Ayanna Howard

Ayanna MacCalla Howard (born January 24, 1972) is an American roboticist, entrepreneur, and educator who will begin serving as the President of Spelman College on August 1, 2026, succeeding Interim President and Chair Emerita Rosalind "Roz" Brewer. She previously served as the dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State University from March 2021 to July 2026. Howard became the first woman to lead the Ohio State College of Engineering.

Howard previously served as the chair of the School of Interactive Computing in the Georgia Tech College of Computing, the Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Endowed Chair in Bioengineering in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the director of the Human-Automation Systems (Humans) Lab. Her parents, Eric MacCalla Jr. and Johnetta MacCalla, were completing their undergraduate degrees at Brown University in Providence.

Howard received her B.S. in engineering from Brown University in 1993 Her thesis, Recursive Learning for Deformable Object Manipulation, was advised by George A. Bekey. In addition, Howard's Doctoral thesis was triggered by the AIDS epidemic with focus on sorting hospital waste by using robots. Howard has also received an MBA from Claremont Graduate University. holding multiple roles such as senior robotics researcher and deputy manager in the Office of the Chief Scientist.

In 2008, Howard received worldwide attention for her SnoMote robots, designed to study the impact of global warming on the Antarctic ice shelves. In 2013, she founded Zyrobotics, which has released their first suite of therapy and educational products for children with special needs.

Howard has authored 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and has co-edited or co-authored more than a dozen books and book chapters. She has also been rewarded four patents and given over 140 invited talks and keynotes.

On November 30, 2020, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Howard would become the next dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State University on March 1, pending approval by the board of trustees. On March 1, 2021, she assumed this role, becoming the first woman to hold the position.

In 2026, Howard was named the 12th president of Spelman College after a national search, becoming the first scientist and engineer to lead the institution. She was selected while serving as dean of the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University, where she oversaw significant growth in research and academic programs and advanced the college's leadership in robotics and artificial intelligence.

Research Howard's research interests include human-robot interaction, assistive/rehabilitation robotics, science-driven/field robotics, and perception, learning, and reasoning.

Howard's research and published works span across various topics in robotics and AI, including intelligent learning, virtual reality for rehabilitation and robotics in the role of pediatric therapy. Her research is highlighted by her focus on technology development for intelligent agents that must interact with and in a human-centered world. Her work, which addresses issues of human-robot interaction, learning, and autonomous control, has resulted in more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. She was featured in Time magazine's "Rise of the Machines" article in 2004. She was also featured in a USA Today Science & Space article.

Some of Howard's notable awards include:

Lew Allen Award for Excellence (formerly the Director's Research Achievement Award of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory) for significant technical contributions, 2001 MIT Technology Review Top 100 Young Innovators of the Year, 2003 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 Forbes America's Top 50 Women In Tech, 2018 ACM Athena Lecturer Award, 2021 IEEE Fellow, 2021, "for contributions to human-robot interaction systems" 2023 AAAI/EAAI Patrick Henry Winston Outstanding Educator Award