Robotics Research During a Pandemic [Women in Engineering]

The world has been gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rightful first reaction of many of us has been to protect the safety and health of ourselves and our families. However, life is not completely paused, and we still have responsibilities to our research, classes, and peers. Rapidly implemented workfrom- home protocols have resulted in a widely lamented lack of work–life balance and progress in research. This column tackles these woes by presenting advice collected from the Women in Engineering (WIE) Committee of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society on their best practices for continuing work during this challenging time. It also shares some perspectives of robotics students on how they have been impacted by the pandemic.