Ayanna MacCalla Howard (born January 24, 1972) is an American roboticist, entrepreneur and educator currently serving as the dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State University. Assuming the post in March 2021, Howard became the first woman to lead the Ohio State College of Engineering.[1][2]
Howard previously served as the chair of the School of Interactive Computing in the Georgia Tech College of Computing, the Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Endowed Chair in Bioengineering in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the director of the Human-Automation Systems (HumAnS) Lab.[3]
Howard's early interest in artificial intelligence led her to a senior position at Seattle-based Axcelis Inc, where she helped develop Evolver, the first commercial genetic algorithm, and Brainsheet, a neural network developed in partnership with Microsoft. From 1993 to 2005, she worked at the NASAJet Propulsion Laboratory[6] where she held multiple roles including senior robotics researcher and deputy manager in the Office of the Chief Scientist.[1]
She joined Georgia Tech in 2005 as an associate professor and the founder of the HumAnS lab. She has also served as the associate director of research for Georgia Tech's Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines and as chair of the multidisciplinary robotics Ph.D. program at Georgia Tech. In 2017 she became the chair of the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech.[3]
In 2008, she received worldwide attention for her SnoMote robots, designed to study the impact of global warming on the Antarctic ice shelves.[7] In 2013, she founded Zyrobotics, which has released their first suite of therapy and educational products for children with special needs.[citation needed]
On November 30, 2020, the Columbus Dispatch reported Howard has been named the next dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State University, to begin March 1, pending approval by the board of trustees.[10] On March 1, 2021, Howard assumed the role becoming the first woman to hold the position.[1]
In 2021, Ayanna Howard received the Athena Lecturer Award from Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for her Contributions to Robotics, AI and Broadening Participation in Computing.[8] In June 2022, Howard was elected a trustee of Brown University.[11]
Research
Howard's research interests include human-robot interaction, assistive/rehabilitation robotics, science-driven/field robotics, and perception, learning, and reasoning.[12]
Howard's research and published works span across various topics in robotics and AI, including intelligent learning, virtual reality for rehabilitation and robotics in the role of pediatric therapy. Her research is highlighted by her focus on technology development for intelligent agents that must interact with and in a human-centered world. This work, which addresses issues of human-robot interaction, learning, and autonomous control, has resulted in more than 200 peer-reviewed publications.[3]
Howard's numerous accomplishments have been documented in more than a dozen featured articles. In 2003, she was named to the MITTechnology ReviewTR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.[13][14] She was featured in Time magazine's "Rise of the Machines" article in 2004.[15] She was also featured in the USA Today Science & Space article.[16]
^Cray, Dan; C. Miranda; W. Rothman; Oko Sekiguchi (June 6, 2004). "Rise of the Machines". Time. Archived from the original on March 26, 2005. Retrieved 2008-04-06.