Girl CEO by Katherine Ellison & Ronnie Cohen

Author:Katherine Ellison & Ronnie Cohen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Downtown Bookworks
Published: 2021-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

DO GOOD TO DO WELL

Imagine a perfect friend for a child with a brain injury or disorder, a compassionate pal who would never get bored or impatient. In Ayanna Howard’s vision, that friend might be made of aluminum, plastic, and wires.

Howard is a professor at Georgia Tech. She is also the founder of Zyrobotics, which makes software for robots designed to help millions of American children with serious brain disorders. “They’re playmates and exercise coaches,” she said of the small humanoids and other robots she works with. The machines are designed to teach simple tasks, such as reaching up or grabbing things, by demonstrating them over and over again. These movements can be difficult for kids with brain injuries. When the children fail to get it right, the robots will tilt their heads down and look sad. When they succeed, their mechanical friends will pump their fists or break out in a dance.

“If you could have a human doing this with kids every day, you’d get equivalent results,” Howard explained. “But the reality is most kids can only get to their clinics once a week. So we’re fulfilling an unmet need, providing a resource and service that doesn’t exist.”

Howard first fell in love with robots as a middle school student who was smitten by the TV show The Bionic Woman. The show’s main character was seriously injured while skydiving, but then was rebuilt as the world’s first female cyborg. She became a superhero, fighting to save humans in danger by lifting cars, crushing steel in her hands, and deactivating bombs. “I wanted to build that creature,” Howard recalled. “I was techy and totally fascinated with sci-fi, and I wanted to save the world.”

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