As an electrical engineering student in the 1980s and ‘90s, Carlotta Berry had two experiences that helped shape her future as an educator.
First, while she studied robots, she wasn’t allowed to interact with them. “The robots were too expensive, so the undergrads did not get to touch them,” Berry recalls. “I said to myself, I’m going to teach engineering someday, but in a way that the students will get to touch and program the robot.”
This led Berry to work toward overcoming the economic exclusivity of robotics. But her second formative undergrad experience involved a different type of exclusion: Berry was one of only a few engineering students who were female or Black. “It sometimes could be a lonely experience,” says Berry. “Representation does matter.”
Now, Berry is a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, where her students learn about human-robot interactions and mobile robotics by using actual robots.
Berry works on her first open-source modular 3D-printed robot, the LilyBot, with Rose-Hulman engineering students Murari Srinivasan (left) and Josiah McGee (right). Bryan Cantwell/Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
She also works to support people of color in engineering. Almost three decades after she graduated, Berry realized little progress had been made when she heard Black women grad students describe feeling isolated and marginalized during an online engineering conference in 2020. “This was exactly how I felt 30 years ago,” says Berry, noting that today only about 8 percent of electronics engineers are women and about 5 percent are Black. “It was time for something to change.”
Berry’s Path to Teaching
As a child in Nashville, Berry excelled at school—especially math—and thought she’d become a math teacher. But in high school, a mentor suggested that Berry consider engineering, given her strong 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 the profession at a library, Berry decided to study both engineering and math in college. In 1993, Berry earned a bachelor’s in electrical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology as part of a dual degree program with Spelman College, where she earned a bachelor’s in mathematics in 1992.
After her bachelor’s degrees, Berry worked as a control engineer for Ford Motor Company, where she programmed assembly-line industrial robots, but she found herself yearning to answer her true calling as an educator. So, she returned to academia and got a master’s in electrical engineering and control systems at Wayne State University in 1996. Saddled with student loan debt, however, Berry then accepted a position as a control engineer for Detroit Edison. “I really enjoyed the work but once again realized I was not doing what I was meant to do,” she says.
After a year at Detroit Edison, she left in pursuit of her Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering, which she earned at Vanderbilt University in 2003. As a grad student, Berry taught at a technical school—and at last found herself on the right career path: “I always wanted to be an educator,” she says.
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