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Being Different Helped A NASA Roboticist Achieve Her Dream

When Ayanna Howard was a little girl, her favorite TV show was the Bionic Woman.

Growing up, Howard was obsessed with creating robots. She earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and by the time she was 27 she landed her dream job at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Howard leads a small team of engineers and scientists tasked with advancing the intelligence of robots for future Mars missions.

Ayanna Howard
/ Courtesy of Georgia Tech College of Computing
/
Courtesy of Georgia Tech College of Computing
Ayanna Howard

In this video, Howard describes an experience early on in her career at JPL and how courage is a necessary part of the invention process. She says, "It takes insane courage to innovate. Courage to open yourself up for criticism. To be in a place where no one has the same diverse experience as you – and be confident that your difference is what makes your ability to innovate unique."

Ayanna Howard is currently at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she serves as Professor and Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Endowed Chair. Her work encompasses advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), assistive technologies, and robotics.

For more videos about invention, check out the rest of the Joe's Big Idea Animated Invention Stories.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Meredith Rizzo is a visuals editor and art director on NPR's Science desk. She produces multimedia stories that illuminate science topics through visual reporting, animation, illustration, photography and video. In her time on the Science desk, she's reported from Hong Kong during the early days of the pandemic, photographed the experiences of the first patient to receive an experimental CRISPR treatment for sickle cell disease and covered post-wildfire issues from Australia to California. In 2021, she worked with a team on NPR's Joy Generator, a randomized ideas machine for ways to tap into positive emotions following a year of life in the pandemic. In 2019, she photographed, reported and produced another interactive visual guide exploring how the shape and size of many common grocery store plastics affect their recyclability.
Madeline Sofia is the host of Short Wave — NPR's daily science podcast. Short Wave will bring a little science into your life, all in about 10 minutes. Sometimes it'll be a good story, a smart conversation, or a fun explainer, but it'll always be interesting and easy to understand. It's a break from the relentless news cycle, but you'll still come away with a better understanding of the world around you.