Dr. Ayanna Howard
Dean of the College of Engineering, The Ohio State University
Dr. Ayanna Howard is an innovator, entrepreneur, leader and international expert in robotics, human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence. Dr. Howard currently serves as the dean of the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University, where she is also a tenured professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering with a joint appointment in Computer Science and Engineering. She is also the founder and board president of Zyrobotics, a non-profit organization that provides AI-powered STEM tools for early childhood education.
Dr. Howard previously held several academic leadership positions at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, as well as various positions in the Office of the Chief Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She has also served on numerous boards of technology and AI-based organizations, and currently serves on the boards of Autodesk, Zyrobotics, Black in Robotics, and the Computing Research Association’s Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research.
Dr. Howard earned a B.S. in Engineering from Brown University, an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, as well as an M.B.A. from the Drucker Graduate School of Management.