Black Role Models in Tech: A Personal Perspective

Blackness Part Models in Tech: A Personal Perspective

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of employ.

Danielle Wood courtesy MIT and David Silverman Photography

If you're invited to tour MIT's Media Lab in Cambridge, Mass. when they're having a Lab Tiffin, yous'll witness a mob of students, staff, and kinesthesia sitting together over a meal, in pursuit of the social aspects of the lab'south free-wheeling "anti-disciplinary" culture that encourages researchers to intermission out of the molds of traditional academic disciplines.

At first glance, it's tough to tell the difference between students and faculty — except maybe for the three or four men who look old, pale, and intimidating enough to exist tenured faculty, and the seven or eight students who look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed enough to be outset-year grad students (or undergraduate research aids). Your guide volition then proudly betoken out the individuals of mention, both men and women who are pioneers in the realms of additive manufacturing, virtual reality, bogus intelligence, synthetic neurology, and holographic displays, among others.

On this day, y'all'd notice 1 of the honorable mentions is a female faculty fellow member who is black. Depending on your mood, you lot may ask (in a reasonably sensitive manner) whether there are other black women in the kinesthesia. The insider would respond in the negative: She's the first female person black professor at MIT's Media Lab, and the beginning to focus on space. She's hither to detect how to use and improve infinite technology as a tool to enable progress in societies beyond the globe.

Some assert it's a negative rather than a positive to highlight race in the pursuit of technological innovation and academic accomplishment. They claim our cultural backgrounds are valuable to the individual, while the achievements of the mind are valuable to anybody. Fifty-fifty every bit a commencement-generation African-American, I once agreed with this indicate of view. I was raised in a predominantly white neighborhood and was blessed with a supportive surround that focused on bookish and personal achievement.

In other words, my race was never a problem, and it quickly became a small item in the k scheme of things. More than of import were grades, operation in robotics competitions and on stage, athletics, too as my eventual credence to MIT — in other words, the pursuit of excellence. I'd often be confused, and sometimes annoyed, by the emphasis my black classmates at MIT put on the lack of "color" in the applied science infinite and higher academia as a whole. Forget almost whether at that place are people who look like you lot, I'd think. Just put yourself on the map.

Danielle Wood: First Black Female person Faculty Member at MIT'south Media Lab

But the Danielle Woods is working to apply space technology to achieve sustainable development goals. n i day, years later, I met a adult female named Danielle Wood at the Media Lab. In my heed I passed her by as someone coming to visit. Perhaps a friend of a friend. Perhaps she was the newest member of the Director's Fellows, a plan of aristocracy radicals who are connected to the Media Lab. But one of my coworkers leaned over and whispered in my ear, "She'due south the Lab'due south newest kinesthesia member."

To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I was more excited than I could empathize. Having lived in rather liberal circles, I knew that race was becoming an increasingly sensitive topic, and then I wasn't surprised academic institutions were moving to include minority faculty in their ranks. But as I looked into her published articles, learned about her extensive and impressive experience, discovered her view of the world, and listened to her speak with such apprehensive passion and unquestionable potency in person and on the stage, I realized that adding her to MIT'due south faculty was more than than just a mode to get social brownie points. Dr. Woods is the real deal. The one striking idea that kept coming to heed was, "She looks similar me."

Lawrence Sass: Architectural Innovator

MIT's Larry Sass is a pioneer in additive manufacturing and fabrication technology Meeting Dr. Wood, and having the privilege of speaking with her in more depth about her journey, helped me appreciate more thoroughly the few black academics and professionals I knew that were making impressive headway in their respective fields. I of these individuals is a human being named Lawrence Sass , who is known for his breakthroughs in developing modeling and prototyping methods for compages design as a replacement for standard paper approaches. He'south currently working at MIT to integrate condiment manufacturing as a construction method in order to reduce the costs of development — specially in housing. But when I met him, information technology was in 1 of his introductory classes, which I was well on my mode to failing. One day, he sat me downwardly, looked me in the eye, and said, "Tobi, you've got to practice meliorate."

