Meet the Women Using AI Technologies to Change the World

The First In Our AIThority Cuppa Code Series, This Story Attempts To Showcase The Women Driving Artificial Intelligence Technologies In The Fields Of Robotics, Finance, Telecommunication, Social Service And More 

(1) Anita Schjøll Brede – CEO & Co-Founder, Iris.ai

Anita is the CEO and Co-Founder of Iris AI – an AI researcher that will read all of the world’s science and help us connect the dots. She is also Faculty in AI at SingularityU Denmark and a board member of Ulstein Group.

In the past 10 years, her career has spanned 9 industries including developing an e-learning tool in Silicon Valley, performing theatre for babies, reducing energy consumption in the process industry through heat exchanger network optimization, getting 30 (mainly middle-age male) engineers to dance to ABBA in front of their co-workers, facilitating solar light business creation in Kenya, being in the centre of several startups crashing and burning, organizing entrepreneurial conferences and trying to disrupt the recruitment industry. She also dropped by 6 universities on the way. And built a race car.

In the summer of 2015, she was admitted to the amazing Graduate Studies Program at Singularity University, and her outlook on life, innovation, technology, the world and our future has not been the same since. Talk about AI, self-driving cars, genomics, robots, colonization of mars, personalized medicine and the general craziness of the future – and how we can use this craziness to make the world better – and you’ll make her very happy!

(2) Huma Abidi – Director – Machine Learning/Deep Learning Software Engineering, Intel Corporation

Huma Abidi is the engineering director of the Artificial Intelligence Product Group at Intel, where she is responsible for deep learning framework software optimization for Intel Xeon processors. Huma joined Intel as a software engineer and has since worked in a variety of engineering, validation, and management roles in the area of compilers, binary translation, and machine learning and deep learning. She received the Intel Achievement Award for her work in the Software and Services Group and was twice recognized with the Intel Software Quality award. She is passionate about women’s education and serves on the board of directors at ROSHNI, a philanthropic organization that educates and supports underprivileged girls in India. Huma holds a BS in pre-med and chemistry and an MS in computer science from the University of Massachusetts.

(3) Ewelina Wołoszyn – CEO, Lonsley

Ewelina is the founder of Lonsley. Think of what Lonsley does as the starting point to grow and expand your business by introducing the latest innovations in technology. Working with well-known experts and research institutes from around the world enables us to do that through Machine Learning Solutions, believes Ewelina.
She also started Tech Leaders – a three months long mentoring programme for women in IT that creates a bridge between world of business and world of technology. Main aim of Tech Leaders is to create a space for people with different skills to discuss, exchange experience and build connections between mentors and mentees.

(4) Nancy A. Shenker – Founder, TheOnSwitch

Nancy A Shenker is a marketing innovator, brand-builder, writer, speaker, and self-proclaimed rule-breaker and gadget geek.

Embrace the Machine is Nancy’s new book series — helping people navigate the world of Artificial Intelligence, machine-learning, and robotics. The founder of theONswitch marketing (leading 100+ businesses through transformations), she was formerly a senior executive for major consumer and business brands, including Citibank, MasterCard, and Reed Exhibitions (producers of ComicCon).

In addition to contributing to HuffPost and Nightclub & Bar’s website, she has her own blog titled “Bad Girl Good Business” and co-created and runs the women’s founder/entrepreneur community, sheBOOM.com. She is also a partner in LiberateU.com. Nancy also invests her time in mentorship and co-wrote “Don’t Hook Up With the Dude in the Next Cube: 200+ Career Tips for 20-Somethings” as a practical guide for young women entering the workforce — covering everything from personal branding to office etiquette to dealing with co-workers through quitting a job.

(5) Anna Gát – Founder, Ixy

IXY is an AI mediated chat app that boosts the effectiveness of personal online communication. When people chat online it’s easy for tempers to flare. IXY supports rational conflict resolution to make for peaceful communication. Its founder says she’s working towards world peace – one chat at a time. IXY founder Anna Gat has brought her background in philosophy, linguistics, dramaturgy, plus a passion for evolutionary biology and game theory, to the creation of an app that combines artificial and emotional intelligence to make online communication peaceful, safe and humane. The app is currently in testing and a prototype will soon be ready for you to try.

