Ayanna Howard receives NSBE's 2009 Torch Award

Posted on 24. Aug, 2009 by Leshell Hatley in Faculty, I Got Tenure!, I'm a Full Professor!, Scholarly Celebrations

Dr. Ayanna Howard

Dr. Ayanna Howard is the first tenured African-American woman to obtain tenure in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. She is the Director of the HumAnSLab (Human Automated Systems Lab). She has a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Brown University, a Master’s and Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and an MBA from Claremont Graduate University.

Her area of research is centered around the concept of humanized intelligence, the process of embedding human cognitive capability into the control path of autonomous systems. This work, which addresses issues of autonomous control as well as aspects of interaction with humans and the surrounding environment, has resulted in over 60 written works in a number of projects – from autonomous rover navigation for planetary surface exploration to intelligent terrain assessment algorithms for landing on Mars.

To date, her unique accomplishments have been documented in over 12 featured articles – including being named as one of the world’s top young innovators of 2003 by the prestigious MIT Technology Review journal and in TIME magazine’s “Rise of the Machines” article in 2004.

The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) has named Professor Ayanna M. Howard recipient of the organization’s 2009 Golden Torch Award.

Dr. Howard is the Project Lead on the SnoMote Project

Howard joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2005 after a 12-year “rocket-fueled” run as a robotics research engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She has developed two educational software packages for artificial intelligence and robotics programming and a new graduate course on robotics control and techniques.

She is also the principal investigator of the Human-Robot Interaction Workshop series, which provides research experience to underrepresented undergraduate math, science and engineering high school and middle school students, and is the co-principal investigator of the Advanced Robotics Technology for Societal Impact (ARTSI) Alliance, whose goal is to increase the number of African Americans who study computer science and robotics and then go on to pursue graduate studies.

More Related posts:

1. [ Newly_Tenured ] Dr. Sherri Frizell – Associate Professor @ Prairie View A&M
2. Dr. Chad Jenkins: Associate Professor of Computer Science, Brown University
3. Dr. Alicia Nicki Washington, 1st African-American Female in CS @ Howard
4. Spelman's Dr. Carmen Sidbury Receives NSF Appointment
5. Dr. Cynthia Winston: Professor & Researcher at Howard University

Tags: 1st African-American woman tenured, 2003 MIT Top Young Innovators, Advanced Robotics Technology for Societal Impact, Age 14, Arthur J. Bond, artificial intelligence, ARTSI Alliance, Barack Obama, Brown University, Chair of the President’s Commission on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Chess, City Council, Claremont Gradue University, dissertation entitled, Dr. Ayanna Howard, Dr. Geneva Gay, educational software, Frederick Cross and Richard Jones, Georgia Tech, Head of the UCLA Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program, High John the Conqueror, Howard University Tennis Team, Human Atutomated SystemsLab, Human-robot Interaction, HumAnSLab, Jericho's Fall, John Hopkins University, National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame, North Carolina Women of Distinction, Raolat Adbulai, Research, Rise of the Machines 2004, robotics programming, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, she was the first African American to be promoted and tenured as a full professor, Six Months To Dr.: How I Completed My Dissertation In Six Months, SnoMote, The Stanford Daily, Time magazine, Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum, University of Southern California