My STEM is for the Streets

Carlotta A. Berry, PhDI recently discovered a phrase similar to this title on a t-shirt at STEMNoire.org.

I had to immediately purchase. Then, I found an organization with a similar name online. This organization’s goal is to make STEM accessible to underprivileged students. In addition, to encourage girls, minoritized, marginalized and those historically disenfranchised to engage in STEM.

Since it’s discovery, I cannot get this phrase out of my head and I feel like it is a sign. My STEM is truly for the streets. I recently got full professor and became endowed chair of electrical and computer engineering at my university. So, I am now at the point in my academic journey where I feel my work can no longer be contained by a classroom. I am one of only a few Black Women faculty and when examined through the lens of tenure, those numbers are even worse. If we now scale by engineering and robotics the numbers are abysmal. Due to the low numbers and lack of diversity, women and people of color in the academy typically have invisible labor and serve as pioneers and trailblazers. This means that similar to other Black women, I have always done more service in my community than most. For example, I held robotics workshops for girl scouts, mentored my daughter’s all-girls FLL/VEX robotics team and judged FIRST robotics competitions. How could I possibly do more?

Then 2020 answered that question.

Last year was rough for several reasons including the pandemic, working from home, homeschooling kids, summer of social justice and chaotic presidential election. However, if not for this perfect storm I would not have been able to accomplish even half of what I did. First of all, I was on sabbatical from my university and got a well earned break from teaching controls and robotics, serving on committees and doing research with students. This time away from the rat race of academia, gave me the opportunity for recuperation, reflection and rejuvenation. Did I mention I love alliteration? This allowed me to teach my daughter 7th grade pre-algebra since she was out of school for 15 months, mostly being taught by a computer. I was able to return to industry after a twenty four year absence to work as an automation engineer. Furthermore, to address the marketing problem, I worked with colleagues to create a fiction series about Black women STEM PhDs.

After the death of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor,

racial profiling of bird watcher, Christian Cooper, and #BlackInTheIvory trending on Twitter, the STEM community was inspired to act. It started with Black Birders Week in June 2020 and from there the floodgates opened up. I was able to work with colleagues to form communities to address racial bias and inequity in STEM fields. This brought about the creation of the non-profit organizations, Black in Engineering and Black in Robotics. Through them, we created a call to action for anti-racist institutions, formed partnerships with industries, amplified our concerns, and connected with allies. We also created a messaging and media campaign to amplify, normalize and promote Black people in STEM. This media campaign is where my STEM hit the streets. I worked with colleagues to produce videos, became much more active on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. I post robotics and engineering fun facts, black history month, national robotics week, and Juneteenth videos.

Initially, I struggled to define my new vision for my role as an academic.

I finally settled upon NoireSTEMinism or I am a NoireSTEMinist. This means that I bring robotics and STEM to people and people to robotics and STEM to diversify the profession. I used engineering and robotics to make connections with people of all ages, genders, races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. I took my STEM from the classroom to meet the people where they are. I feel like I have been so much more powerful and impactful in this last year than I ever was in my 18 years in an engineering classroom. By taking it to the streets, I have earned , been featured in magazines and newspapers, given international presentations, connected with new people, done numerous podcasts, and made presentations to corporations.

My desire is for engineering to reflect the world we live in by changing the face of STEM. If we are to solve the problems of the world, then the engineering and STEM thought leaders must have the same diversity as the world. Research shows that diverse teams yield the most unique and efficient results to problems, so the STEM academy and engineering profession has to solve its diversity problem. Teaching is my spiritual gift, ministry and life’s purpose and I now have an entirely new way to do it. So I want to conclude by encouraging other academics to consider a paradigm shift. One where we view social media through the perspective of making professional connections with colleagues and collaborators. One where we amplify our work to get it to the masses in a way that journals and conferences would never do. One where we recruit others to the profession by showing the normality of academics.

https://linktr.ee/CarlottaBerryMedia

https://linktr.ee/DrCarlottaABerry

Carlotta Berry is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She is also the Lawrence J. Giacoletto Endowed Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She was recently awarded the TechPoint Foundation for Youth Bridge Builder Award and named an American Society of Engineering Education Fellow. She is co-founder of Black In Engineering with Dr. Monica Cox and Dr. Tahira Reid. She is co-founder of Black In Robotics with several colleagues including Dr. Monroe Kennedy and Dr. Ayanna Howard.

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