Rate Professor Ayanna Howard

Academic Profile

Academic Background: Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, 1999; M.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, 1994; B.S. in Computer Engineering, Brown University, 1993.

Research Interests: Robotics, artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction, and assistive technologies. Focuses on developing intelligent systems for real-world applications, including healthcare and education.

Appointments: Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005–present; Chair, School of Interactive Computing, 2018–present; Former Senior Roboticist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Awards: IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Career Award, 2009; Georgia Tech Outstanding Faculty Award, 2015; Named one of Forbes’ Top 50 Women in Tech, 2018.

Publications: Author of Robotics: From Concept to Consumer (Lerner Publishing, 2014); Over 250 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research.

Additional Contributions: Founder of Zyrobotics, a company developing assistive technologies for children with disabilities; Frequent speaker at TEDx and other public forums on AI ethics.