3 noted in a press statement that Nelson Shea and Burnstein are pillars in the robotics industry and were unanimously selected by the awards committee and past chairs of the Robotic Industries Association (RIA, now A3) to win the award this year.

A3 further explains that the awards are named after the late Joseph F. Engelberger, known throughout the world as the founding force behind industrial robotics. Since its inception in 1977, the Engelberger Awards have now been given to 136 robotics leaders from around the world for excellence in technology development, application, education, and leadership.

The winners are recommended by a panel of industry leaders based on all present and past nominations from the industry and voted upon by the past chairs of RIA. A3 is the organization that administers the award, and each winner receives a $5,000 honorarium and commemorative medallion.