Black History Month: Highlighting the value of diversity in the robotics industry

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If you ask people to imagine what a roboticist might look like, they will probably describe similar faces. Historically, the industry has been overwhelmingly white and male, an image that can make it seem impenetrable to individuals who fall outside of those groups.

Despite its rapid growth, the robotics industry still has a diversity problem, particularly when it comes to race. In 2018, 12.7% of the U.S. population identified as Black or African American, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Despite this, only 4.2% of bachelor’s degrees, 4.8% of master’s degrees, and 4.2% of Ph.D. degrees in engineering were awarded to black scholars. 

The first step to solving this gap in representation is to simply acknowledge that a problem exists, according to Carlotta A. Berry, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and founder of the Rose Building Undergraduate Diversity program. She is also a co-founder and the undergraduate academic lead of Black in Robotics, a nonprofit organization that hopes to help the industry solve these issues.

This year, as Black History Month comes to a close, we want to highlight the ways racial diversity contributes to a better robotics industry. In addition, we want to discuss how the industry can better foster talent from Black communities. 

Diverse teams are better teams

Berry and Kenechukwu Mbanisi, an assistant professor of robotics and researcher at Olin College, agreed that more diverse teams are better teams. A team whose members have the exact same background and experiences is a team full of blind spots, they stated. 

“Thinking about the value of diversity in teams, in a sense, it’s thinking about how to get the best ideas. The most effective ideas are the most well thought through, and that’s the most well-rounded,” said Mbanisi. “People are always drawing on their personal experience and how they develop or create things.”  

“I think [diversity] provides you with a new perspective on some things,” Berry said. “What Black in Robotics does, as well as things like the Algorithmic Justice League, Black in AI, Black Women in AI, is we help people to see a new vision for their creations. Not only the way that they create, but also to think about the impact that your creations have on people.”

How to cure blind spots and bias in AI

These “blind spots” in designing and deploying robots can come in many different forms. It can include biases in AI algorithms or a lack of understanding about what different groups are looking for from robotics.

“For example, I’m giving a talk on bias in AI, which feeds into bias in robotics, because artificial intelligence is basically how you create the brain or the controller for a robot,” noted Berry. “So, if there’s bias in AI, and you’re using that type of AI in a robot, you have to immediately start thinking about things.”

“Like OK, if I put this AI on my robot, is it going to recognize brown and black skin? If it has voice recognition, is it going to recognize female voices or the voices of people with accents?” she said. “Looking at things from all these different perspectives gives you a rich view of what you do and how you want it to impact your community.” 

Mbanisi said: “All teams should seek to be as robust and efficient as they can be, and you can achieve that through diversity. You don’t have blindspots, particularly in the context of where your technology will be impacting people.”

From a practical standpoint, both Berry and Mbanisi said that diversity will only help a company’s bottom line in the long run. More ideas and more perspectives can result in robots that work in more contexts. 

“So if it comes down to a bottom line, and if a company’s about their bottom dollar, then having people in your industry that help you create a better product and a more accessible product is a benefit to you,” said Berry.

Why community is key for diversity

The work of diversifying the community isn’t done once more Black engineers make it through the door. Because so few Black engineers are at work in robotics, those within the industry may struggle to find peers they can lean on. 

“My sense is that representation matters. And what I mean is how you experience your first engineering class in college could be impacted by who’s teaching that class and who your classmates are in that class,” said Mbanisi. “If you’re the only Black student in the class, that sends a message that maybe you’re are in the wrong place or the message that maybe you don’t fit.” 

“If all of your teachers or instructors or professors are non-Black, then you can’t really see yourself in that place of accomplishment and knowledge, so representation matters,” he added. “And that doesn’t mean that people cannot thrive without having those role models, it just means that it makes it easier for more people to thrive with role models.” 

This need for representation informed Berry’s decision to work as a professor after earning her degrees.

“I wanted to pick a career where I can not only be an engineer, but I can also work on diversifying engineering and diversifying STEM,” she said. “You just don’t see a lot of female students, black and brown students, or engineers or roboticists for that matter. And so, while in engineering school, I knew that I would probably eventually want to become an engineering professor. In that role, I can have a larger impact on my community by showing a different face to engineering and a different face to robotics.”

Increasing representation a complex challenge

Mbanisi and Berry acknowledged that the lack of representation within the industry isn’t a simple problem to solve. 

“[Representation] is often difficult to achieve, because it’s sort of a chicken-and-egg problem, where you need more people to persevere through so that you have more people to be able to have as role models,” Mbanisi said.

Berry says it’s important for young people in the industry to be realistic about what it looks like now, and to seek out others who can support them in roles where they might not encounter many other Black people. 

“Find a mentor. Go to the community. Find someone you trust,” Berry said. “And all mentors don’t necessarily have to be the same race or same gender or maybe not even the same discipline necessarily. Have multiple mentors in your life.”

Diversity comes in many different forms

Mbanisi highlighted the different forms that diversity can take. As a Nigerian roboticist, he was often the only person from the entire continent of Africa in his classes or professional roles. Robotics companies should consider hiring talented individuals from places outside of the U.S. to get more perspectives on their products, he said.

Mbanisi highlighted Zipline as an example of how this kind of diversity can be utilized for a better result. 

“Zipline develops drones that are primarily used for package delivery,” he said. “They have been very successful in applying that last-mile delivery of critical supplies, specifically medical supplies in some countries in Africa. And to achieve that, they had to work very closely with partners on the ground.”

While the robotics field has grown more diverse in recent years, there is still room for improvement, said Berry. 

“I do think progress is slow, unfortunately. We’d love for it to be a little faster,” she observed. “But there are some people who get it, and understand that multidisciplinary and diverse teams work better together to come up with better solutions and processes.”

Some organizations exist to help Black roboticists find opportunities within the industry. Black in Robotics focuses on bringing Black researchers, industry professionals, and students together and advocating for more diversity. It provides a speaker’s bureau for organizations interested in adding more diversity to their events, and a reading list of research from Black researchers. 

Similar organizations exist for more specialized communities to come together. Mbanisi is a coordinator for the Pan-African Robotics Competition, which has offered $20,000 in scholarships and included over 30 participating countries. 

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