(6) Kriti Sharma, VP –Intelligence, Sage

Kriti Sharma is VP of bots and AI at Sage. She was recently named in Forbes magazine’s 30 under 30. She built her first robot at the age of 17, designed to bring chocolates to its controller. The software bots she works on at Sage today are designed to helping business builders do less administrative work, and more of what they love.

Sharma is a trailblazer for smart machines that work and react like humans to help to make business admin invisible. Sharma is the creator of Pegg, the world’s first accounting chatbot, launched to market in 2017 which now boasts users in 135 countries.

(7) Carla Gentry – Digital Marketing Manager, Samtec Inc

Carla worked in the Developmental Math Lab during her tenure with UTC, assisting students with all levels of mathematics. Upon graduating from UTC with a double major, Applied Mathematics and Economics in 1998, she moved to the Chicago area to start her career in analytics. During the past 19+ years, she has worked with Fortune 100 and 500 companies including but not limited to, Discover Financial Services, J&J, Hershey, Kraft, Kellogg’s, SCJ, McNeil and Firestone. Acting as a liaison between the IT department and the Executive staff, she was able to take huge complicated databases, decipher business needs and come back with intelligence that quantifies spending, profit and trends.

Being called a data nerd is a badge of courage for this curious Mathematician/Economist because knowledge is power and companies are now acknowledging its importance.

Read More: Interview With Peter Cahill, CEO, Voysis

(8) Jennifer Chayes – Technical Fellow & Managing Director, Microsoft Research

Jennifer Chayes is Technical Fellow (CVP) and Managing Director of Microsoft Research New England, NYC, and Montreal. She was Professor of Mathematics at UCLA for many years. She is author of over 140 academic papers and inventor of over 30 patents. Her research areas include phase transitions in computer science, structural and dynamical properties of networks, graph theory, graph algorithms, and computational biology. She is one of the inventors of the field of graphons, which are now widely used in the machine learning of massive networks. Chayes’ recent work focuses on machine learning, broadly defined.

Chayes holds a BA from Wesleyan, where she graduated first in her class, and a PhD in physics from Princeton. She was a post-doc at Harvard and Cornell. She is the recipient of the NSF Postdocdoctoral Fellowship, the Sloan Fellowship, the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Anita Borg Institute Women of Leadership Vision Award. She has twice been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Chayes is Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Fields Institute, the Association for Computing Machinery, the American Mathematical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the winner of the 2015 John von Neumann Lecture Award, the highest honor of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. In 2016, she received an Honorary Doctorate from Leiden University.

(9) Bindu Reddy – General Manager – Deep Learning and AI, Amazon Web Services

Bindu Reddy is a General Manager for Deep Learning in Amazon Web Services (AWS). Bindu and her team are working on large scale distributed systems that leverage deep learning algorithms to build application services. Before joining AWS, Bindu was the co-founder and CEO of Post Intelligence, a deep learning start-up in the social media space that was acquired by Uber. Post Intelligence, was a social media assistant that helped over 1.5 Million social media influencers grow their following, earn advertising revenue and make engaging and relevant posts.

Before starting Post Intelligence, Bindu was at Google and oversaw product management for several products including Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Video and Blogger. Bindu has a MS from Dartmouth College and a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai.

(10) Kay Firth-Butterfield – Project Head, AI and ML, World Economic Forum

Kay is the Project Head, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, at the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the World Economic Forum. Prior to taking this position she was Executive Director of AI-Global and led the Ethics Advisory Panel of Lucid.ai.

Kay has worked for the past three decades as a barrister, mediator, arbitrator, business owner, professor and judge in the United Kingdom. In the United States, she taught at the undergraduate and law school levels and worked as a professional lecturer. She calls herself a humanitarian with a strong sense of social justice and has advanced degrees in Law and International Relations. In her role as Chief officer of the EAP, Kay advised governments, think tanks and non-profits about artificial intelligence. She is also co-founder of the Consortium for Law and Policy of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the Robert E. Strauss Center, University of Texas and teaches a course at the UT Law School for the Consortium: “Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies: Law and Policy”

She is a Distinguished Scholar of the Robert E Strauss Center at the University of Texas and Vice Chair of the IEEE Industry Connections “Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in the Design of Autonomous Systems.

(11) Fahima Anwar, Vice President of Global Marketing, IVEP/dubtokens ICO

Recently named as one of the Top 8 Women to Watch in Blockchain, Fahima is a marketing and branding expert and a content strategist with 8+ years in marketing, e-commerce & technology with a keen interest in cryptocurrency and blockchain.

