Inclusive Robotics Education Takes a Hands-On Approach

How electrical engineering student of the 1980s and 90s, Carlotta Berry had two experiences that helped shape her future as an educator.

First, while she was studying the robots, she was not allowed to interact with them. “The robots were too expensive, so students couldn’t touch them,” Berry recalls. “I told myself that someday I would teach engineering, but in a way where students could touch a robot and program it.”

This motivated Berry to work to overcome economic exceptionalism robotics. But her second formative undergraduate experience involved a different kind of exclusion: Berry was one of the few engineering students who was female or black. “It can be a lonely experience sometimes,” Berry says. “Representation matters.”

Berry is now a professor of electrical and electrical engineering. computer engineering department in Rose-Hulman Institute of Technologywhere her students learn about human-robot interaction and mobile robotics using real robots.

Berry is working on his first open-source modular 3D printed robot, LilyBot, with Rose-Hulman engineering students Murari Srinivasan (left) and Josiah McGee (right). Brian Cantwell/Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

She is also working on support people of color in engineering.. Nearly three decades after graduating, Berry realized little progress had been made when she heard Black graduate students describe feelings of isolation and marginalization during an online engineering conference in 2020. “This is exactly how I felt 30 years ago,” Berry says, noting that today only about 8 percent electronics engineers – women and approximately 5 percent black. “It's time to make a change.”

Berry's path to teaching

As a child in Nashville, Berry excelled in school, especially in math, and thought she would become a math teacher. But in high school, a mentor encouraged Berry to consider engineering, given her good grades in both math and science. “I didn’t really know what an engineer was,” she recalls. “I didn’t know anyone who was an engineer.” After learning about careers in the library, Berry decided to study engineering and mathematics in college. In 1993, Berry received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech within the framework of a double degree program with Spelman Collegewhere she received her bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1992.

After receiving her bachelor's degree, Berry worked as a management engineer for Ford Automotive company where she programmed the assembly line industrial robotsbut she found that she longed to answer her true calling as an educator. So, she returned to academia and earned a master's degree in electrical and electrical engineering. control systems V Wayne State University in 1996. However, saddled with student loan debt, Berry then accepted a position as a management engineer at Detroit Edison. “I really enjoyed the job, but I realized once again that I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing,” she says.

After working at Detroit Edison for a year, she left to get her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, which she received from Vanderbilt University in 2003. As a graduate student, Berry taught at a technical school and finally found the right career path: “I always wanted to be an educator,” she says.

Pivot to outreach

Berry attributes her community outreach to two other important moments in her career: In 2018, she became a professor at Rose-Hulman, and in 2020, she became chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Berry says her tenure and position at Rose-Hulman have allowed her to pursue work that combines her research, teaching and service interests.

Berry hopes to support women of color in STEM through public events. Here she sits with students Liz Francois and Jana Gillus, members of the Rose-Hulman chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.Griffin Museum of Science and Industry

“As a professor, I don't have to worry about anyone thinking that [outreach] The work I do is not as important as my work in technical robotics,” she says. “When I provide education to students and the community, that is also part of my research and service.” For Berry, research and service are not separate but interrelated subject areas: her research includes the development of low-cost, open-source software. mobile robots promote more inclusive robotics education.

Since 2020, Berry has helped change the way electrical and computer engineering is taught and perceived. She teaches hands-on, interactive robotics not only to her students at Rose-Hulman, but also to children and adults across the country. Berry is taking her robots, in her words, “to the streets.”

Berry demonstrates and discusses his open source 3D printed code. wheeled robots in schools, librariesmuseums and other public places. Her audience ranges from children are only a few years old adult educators who learn about robotics from Berry so they can teach the subject to their students. To spread the word about robotics and STEM, Berry has also been active in social mediaovercoming her innate introversion because, as she explains, “appearances matter.”

With any audience, Berry says he is always “very approachable and very engaging.” Nicky Manioneducation program manager Rose-Hulman, who collaborates with Berry on professional development master classes for teachers.

“I need to go where the people are,” Berry says. “I’m introducing robots to people who are historically marginalized and typically don’t have access to these technologies.”

Last summer, for example, Berry shared her robots with children ages three to ten at all dozens of Indianapolis Public Library branches. To understand the three main pillars of robotics—sense, plan, act—children learned how robots use sonarmicrophone and speaker to see, hear and speak. It is noteworthy that at the end of each presentation the children had to play and interact with the robots.

Last year, within IEEE Education Society Berry's initiative brought her robots to the streets around the world. After postgraduate studies in countries such as Costa RicaNiger and Uganda received parts by mail, Berry showed them the basics of assembly and programming robots.

Online community and writing

Berry did not begin her teaching journey on her own, she said. In 2020, she became a co-founder Black in Engineering And Black in roboticsis part of the Black in X network, a network of more than 80 organizations supporting the work of Black professionals in STEM fields. According to Berry, the appearance of blacks in X is no accident. pandemic. “There were a lot of bad things about the pandemic, but because we were all at home and on social media, we were able to connect, find each other and form organizations that are still around five years later,” she says.

Her professional turning point toward more community-oriented service led to several accolades, she says: “That’s when I started receiving awards that I’d never been considered for before.” In 2023 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society awarded Berry the prestigious Student Teaching Award for her contributions to interdisciplinary robotics education and leadership in STEM diversification. She was also recognized Society of Women Engineers And AnitaB.org.

Children's books like the series written by Berry help get kids interested in STEM.Rise of LIT

In addition to her outreach and community work, Berry finds time to write children's books, work that also has roots in the pandemic. At this time, Berry woke up from her sleep and remembered only the title of the children's book that she knew she needed to write: There's a robot in my closet. Book spawned a series in which the child protagonists learn to program robots and develop their problem-solving skills. (Berry also writes STEM-oriented writing. romance novels for adults under the pseudonym Carlotta Ardell. Heroine h.this is a book Elevated InfernoBerry says she struggles with the expectation to flawlessly balance work and life—an expectation that she believes falls disproportionately on women.)

By juggling her many personal and professional interests, Berry said she remains committed to her professional mission: helping people of all backgrounds “see themselves not just as consumers of technology, but as creators of technology.”