Team Proxemics
WBCD 2026 · IEEE ICRA

Global 1st place, Lab Experiments Track.

Team Proxemics is an Austin‑based robotics team. In June 2026, our four‑person team took first place worldwide in the Lab Experiments Track of the WBCD competition, an official ICRA event, winning the first‑place prize valued at $50,000.

A first‑place win for Texas 🤠
The competition

What Bimanuals Can Do

WBCD 2026 was an officially sponsored robotics competition at ICRA. It challenged participants on real‑world robotic manipulation tasks.

The Lab Experiments Track simulated an automated science‑lab workflow including sample handling, instrument loading, and switching solvent supply lines.

The 2026 edition ran across three sites, Vienna, Silicon Valley and Shanghai, and used objective scoring criteria to determine a single global ranking. Our team finished first globally.

The certificate

Certificate issued by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and the WBCD Organizing Committee, June 2026.

Certificate reading: IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, 2026 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Global First Prize in XtalPi Bio Experiments Track in What Bimanuals Can Do (WBCD), is presented to Team Proxemics: Jason Meaux, Katharine Henry, Niloofar Zendehdel, Savio Pereira. June 2026. WBCD Organizing Committee.

Who else competed

The Lab Experiments Track was a strong field that included a national research institute, two venture‑funded humanoid‑robotics companies, the research arm of one of the world's largest conglomerates, and the winners of the previous year's competition.

  1. 1st place
    Team Proxemics AUSTIN, TX
    Four‑member team from Austin, Texas.
  2. 2nd place
    IAII‑IICS CHINA
    17‑member team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of AI for Industries: a standing research group of senior researchers and 8 PhDs, holding a collective 93 patents, 524 papers and roughly 16,000 citations.
  3. 3rd place
    DeepCyboZGCA CHINA
    13‑member startup team that raised over $20 million in 2026 for their humanoid‑robotics startup, DeepCybo. Advised by a co‑designer of the robotic AI chemist published in Nature Synthesis, and by the author of Springer's standard textbook on multicopter drone design.
  4. Finalist
    Tianji Gento CHINA
    Humanoid‑robotics unicorn that raised $140 million at a $1.4 billion valuation in May 2026, backed by Hillhouse, Meituan and Tencent, and a platinum partner of ICRA 2026. Also received the track's Best Application Award.
  5. Finalist
    TCS Research INDIA
    The robotics and physical‑AI research group of Tata Consultancy Services, part of Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate. Also received the track's Best Creative End‑Effector Design Award.
  6. Regional winner
    LatenCore AI UNITED KINGDOM
    UK‑based company led by an honorary senior research fellow at UCL, whose team included the ICRA 2025 PhyRC Challenge winner and an ICRA 2026 workshop best‑paper author. First place at the Vienna site.
  7. Regional winner
    EPFL CREATE Lab SWITZERLAND
    Prof. Josie Hughes's lab at EPFL in Switzerland, co‑winners of the 2025 WBCD Life Sciences Track. Second place at the Vienna site.
  8. Regional winner
    HCIS Lab TAIWAN
    Prof. Yi‑Ting Chen's lab at NYCU, one of Taiwan's top research universities. Four papers accepted at ICRA 2026, including a Paper Award Finalist in Robot Learning, plus papers at RSS, CVPR, ICCV and ICLR in 2025, with collaborators at NVIDIA Research, CMU, UC Berkeley and Cornell. Third place at the Vienna site.

Team descriptions are summarized from public sources as of September 2026.

Official standings

These are the organisers' own leaderboards, rendered from the official WBCD 2026 website. Global standings first, then the three regional sites.

Global rankings

All sites combined
WBCD 2026 winners board with the Global Rankings leaderboard selected, showing Track 3, XtalPi Lab Experiments: 1st Place Team Proxemics, 2nd Place IAII-IICS, 3rd Place DeepCyboZGCA, Best Creative End-Effector Design Award TCS Research, Best Application Award Tianji Gento.
1st Team Proxemics, 2nd IAII‑IICS, 3rd DeepCyboZGCA.

Silicon Valley

Regional site, where we competed
WBCD 2026 winners board with the Silicon Valley leaderboard selected, showing Track 3, XtalPi Lab Experiments: 1st Place Team Proxemics, Finalist TCS Research.
1st Team Proxemics, finalist TCS Research.

Vienna

Main site, at ICRA 2026
WBCD 2026 winners board with the Vienna leaderboard selected, showing Track 3, XtalPi Lab Experiments: 1st Place LATENCORE AI, 2nd Place EPFL CREATE LAB, 3rd Place HCIS LAB.
1st LatenCore AI, 2nd EPFL CREATE Lab, 3rd HCIS Lab.

Shanghai

Regional site
WBCD 2026 winners board with the Shanghai leaderboard selected, showing Track 3, XtalPi Lab Experiments: 1st Place IPRC-IICS, 2nd Place DeepCyboZGCA, 3rd Place RAGtimeLAB, Finalists Tianji Gento, 2Arms1Goal, Sparkbot, GearShifter.
1st IPRC‑IICS (the Chinese Academy of Sciences team, under its regional name), 2nd DeepCyboZGCA, 3rd RAGtimeLAB.

Source: the WBCD 2026 website, wbcdcompetition.github.io, results as published by the organisers.

The team

Jason Meaux, Katharine Henry, Niloofar Zendehdel and Savio Pereira.

The four members of Team Proxemics standing together, smiling, in an office.
Katharine Henry demonstrating the robot arm to visitors at a table with a Team Proxemics sign.
Katharine Henry adjusting the robot arm on its rig beside a sunny window.
Jason Meaux leaning over the test rig, adjusting the gripper above a calibration target.
Two team members working together at a laptop.
The working room with the robot rig, sample vials and laptops.