Past Member

Randi Williams

Former Research Assistant
  • Personal Robots

Dr. Randi Williams completed her Ph.D. studying human-robot interaction and preK-12 education in the Personal Robots group. She is affiliated with MIT's RAISE initiative and a founding director of the Boston chapter of Black in Robotics. She received a doctorate from the Media Lab in 2024, a Master's in Media Arts in Sciences from MIT in 2018, and a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering from UMBC in 2016. 

Randi strives to prepare the next generation of ethical  engineers to use AI to solve pressing issues in their communities. Her projects on social robot learning companions (PopBots) and grade school AI + ethics curricula, (How to Train Your Robot) have  received coverage from outlets such as The Atlantic, Wired, and the MIT Tech Review. She has received numerous awards, including the Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship, Cambridge Curious Scientist of the Year Award, LEGO Papert Fellowship, and NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Key skills: AI literacy, Responsible AI, human-computer interaction studies, curriculum design, full-stack web development, hardware development, inclusive education