Engineering a Diverse Future in STEM

When we talk about diversity in STEM fields, most people immediately think of the race or gender gaps. But for today's guest, promoting diversity in STEM means encouraging diversity in thought, behavior, interaction, and much more. 

Dr. Carlotta Berry is the Lawrence J. Giacletto Endowed Chair and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rose Hulman. Her areas of expertise include educational mobile robotics and enhanced human-robot interfaces. Also specializing in recruitment and retention activities for underrepresented populations in electrical and computer engineering, she helped found the Rose Building Undergraduate Diversity (ROSE-BUD) program, which she co-advises. 

In this episode of RosePod, Dr. Berry joins our student hosts Isaac and Reese, and shares her journey from aspiring math teacher to esteemed professor, touching on her educational experiences from Nashville to Vanderbilt and her commitment to diversifying STEM. Dr. Berry discusses her initiatives to inspire young and diverse demographics through STEM outreach, including writing children’s books and engaging in hands-on STEM activities. The episode also highlights Rose Hulman's supportive environment promoting group work and practical experience, aiming to produce well-rounded graduates prepared for challenging engineering and science careers.

On promoting STEM for people with diverse backgrounds

10:17: I write children's books so that little kids can see themselves doing robotics, can see themselves doing programming at a level they understand. My engineering research is in robotics education, engineering education. I have flower bots, open-source robots that are modular, that grow with the student. So if you're a little kid, then you are doing graphical programming, and I can still tell you the basics of robotics. If you're a high school student, you may be doing Arduino programming, Raspberry Pi, or something like that. But you start to grow them into STEM so that when, especially if it's a young lady or if it's a black or brown student, they're in class, and they're in middle school, and somebody goes, "girls aren't good at math" or "there's no such thing as a black or brown engineer," they go—no, I saw one in a book. I know I can do this.

Why humanities is important in STEM

05:30: Something I talk to, especially when I teach freshman design, is humanities. Students are notorious. I hate how many humanities courses I have to take. Why do I have to take ethics? Why do I have to take writing? Why do I have to write all these papers? Why do I have to do all these presentations? Well, you have to do it because if you're going to be an engineer, you want to be able to convince people to give you money for your great idea. And you want to be able to explain to people how it works. You're not designing in a vacuum here. You're designing as an engineer for people. So if you don't get some people skills in there, you're going to have all these cool things down in your garage or in your basement that nobody is going to use. That's why the humanities courses are equally as important as the STEM courses, the engineering and all of that, because of the major you have selected.

Pushing for multidisciplinary interaction

0743: Another thing I push a lot, along with diversity, is multidisciplinary interaction. Can you, as a computer engineer, work with a mechanical engineer and help them understand the perspectives you have about your major so they can give you some of theirs as well? Because you're not going to only be working with computer engineers when you graduate. Sometimes, you're going to be working with a manager who doesn't even have a technical degree. Can you help your manager understand what you've been doing for the last week? Right? That stuff is equally as important.

• Carlotta Berry | Rose-Hulman
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• Carlotta Berry, Ph.D. | LinkedIn
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