Kyla McMullen, a young African-American woman, has made history by becoming the first black woman to earn a Doctorate in Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan in the United States.
Kyla achieved this milestone as the first African American woman to graduate with a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan. She mentioned that she was often the only black person in her classes.
During her doctoral studies, Kyla focused on the individualization of rendering virtual sounds over headphones in the Interactive Systems group at the University of Michigan. She researched how listeners could be trained to locate and remember these virtual sounds as they moved through a virtual environment.
Kyla credits her interest in computer science to a high school teacher who challenged her students’ stereotypical views of computer scientists. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
After completing her undergraduate studies, Kyla went to the University of Michigan for graduate school. While working on her Master’s degree, she started creating educational software to help children learn about relationships between objects.
She also participated in a research project at the Naval Submarine Medical Research Lab. The project involved building virtual environments that could be navigated using spatialized sound cues.
This work could be useful for assistive technologies, training simulations, and workers in environments with limited visibility. Additionally, Kyla served as both President and Vice President of the Society of Minority Engineers and Scientists.