Carlotta Berry
Carlotta Berry is an American academic in the field of engineering. She is professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She is co-director of the Rose Building Undergraduate Diversity (ROSE-BUD) program. She is a co-founder of Black In Engineering and a co-founder of Black In Robotics. Early life and education. Berry received bachelor's degrees in mathematics (1992) and electrical engineering (1993) through a dual degree program between Spelman College and Georgia Tech. At Georgia Tech she observed the scarcity of female and African-American students and faculty within  the engineering program, which sparked her desire to become an engineering professor to encourage greater participation of underrepresented populations in the profession. After graduation, she worked in industry to repay her student loans while concurrently pursuing a masters degree at Wayne State University. She earned her masters in control systems from Wayne State University in 1996, and a year later left industry to pursue a doctoral degree at Vanderbilt University. Berry was part of the Vanderbilt University Intelligent Robotics Laboratory (IRL), and was advised by Kazuhiko Kawamura and Julie Adams. Her doctoral thesis was on human-robot interface development for  a mobile robot, specifically the enhancement of the interface through graphical visualization of the robot's short-term memory. Career and research. Berry is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, where her academic interests include educational mobile robotics, human-robot interaction, and recruiting and retention of underrepresented populations in engineering. In 2008, Berry and her colleague Deborah Walter created the Rose Building Undergraduate Diversity (ROSE-BUD) program, which attracts talented female and underrepresented minority students in computer science and electrical, computer, and software engineering through scholarships and other program activities. Berry also worked  with a cross-department team of faculty at Rose-Hulman to establish a multidisciplinary robotics minor degree program, for which she continues to serve as co-director. Berry has been a guest speaker at several Women in Engineering outreach events, and she has written articles for the New York Times and ASEE Prism magazine on her experiences as a professor from an underrepresented group. Awards and Recognition. Berry has received several awards for her work increasing diversity in STEM fields, including the Women and Hi Tech Leading Light award and the INSIGHT Into Diversity Inspiring Women in STEM award. In  2020, Berry was named Indiana FIRST Game Changer, One of 30 women in Robotics You need to Know about and Reinvented Magazine Interview of the Year award on Purpose and Passion. In 2021, Berry was named Dr. Lawrence J. Giacoletto Endowed Chair for Electrical and Computer Engineering. She was also awarded the TechPoint Foundation for Youth Bridge Builder award as part of the TechPoint Mira awards. In June 2021, Berry was named Distinguished Fellow by the National Society of Engineering Education.