Dr. Xiao received her Ph.D. degree in Computer, Information, and Control Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, in 1990. From October to December 1997, she was a visiting researcher at the Scientific Research Laboratories of the Ford Motor Company, and from January to June 1998, she was a Visiting Associate Professor at the Robotics Lab. of Computer Science Department, Stanford University. From August 1998 to December 2000, She was the Program Director of the Robotics and Human Augmentation Program at the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Xiao is a Senior Member of IEEE. From 1999-2001, she was an elected member of the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society for a term of three years. She is currently on the Membership Board of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and serves as the Associate Vice President for Member Activities.
Dr. Xiao has served as an Area Chair of the Conference Robotics: Science and Systems in RSS 2006 and RSS 2007. She has served as a Co-Chair for Special and Organized Sessions of 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems IROS 2006 , the Chair for Workshops and Tutorials in IROS 2007, the Program Co-Chair (for America) of IROS 2004, and the Workshop and Tutorial Co-Chair for IROS 2003. She has served as the Program Co-Chair of the 2007 IEEE International Symposium on Assembly and Manufacturing ISAM 2007, the General Chair of the 2005 IEEE International Symposium on Assembly and Task Planning ISATP 2005, and the Program Co-Chair for ISATP 2001 and 2003. She has been on the Program Committees and recently the Editorial Boards of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) and IROS over many years (1994--2007).
She is on the Editorial Boards of Advanced Robotics, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, Intelligent Service Robotics, and Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems. She was a Guest Editor of the Special Issue of Advanced Robotics on "Compliant Motion: Modeling, Planning, and Control" for June 2005.