Women in Robotics Lunch at RoboBusiness 2026 to Feature Amazon and MassRobotics Leaders
Two veterans of warehouse AI and robotics policy will share a stage in Santa Clara this October, at an event designed to build community for women in a field where they hold just one in five jobs.
Key points
- Women make up 22% of the global AI workforce and 35% of the global STEM workforce, according to current industry figures.
- RoboBusiness 2026 takes place October 20-21, 2025, in Santa Clara, California, with an add-on Women in Robotics Lunch offering limited seats.
- Bhavana Chandrashekhar of Amazon Robotics led the teams that built robots which have picked several billion packages across Amazon warehouses.
- Joyce Sidopoulos spent 14 years as a scientist and engineer with the U.S. Navy before co-founding MassRobotics, a nonprofit that connects robotics startups with investors.
- Full conference passes purchased before August 31 save attendees $200.
RoboBusiness, the annual conference for commercial robotics developers, will host a dedicated Women in Robotics Lunch on the first day of its 2026 event. We first covered RoboBusiness 2026 on 28 July, when registration opened and Amazon was already listed among the speakers. Seats are limited and filling, The Robot Report notes.
Who is speaking?
Bhavana Chandrashekhar and Joyce Sidopoulos will hold a fireside chat, an informal interview-style conversation on stage, during the lunch.
Chandrashekhar is a senior manager of applied science at the Amazon division that builds automated machines for fulfilment centres. She's led teams behind Robin, a robot that's now picked several billion packages, and Vulcan Stow, which has placed over a million items onto shelves. Her technical focus covers robotic vision, teaching machines to interpret their surroundings, along with machine learning and task planning.
Sidopoulos is chief of operations at MassRobotics, a Boston-based nonprofit acting as shared lab and launchpad for robotics startups. Before that she served 14 years at the U.S. Navy's Naval Undersea Warfare Center on acoustic prediction and sonar analysis, then held senior roles at General Dynamics and other defence contractors. She holds a degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University. AI2Day covered MassRobotics separately on 9 August, when Analog Devices renewed its sponsorship of the organisation.
Why does a dedicated lunch matter?
The numbers explain it plainly. Women hold only 22% of AI jobs and 35% of STEM jobs worldwide. That gap means many women working in robotics rarely encounter peers at industry events, making mentorship harder to find.
The lunch aims to close that in a small, focused setting rather than a crowded conference floor.
| Speaker | Role | Notable work |
|---|---|---|
| Bhavana Chandrashekhar | Sr. Manager, Applied Science, Amazon Robotics | Robin (billions of picks); Vulcan Stow (1M+ items) |
| Joyce Sidopoulos | Chief of Operations, MassRobotics | 14 years U.S. Navy; Cornell EE graduate |
What happens next?
RoboBusiness 2026 runs October 20-21 in Santa Clara. The Women in Robotics Lunch requires a separate add-on at registration. A full conference pass bought before August 31 saves $200 and covers keynotes, technical sessions, plus the Mix and Mingle networking reception on day one. Discounted rates exist for academics and corporate groups.
For anyone working in or around robotics, this is a concrete way to spend an hour that could lead somewhere useful.
