Yoky Matsuoka

Yoky Matsuoka is figuring out how to make robotic arms that can be guided by the human brain.

As a young tennis player, Matsuoka often wondered how her body moved to help her play the sport. When she got injured, she puzzled over how her body recovered and relearned everything.

Now, as a neurobotics researcher at the University of Washington, she gets paid to find out. Matsuoka focuses her research on the hands and arms. She says it will probably be at least 20 years before neurobotics technology on hands can be used on a real person. But knowing that her work will eventually change people’s lives and affect society has kept her in the field.