Project Description

Dr. Ruthie D. Lyle is the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in Electrical Engineering from New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering (previously known as Polytechnic University).

 

A few months after completing her studies she began a career with IBM that spanned approximately 14 years.   During her tenure with IBM, she held positions in hardware and software design, intellectual property management and technical project management.  She is among the first African American Technologists to achieve the distinction of IBM Master Inventor.   Ruthie holds 138 issued patents, believed to be the most of any African American woman in the world.  She successfully passed the Patent Bar and is a Registered USPTO Patent Agent.

 

Now a Lead Research Engineer with USAA Research and Development organization, she takes her inventive spirit one step further by looking at emerging technologies and turning ideas into customized and new business solutions.  She celebrates the USAA Mission and is strongly committed to the USAA’s Core Values – Service, Loyalty, Honesty, and Integrity.   She is part of a forward-looking R&D Team and focuses her research on the impact of the Internet of Things with respect to USAA’s mission to meet the needs of its members.

 

Ruthie is a wife, a mother, and an avid supporter of education and activates that encourage women and underrepresented minorities to pursue careers in STEM fields.  She also enjoys recreation running.