Most people would marvel at the 1970s television show "The Bionic Woman" and just hope to emulate the technologically advanced heroine. Not a young Ayanna MacCalla Howard.

Most people would marvel at the 1970s television show "The Bionic Woman" and just hope to emulate the technologically advanced heroine.

Not a young Ayanna MacCalla Howard. "I said, 'I can build The Bionic Woman,'" she says with a laugh.

But it formed the foundation for a now stellar career in engineering and robotics for Dr. Howard, an associate professor in the School of ECE at Georgia Tech.

Howard focuses on the area of humanized intelligence and robotics. According to her Georgia Tech biography, this area of research centers on the process of embedding human cognitive capability into the control path of autonomous systems. She says this doesn't mean building robots that will become human.

"I'm designing robotic technology