Perhaps our shared race gave him the courage to face me as he did at that time. Perhaps it's just his nature to be upwards front with struggling students in his classes. Merely looking back, I encounter he was the but professor to run across me struggle and not only endeavour to requite me a helping hand, but also give me initiative. He was not merely interested in my functioning in his class, only my performance in life. To say that it had nothing to practice with race would be to overlook the struggles he faced equally a young black human seeking loftier achievements in a field as tradition-spring every bit architecture. I accept no doubt he knows what it's like to sit down in a classroom or a conference room and feel no ane expected y'all to succeed. Mayhap, as he saw me sitting at that place, bashful yet pridefully unapologetic for my poor performance, he decided to cross the barriers and tell me that I could succeed across my wildest dreams. The proof was his own life.

Harry Bims: Academic and Entrepreneur

Harry Bims faced a tough road to success in technology, but now serves as a role model to others. This was certainly true for Harry Bims , a homo whose fight from the south side of Chicago to a Stanford PhD program was dedicated to God, and show those who told him he'd exist better off on a basketball court than he would trying to become a successful academic. Miraculous opportunities and influential supporters helped him through this procedure, which he told me was certainly non the route he was expecting to take. He went into his PhD doing research in estimator design, and came out with his defense in the growing realm of Wi-Fi.

A series of difficult yet fortunate events, in which he dealt with much of the same social judgements, led him to meet a grouping of venture capitalists who believed in his ability to create a great production. They helped him create a company in 2001 called AirFlow Networks, which adult a patented style to centrally manage Enterprise-form Wi-Fi access points. From there, stemming from a chance encounter, he was recruited to stand in equally an expert in patent law cases. He's now i of the most sought after and rare individuals who can take complex technological concepts and explain them to a guess and jury to help them decide the outcome of a case.

Harry calls me his "favorite niece" and keeps up with my progress, encouraging me through my graduate studies. He is always willing to hear what I'k upwardly to. More and more, I run across him, Dr. Sass, and Dr. Wood, as prime examples of individuals who take gone before me to stand confronting setbacks of many kinds to ultimately make a difference in the world of technology. And I'm grateful they saw me as a person to whom they could share their stories in an effort to assist me make my own marking in mechanical engineering.

Black History Calendar month and Technological Achievement

These perspectives are particularly relevant during Black History Calendar month, when those of us who tick the "Black/African-American" box tin can take a moment to not only appreciate the route that was paved for us, simply consider how nosotros tin can take further strides forward in the hereafter. It is not simply for united states of america, but for all Americans, to consider the strides that blackness people have taken despite historical and cultural arduousness.

In the field of technological advancement, we should appreciate individuals such as Thomas L. Jennings, the first black individual to exist granted a patent — in one case that protected his innovative method of dry-cleaning in 1821. Also, Dr. Patricia Bathroom, the first black female doctor to receive a patent for her laser cataract surgery device in 1988; and Mark Dean, one of the inventors of the internal technology of IBM'south personal computer released in 1981, that allowed the laptops to connect with several different external devices. Also, the NASA dream team (Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson) who were an influential part of calculating trajectories during the early days of the Usa infinite program.

There are many others who comprise the courageous men and women who were able to bear upon the society that saw them as "less," and create a hereafter where other black individuals can get more. For those of us who dream of creating something meaningful in this earth, we can look to them every bit examples, as individuals of nifty intelligence and character who turned tables and who expect just like us. To them, and to those who go on to exercise so today: Thanks.

In beingness invited to write this article, it was a moment for me to reflect on what it ways for me to exist a black female engineer, and I invite you lot to notice forth with me the beauty of a background that one time seemed irrelevant to my dreams. In doing so, I hope that you as well are able to see elements about yourselves (not just race) that enrich your feel in small, but beautiful ways.

For more, read 11 African American Inventors Who Changed the Globe, 20 Tech Game Changers in Black History, and The True Story of 'Hidden Figures' and the Women Who Crunched the Numbers for NASA.

About our guest contributor Oluwatobi (Tobi) Amos: A beginning-generation African-American whose parents immigrated from Nigeria, Tobi grew up in Northern California. She attended Castilleja high school in Palo Alto and early on showed an interest in and bent for robotics, including participating in Get-go robotics competitions. Tobi graduated from MIT in 2022 with a BS in Mechanical Technology and a small-scale in Creative Writing. Her passion in production design helped shape her studies, emphasizing innovation from ideation to manufacturing and beyond. After graduating, she continues to pursue opportunities that engaged her in fabrication, blueprint, and mechanical analysis. Her goal is to help reshape manufacturing through machine and tool design. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Santa Clara, with a focus in robotics and mechatronics. You can learn more about Tobi from her website.