There's a Robot at my Playground is the story of an eight year old girl named Miyoko. Miyoko had a curious mind and wanted to understand how things worked. She loved to go to the playground in her neighborhood. Her favorite things to do were to swing and play with the robot, Ingenuity, or Ginny for short. When the robot wasn't busy fixing things, it would spin her on the merry-go-round, push her on the swing, or ride with her on the teeter-totter. Miyoko wanted to be an engineer to help people, just like Ginny, when she grew up!
Berry, Carlotta A.: - Carlotta A. Berry is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and the Dr. Lawrence J. Giacoletto Endowed Chair for Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Berry is the first Black woman to earn tenure, full professor and endowed chairship at Rose-Hulman. She has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Spelman College, bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, master's in electrical engineering from Wayne State University, and PhD from Vanderbilt University. Her research interests are in robotics education, interface design, human-robot interaction, and increasing historically marginalized and minoritized populations in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields. She is author of the textbook, "Mobile Robotics for Multidisciplinary Study" and editor for "Mitigating Bias in Machine Learning".She has a special passion for diversifying the engineering profession by encouraging more women, marginalized and minoritized populations to pursue STEM degrees. In her role as the 2024 inaugural visiting scientist at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, she was able to execute her mission and promote her vision for STEM. In 2020, she worked with colleagues around the world to start two nonprofit organizations, Black In Engineering and Black In Robotics. They have a mission to bring awareness to systemic racism and inequity in STEM, build community, advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion and connect with allies and sponsors. Dr. Berry also founded her business, NoireSTEMinist educational consulting, in 2020. Through her organization she does speaking engagements, workshops, consulting, performs hip hop slam poetry, gives engineering professor advice and engineering professor quizzes on social media. She also sells robots, children's books, romance novels, and other merchandise to promote diversity in STEM as part of her mission to "Make STEM and robotics for the streets". Her strong longstanding service record has garnered her multiple accolades and awards including 2024 Know Your Value Forbes 50 over 50 in Innovation, ASEE Fellow, IEEE Senior Member, 2023 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award, 2023 Hopper Celebration Abie award for Educational Innovation award, 2022 Society of Women Engineers Distinguished Engineering Educator Award, 2022 Distinguished Educator Award from the American Society of Engineering Education Electrical and Computer Engineering Division, 2022 Open Source Hardware Trailblazer Fellow, 2021 TechPoint Foundation for Youth Bridge Builder award, 2018 Women and Hi Tech Leading Light You Inspire Me Award and Insight Into Diversity Inspiring Women in STEM.
