Dr. Carlotta A. Berry
“We are such unicorns and there are so few of us,” says Berry, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology based in Terre Haute, Ind. She has been a professor for nearly 20 years, starting as an assistant professor in Tennessee State University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2003.
At Rose-Hulman, she is the Lawrence J. Giacoletto Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and co-director of the school’s robotics minor. Berry is also co-founder of two organizations centered around the experience on Black people in STEM: Black in Engineering, launched in July 2020, and Black in Robotics, launched in August 2020.
In July 2021, Berry founded her own educational consulting company, NoireSTEMinist LLC, through which she promotes women and people of color pursuing STEM degrees and careers and educates audiences beyond those found in her classroom.
A through line and a big part of Berry’s work has to do with breaking what she sees as the mold for the kind of person who does STEM, she says.
“A big part of me sharing what I do and about the theory of what I do is showing people that it’s not just for supernerds. It’s not just for MacGyver. It’s not just Dilbert. It’s not just Sheldon. Anyone can do this,” Berry says. “So I’m building a community but I’m also changing the face of STEM, because they’re seeing me being vocal and outspoken, so I’m breaking that mold of who they can connect with being a scientist, who can do technology, who can do engineering. There is no one certain way that it has to happen.”
Berry employs non-traditional ways of educating audiences as part of NoireSTEMinist. One approach she has taken is explaining basic electrical engineering concepts to middle school students using kitchen supplies in her YouTube series, “Kitchen Table Circuits,” a product born from helping her daughter with schoolwork.
