Leanne Cushing is a mechanical engineer in the field of Robotics and Technology. She spent her high school years competing in FIRST Robotics competitions which sparked her interest in doing robotics in her adult life. Throughout her career she has worked as a mechanical engineer at several note-worthy companies such as Husqvarna,

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

, and

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

and co-founded a company called Domovi. In her adult life she became captain of the

BattleBots ''BattleBots'' is an American robot combat television series and company. The show is an adaptation of the American Robot Wars competitions hosted in the mid–late 1990s by Marc Thorpe, in which competitors design and operate remote-controlled ...

Team Valkyrie where she designed and managed her team until she gave her captain role to Lucy Du in 2022.

Education and career

From 2005 to 2010, Cushing attended the

Rochester Institute of Technology The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in Henrietta, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York, Rochester. It was founded in 1829. It is one of only two institute of technology, institut ...

(RIT) where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a focus in Aerospace. From December 2008 to May 2010, Cushing worked as an author for Reporter Magazine where she wrote magazine articles. From October 2010 to December 2011 Cushing worked as a Chassis Design Engineer at Husqvarna in Charlotte, NC. As part of her work at Husqvarna, Cushing was issued a patent for a front-mounted stand-on lawn care vehicle. Cushing is currently working full-time as a mechanical engineer at Bellwether Coffee.

Awards and honors

* Cushing was awarded the Rev 3 Top 20 Women in Tech award in 2017 from Rev Boston. * Cushing's Battlebot, Valkyrie, received the Most Destructive award in 2020. Valkyrie is the first robot with a female-led team to win Most Destructive.

References

American mechanical engineers Rochester Institute of Technology alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{Improve categories, date=May 2023