Howard received her Bachelor of Surgery in Engineering from Brown University in 1993 and her Master of Surgery and Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1994 and 1999, respectively. Her thesis Recursive Learning for Deformable Object Manipulation was advised by George A. Bekey.
Howard also holds a M.B.A with a concentration in Strategy from Claremont Graduate University in 2005.
In 2003, she was named to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35. She was featured in TIME magazine’s "Rise of the Machines" article in 2004. In 2008, Howard received worldwide attention for her SnoMote robots, designed to study the impact of global warming on the Antarctic ice shelfs.
Education Shortly after finishing her undergraduate studies at Brown, Howard headed up the software team at Axcelis, Incorporated., coding the first commercial genetic algorithm package Evolver.
Later she joined National Aeronautics and Space Administration"s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she led research efforts on various robotic projects utilizing soft computing methodologies such as computer vision, fuzzy logic, and neural networks. She primarily worked on the Mobility Systems Concept Development as a Senior Robotics Researcher, and the Technology Review journal named her as one of the world"s top young innovators of 2003 for her work in this area.
In 2005, Howard left Jet Propulsion Laboratory to join the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology as an Associate Professor and founded the Human-Automation Systems Laboratory. Press and Media On several occasions, Howard has been a guest on the Cable News Network and Public Broadcasting Service television networks Research Howard describes her research as "centered around the concept of humanized intelligence, the process of embedding human cognitive capability into the control path of autonomous systems".
Jet Propulsion Laboratory Technology and Applications Program (TAP) Honor Award, 2000 Lew Allen Award of Excellence for significant technical contributions, 2001 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Honor Award for Safe Robotic Navigation Task, 2002 San Francisco Airport Museum Honoree, African-American technology trailblazers in California, 2002 Best Paper Award, 9th International Symposium on Robotics and Applications, 2002 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Acting Award for Path Planning Graphical User Interface, 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Technology Review Top 100 Young Innovators of the Year, 2003 Engineer of the Year Award, Los Angeles Council of Engineers and Scientists, 2004 Allstate Insurance Distinguished Honoree for achievement in science, 2004 Selected participant, National Academy of Engineering Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering, 2004 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Acting Award for Fuzzy Logic Engine for Space Applications, 2004 Selected presenter, National Academy of Science Frontiers of Science Symposium, 2005 California Women in Business Award for Science and Technology, 2005 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Early Career Award in Robotics and Automation, 2005.
