Bioengineering Alumna to Speak at Boston Convocation
Bioengineering alumna Samantha Johnson, E’21, MS’21, founder and CEO of Tatum Robotics, will serve as the featured alumni speaker at Northeastern University’s Boston Convocation, where she will share how her student experiences led her to develop tactile-signing robotic technology for the DeafBlind community.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Cyrus Moulton. Main photo: Samantha Johnson graduated with a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree in bioengineering in 2021, and received an Innovator Award in 2022. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
Samantha Johnson, robotics CEO, to be Boston Convocation featured alumni speaker
Samantha Johnson is the founder and CEO of Tatum Robotics, which develops robots to help the DeafBlind community. She is also the featured alumni speaker at Boston Convocation.
Samantha Johnson remembers attending convocation as a new student at Northeastern and hearing President Joseph E. Aoun tell students to “robot-proof” themselves.
“The big takeaway was… how do you ensure that robots don’t take your job,” said Johnson, who graduated in 2021 with a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree in bioengineering.
This year Johnson returns to convocation with a slightly different take on robots. She develops them.
“I always think it’s funny because, at the end of the day, I actually ended up making more robots,” Johnson told Northeastern Global News in a recent interview.
Johnson is the founder and CEO of Tatum Robotics, which develops robots to help the DeafBlind community. She is also the featured alumni speaker at Boston Convocation, a ceremony to kick off the 2026-2027 academic year which will be held Tuesday, Sept. 8, at 11 a.m. EDT at MGM Music Hall at Fenway.
“Samantha embodies the power of entrepreneurship,” said Betsy Ludwig, executive director of women’s entrepreneurship at Northeastern. “She illustrates that Northeastern is where people learn to build, disrupt, and lead.”
Read full story at Northeastern Global News