She was named Engineer of the Year in 2019. A few months later, her company went bust. Growing up in Serbia, Maja Rudinac had learned as a child that you have to seize the day. Motivated by this awareness, she did everything possible for her innovation, the Lea care robot. All lights were green, everyone loved the product and still, the innovation didn’t make it.
The summer of 1990. It was a sunny, carefree time and Maja Rudinac was a happy child. Her parents had made plans for that summer: the family was going on a long holiday. They decided to postpone the trip for a few months so that Maja, who would be a bit older by then, could appreciate it more. They would also be able to take additional time off from work. A few months later, civil war broke out in Yugoslavia. “We never went on that holiday,” Maja recalls. “What that taught me, as a child, was this: if you see an opportunity today, grab it with both hands. You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Today is the day you can make a difference in the world.”
Maja completes her studies in Serbia – electrical engineering with a specialization in AI – and is subsequently invited to do her PhD at Delft University of Technology’s Robotics Institute under the supervision of professor Pieter Jonker. In 2015, together with Jonker, she launches the Robot Care Systems startup and develops the Lea care robot. Lea helps people with Parkinson’s disease to walk again, to be able to dance and to enjoy life. The robot senses when the patient experiences a freeze when walking, brakes when the patient leans too far forward, keeps appointments and guides the user through physiotherapy.
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