Leading Women in AI

It is often said that there are not enough women in the world of AI. If we went to an engineering class now, for example, we might see few women. And even if we asked the teachers they would say that over time, that small percentage that had increased a few years before has been decreasing.

For this reason, we bring you a small sample of leading women in AI that we should know in the world. They are the ones we mention below, although there are many more and this is only a small sample.

Ada Lovelace and the first algorithm

We cannot begin this list without mentioning her. Mathematician, computer scientist and writer who led to the birth of the first algorithm. Without a doubt we owe her a lot. 

She was born in England in 1815. Daughter of Anne Isabella Noel Byron who was a mathematician and social and political activist. She wanted her daughter to have an education different from the rest of the girls, the education that all girls should have. His teacher was Mary Somerville, a self-taught astronomer and mathematician.

Ada married the mathematician Charles Babbage, inventor of the analytical engine, predecessor of modern computers. She was in charge of translating the first article that talks about this machine into English, and added some explanatory notes. In these notes we find one that is considered the first algorithm intended to be processed by a computer. The first algorithm was born and with it the first computer programmer.

Nuria Oliver, international Spanish scientist

She is one of the women who lead AI in Spanish. She worked in the Generalitat Valencia Commission for Covid-19 and is an expert who analyzes pandemic data to help in decision-making. She worked at Telefónica as scientific director, being the first woman in the position. Currently, he is a Data Scientist at Data Pop Alliance, an organization led by MIT Media Lab and Harvard.

One of the most international Spanish scientists, without a doubt. Expert in the development of artificial intelligence. Defender of its ethical and human values. And, one of her great dreams: that there are more women engineers. 

Anita Schjøll and the social value of AI

CEO and co-founder of Irias.ai. Thanks to a summer program at Singularity University, his idea of ​​bringing AI solutions to education programs and social solutions materializes. He is also a professor in AI at Singularity University in Denmark, and a board member of the Ulstei group. Expert in driverless cars, genomics, robots, Mars colonization, personalized medicine. Ultimately, his big concern is how we can use artificial intelligence to improve the world.

Cecilia Tham

Co-founder of Aliwomen.tech. She created the first women-only artificial intelligence training campus, with women and AI at the center. This training camp lasts 11 weeks and is held in Barcelona. Together with Laura Fernández, she decided to carry it out since her training program was designed with women as the center, emphasizing being able to create from a diverse, collective and egalitarian perspective.

In addition, it has recently created FabCafé, the first bar that offers digital manufacturing technology and where we can have a coffee at the same time. It has offices in Kyoto, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Strasbourg, Monterrey, Bangkok and Barcelona. We hope to one day meet Cecilia Tham at one of her tech cafes.

Terah Lyons and the institutional sphere

She worked as a political advisor to the United States technological director in the White House, which led her to be in charge of co-directing the Artificial Intelligence initiative, which would mark the future of the design of a national policy strategy on this technology.

She is now the executive director of the Alliance for Artificial Intelligence, an association that identifies good practices so that this technology is used for the benefit of people and society, to prevent it from turning against society.

Rachel Thomas and the ethics of algorithms

She is one of the most incredible women in AI according to Forbes. She is founder and director of the USF Center for Applied Data Ethics. There they aim to address misuses of data such as misinformation, lack of surveillance or algorithmic bias. She is co-founder of fast.ai and creator of the “Practical Deep Learning for Coders” course that has been taken by more than 200,000 students with small data sets and little computational capacity. Rachel is a software engineer and earned her PhD in mathematics from Duke. Additionally, she was selected by Forbes magazine as one of the 20 incredible women in the field of AI.

Claire Delaunay and robotics

She is vice president of engineering at NVIDIA, where she is responsible for the Isaac robotics project. Their goal is to bring it to market for all roboticists and developers around the world. Prior to joining NVIDIA, Delaunay was director of engineering at Uber since Uber acquired Otto. the start-up of which Claire was the founder. He was also a robotics program leader at Google and founded two companies Botiful and Robotics Valley. He has 15 years of experience in robotics and autonomous vehicles. He has led teams ranging from startups and research laboratories to Fortune 500 companies. With a master's degree in Computer Engineering from the École Privée des Sciences Informatiques, he is without a doubt a great example to follow for all those who want to dedicate themselves to this world.

Fei-Fei Li, Women in Tech

Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University and co-director of the Institute at the same university. She was vice president of Google where she worked as head of the AI/ML department at Google Cloud and currently researches in the field of artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision and artificial intelligence applied to healthcare. In the past he has also worked in cognitive and computational neuroscience.

His work has been recognized in a variety of magazines and newspapers. Including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, Science, Wired Magazine, MIT Technology Review, and the Financial Times. In addition, she was selected as Women in Tech 2017 by ELLE magazine, among many other awards for her many contributions and for being a leading woman in AI.

You can be the one who leads the change

All of these women are great examples of what can be achieved with effort and dedication if you have a dream. This is just a small sample of all the women who lead and participate in the world of AI, if you want to see more women consult our posts instagram or threads of Twitter to know more.

Do not hesitate to be part of these women who lead AI. If you want to lead and be part of the world of AI, do not hesitate to consult our groups and start your training in programming and Artificial Intelligence in Saturdays.Ai.

WRITTEN BY

Elena del Castillo