2022 Titan of Tech: Leila Takayama

Leila Takayama is a Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) consultant at Hoku Labs who specializes in the psychology of people's interactions with robotic products and services. She has over a decade of professional experience in applying social science concepts and methods to the design of robotic systems. She was also an associate professor at UC Santa Cruz where she was granted tenure in 2018 and founded and led the Re-embodied Cognition research lab, which explored Human-Robot Interaction.

Why Leila is a Titan

“I've known Leila for multiple years now and first met her when she was my professor at UC Santa Cruz and would go on to be my mentor and PhD advancement advisor. She was one of the best professors I've ever taken a class with and collaborated with. She's a true titan for the Santa Cruz and Human-robot Interaction community. She has pioneered the way we interact with robots, drove innovation with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and research institute into supporting Autonomous vehicle operation to how citizens can use robots to engage in Ocean Sciences, and led the robot revolution with groups such as Google X, ROS, etc. Her consulting group, Hoku Labs, is a Santa Cruz org that leads insights into how we put people first and prioritize the human side of interacting with and designing robots.”- Aviv Elor