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Dr. Ayanna Howard on AI & Robotics for Social Impact
Keynote
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 | 9:00 am–10:30 am | Americana Ballroom
Keynote
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 | 9:00 am–10:30 am | Americana Ballroom
Dr. Ayanna Howard is a global expert on robotics and was named one of the World's Top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes. Join Dr. Howard for an insider's view on the uncharted territory ahead as humans and robots work together to augment each other's capabilities. Howard is currently the Chair of the School of Interactive Computing and Director of the Human-Automation Systems Lab at Georgia Tech.
REFLECTION PANEL WITH Q&A
REFLECTION PANEL WITH Q&A
Presenter
Reflection Panel
- Ayanna Howard, Ph.D., Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
Reflection Panel
- Kathy Grant, Deputy Chief Information Officer, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
- Nicki Lodico, Director of Information Management, Ford Foundation
- Marcus McGrew, Director, Program Operations and Information Management, The Kresge Foundation
This event is generously sponsored by Accenture
Ayanna Howard, Ph.D., is the Linda J. and Mark C. Smith professor and chair of the School of Interactive Computing in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She also holds a faculty appointment in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Professor Howard’s career focus is on intelligent technologies that must adapt to and function within a human-centered world. Her work, which encompasses advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), assistive technologies and robotics, has resulted in more than 200 peer-reviewed publications in a number of projects – from healthcare robots in the home to AI-powered STEM applications for children with diverse learning needs.
To date, her unique accomplishments have been highlighted through a number of awards and articles, including highlights in USA Today, Upscale, and TIME magazine, as well as being recognized as one of the 23 most powerful women engineers in the world by Business Insider. In 2013, she founded Zyrobotics, which is currently licensing technology derived from her research and has released its first suite of STEM educational products to engage children of all abilities. Prior to Georgia Tech, Professor Howard was a senior robotics researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She has also served as the associate director of research for the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, chair of the robotics Ph.D. program, and the associate chair for Faculty Development in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. Professor Howard received her bachelor’s degree in engineering from Brown University, and her master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California. |
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As Deputy CIO at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Kathy works collaboratively with her team and with department colleagues to design and execute the foundation’s software applications strategy. She has worked on several third-party and custom software projects and enjoys figuring out how to make processes more efficient through IT. Due to a strong interest in how technology can help communities achieve their goals, Kathy also worked with the foundation’s Education Program for five years as a program officer for Open Educational Resources. Prior to joining the foundation, Kathy was the Associate Director of HR Information Systems at Borders Group, Inc. in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she led a company-wide project to launch a new hiring system at all U.S. stores. Kathy also spent five years as a computer communications officer in the U.S. Air Force, stationed in Arkansas and Okinawa.
Kathy earned her M.A. in East Asian Studies and M.B.A. at Stanford University and a B.S. in Computer Science at Santa Clara University. |
Nicki is the director of Information Management at the Ford Foundation, overseeing foundation-wide support records, archives, and knowledge management. She and her team tackle challenges common to many philanthropic organizations: the preservation of historical paper records and management of current digital work product.
Additionally, Nicki is the TAG president elect for 2020. Previously, she worked at the Habeas Corpus Resource Center, a California agency that provides legal representation for indigent men and women under sentence death in California. There, she lead the digitization tens of thousands of historical case documents and the development of a complex application for case tracking and analysis. Prior to that, she developed complex knowledge bases, information catalogs, and intelligence systems for organizations in the professional services and technology sectors. Nicki’s expertise is in establishing sound and sustainable practices in managing knowledge and information to support informed decision-making, increase transparency, mitigate unnecessary risk, preserve institutional memory, and contribute to historical scholarship and public discourse. She is passionate about minimizing barriers to sharing and finding that information and analyzing information to reveal new insights. She holds a B.A in Economics from Canisius College and an M.L.S. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. |
As director of program operations and information management, Marcus McGrew is responsible for creating and enabling processes that facilitate effective grantmaking and social investing. This includes managing data integrity to foster informed learning and decision-making, measuring and reporting payout progress against grant budgets and ensuring legal compliance. He also leads the foundation’s Boys and Men of Color workgroup. In 2015, he successfully led the foundation’s implementation of Fluxx, a cloud-based grants management system.
Prior to joining the foundation in 2009, Marcus served as the Wayne County Community College District associate vice chancellor for administration and finance. In that role, he was in charge of accounts payable, managed payroll for the metropolitan Detroit college’s 1,800 employees and oversaw financial aid for 70,000 students. Marcus earned a bachelor of business administration degree in finance from the University of South Alabama and a master of business administration in integrative management from the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University. He serves as vice chair of the board of directors of Association for Black Foundation Executives and is a member of the Council on Foundation’s Career Pathways 2017 Cohort. |