July 31, 2015
For the first time, an all-woman committee organized the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation held in May in Seattle, helping to raise the visibility of women in the industry. Ashesi Professor, Dr. Ayorkor Korsah, was one of the 50 women who helped make this possible.
“With the support of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, we made it a point to include a strong roster of women researchers to speak at the sessions,” says IEEE Fellow Lynne E. Parker, the committee’s chair and the division director for the Information and Intelligent Systems Division at the U.S. National Science Foundation, in Arlington, Va. In an IEEE Roundup blog post celebrating the contributions of women to Robotics, Dr. Korsah shared insights into getting more women in the field, and the future of robotics.
“Robotics is a vast field and requires a variety of expertise, and this can be overwhelming to those trying to enter it,” says Ayorkor. “You should start by getting an overview of the field, which can be done by taking an introductory course at a university or by simply reading about it. Then, depending on your interest and background, begin an in-depth exploration of some aspect of robotics such as sensing, controls, planning, cognition, human-robot interaction, or vision.”
Ayorkor was part of a team of Ashesi professors that led the design and planning for Ashesi’s new Engineering programme, which aims to educate equal numbers of men and women across Africa. She is also currently head of Ashesi’s Computer Science Department, and co-founder of the African Robotics Network.