She has led multi-national campaigns for UN agencies, tech and lifestyle brands, and credit card companies. Her work can be seen on BBC, CNBC, FOX, MSNBC, Globe and Mail, Huffington Post, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, Toronto Star, Today.com, Metro, Entreprenuer.com among various others. She is also the founder of Canada’s largest influencer conference, Spark Sessions, working with partners such as Tangerine, L’Oreal, AOL, Globe and Mail, Coke, Best Buy among 80 other international brands.

Her strategic & executional specialties include affiliates, display, search, paid social, SEO, email, video & flyer, growth hacking and influencer marketing with expertise in executing & optimizing sophisticated paid search campaigns that drive high ROAS.

(12) Hannah Drake – COO, Energi Mine

Energi Mine is rolling out the development of a blockchain-based energy reward platform that incentivizes energy-efficient use with money off energy bills, charging electric vehicles, or even hard cash. It is a blockchain and artificial intelligence energy solutions company based in Manchester, UK that currently manages over $140 million worth of energy on behalf of its customers, looking after approximately 1,100 customer sites across Europe (UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands).

In a recent blog, Hannah Drake states: “Throughout my career in both the energy and crypto space, I have found that these two very different industries are worryingly alike; Women only make up a fraction of the community that drive them and this must change if they are to move forward. I am proud to be at the forefront of a fast paced and innovative company, where both women and men move forward as one.”

In fact, the Energi Mine’s team couldn’t be more different. Currently the team are made up of 60% women. The team speak 12 languages between them, including Albanian, Italian, Spanish, Gujarati and Arabic, so I suppose you could say that diversity is not something Energi Mine struggle with. In fact Energi Mine has used it as a strength to attract the best talent, and only scratched the surface.

(13) Sally Eaves – CTO, Forbes Technology Council

Sally combines a depth of experience as a Chief Technology Officer, Practising Professor of FinTech, Founder and Global Strategic Advisor, consulting on the application of disruptive technologies for both business and societal benefits. She is an award-winning thought leader in innovation, digital transformation and emergent technology, notably blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics. A member of the Forbes Technology Council, Sally is an accomplished author with regular contributions to leading business, technology and academic publications. She is an international keynote speaker and respected online influencer across multiple channels and consistently rated in the top 10 for blockchain and social media influence worldwide. Sally strongly believes in technology being an enabler for social good which is reflected in her recent shortlisting for the UK IT Woman of the Year Business Role Model Award alongside active roles as a STEM ambassador, trustee and mentor.

(14) Amy Wan, Founder and CEO, Bootstrap Legal

Amy Wan is Founder & CEO of Bootstrap Legal, which builds legal technology for the future of law. Previously, she was a Partner at a boutique securities law firm and General Counsel at a real estate crowdfunding platform. Amy is also the founder and co-organizer of Legal Hackers LA, which programs around the intersection of law and technology; was named one of the one of ten women to watch in legal technology by the American Bar Association Journal in 2014; and was nominated as a Finalist for the Corporate Counsel of the Year Award 2015 by LA Business Journal.

Amy has also worked in international regulatory and trade policy at the US Department of Commerce, and was a Presidential Management Fellow at the US Department of State and US Department of Transportation. She holds an LL.M. in Public International Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a JD from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, and a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Southern California.

(15) Manuela Veloso – Head of Machine Learning and Professor, Carnegie Mellon University

Manuela Maria Veloso is the Herbert A. Simon University Professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. She was the President of AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence) until 2014, and the co-founder and a Past President of the RoboCup Federation. She is a fellow of AAAI, IEEE, AAAS, and ACM. She is an international expert in artificial intelligence and robotics.

Veloso describes her research goals as the “effective construction of autonomous agents where cognition, perception, and action are combined to address planning, execution, and learning tasks”. Veloso and her students have researched and developed a variety of autonomous robots, including teams of soccer robots, and mobile service robots. Her robot soccer teams have been RoboCup world champions several times, and the CoBot mobile robots have autonomously navigated for more than 1,000 km in university buildings. In a November 2016 interview, Veloso discussed the ethical responsibility inherent in developing autonomous systems, and expressed her optimism that the technology would be put to use for the good of humankind.

Read More: Interview With Ram Menon, Founder And CEO, Avaamo