Ayanna MacCalla Howard (born January 24, 1972) is an American roboticist, entrepreneur, and educator whose work focuses on human-robot interaction, assistive robotics, and the ethical deployment of artificial intelligence. She will begin serving as the president of Spelman College on August 1, 2026, succeeding Interim President Rosalind "Roz" Brewer, becoming the first scientist and engineer to lead the institution. Howard previously served as the dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State University from March 2021 to July 2026, the first woman to hold that position.
Howard's research has spanned intelligent learning, virtual reality for rehabilitation, and pediatric therapy robots. She has authored over 250 peer-reviewed publications, holds four patents, and has been recognized with numerous awards, including the ACM Athena Lecturer Award and election as a Fellow of the IEEE and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
Early life and education
Howard was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1972. Her parents, Eric MacCalla Jr. and Johnetta MacCalla, were completing their undergraduate degrees at Brown University at the time. After their graduation, the family moved to Southern California, where Howard was raised. As a child, she was fascinated by aliens and robots, and her favorite television show was The Bionic Woman.
Howard earned a Bachelor of Science in engineering from Brown University in 1993. She then pursued graduate studies at the University of Southern California, receiving a Master of Science in electrical engineering in 1994 and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1999. Her doctoral thesis, "Recursive Learning for Deformable Object Manipulation," was advised by George A. Bekey. The work was motivated by the AIDS epidemic, aiming to use robots to sort hospital waste safely. Howard also earned an MBA from Claremont Graduate University.
Career
Howard's early interest in artificial intelligence led her to a senior position at Axcelis Inc. in Seattle, 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 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, holding roles including senior robotics researcher and deputy manager in the Office of the Chief Scientist.
In 2005, Howard joined Georgia Tech as an associate professor and founded the Human-Automation Systems (Humans) Lab. She later served as associate director of research for the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines and chaired the multidisciplinary robotics Ph.D. program. In 2017, she became chair of the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech.
In 2008, Howard gained worldwide attention for her SnoMote robots, designed to study the impact of global warming on Antarctic ice shelves. In 2013, she founded Zyrobotics, which released a suite of therapy and educational products for children with special needs.
Howard has given over 140 invited talks and keynotes and has co-edited or co-authored more than a dozen books and book chapters. In a 2020 interview on Marketplace, she discussed how companion robots could alleviate the effects of social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 1, 2021, Howard became dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State University, a role she held until July 2026. During her tenure, she oversaw significant growth in research and academic programs and advanced the college's leadership in robotics and AI. In 2026, she was named the 12th president of Spelman College after a national search.
Research
Howard's research interests include human-robot interaction, assistive and rehabilitation robotics, science-driven and field robotics, and perception, learning, and reasoning. Her work focuses on developing intelligent agents that interact with and in a human-centered world, addressing issues of autonomous control and learning. She has published extensively on topics such as machine learning, neural networks, and human-robot interaction (though the latter is not a linked slug).
Her contributions include the development of algorithms for deformable object manipulation and the use of robots in pediatric therapy. Howard has also explored the ethical implications of AI, advocating for fairness and transparency in autonomous systems.
Honors and awards
Howard's accomplishments have been recognized with numerous awards:
- Lew Allen Award for Excellence (formerly the Director's Research Achievement Award of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory), 2001
- MIT Technology Review Top 100 Young Innovators of the Year, 2003
- NAE Gilbreth Lectureship, 2010
- A. Richard Newton Educator ABIE Award, Anita Borg Institute, 2014
- Computer Research Association's A. Nico Habermann Award, 2016
- Brown Engineering Alumni Medal (BEAM), 2016
- AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador, 2016-2017
- Atlanta magazine's Women Making a Mark, 2017
- Walker's Legacy #WLPower25 Atlanta Award, 2017
- Forbes America's Top 50 Women In Tech, 2018
- ACM Athena Lecturer Award, 2021
- Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2021
- IEEE Fellow, 2021, "for contributions to human-robot interaction systems"
- AAAI/EAAI Patrick Henry Winston Outstanding Educator Award, 2023
In 2003, she was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators under 35. She was featured in Time magazine's "Rise of the Machines" article in 2004 and in a USA Today Science & Space article. In June 2022, she was elected a trustee of Brown University.
Legacy and impact
Howard's work has influenced both the technical development of Robotics (though not a linked slug) and the broader conversation about diversity in computing. As a Black woman in a predominantly white and male field, she has been a prominent advocate for broadening participation in computing. Her leadership roles at Georgia Tech and Ohio State have helped shape curricula and research agendas in AI and robotics.
Her entrepreneurial efforts, such as Zyrobotics, have translated research into commercial products that assist children with special needs. Her selection as president of Spelman College, a historically Black women's college, marks a significant milestone, bringing her technical expertise to higher education leadership.
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