In this blog we have already spoken with some of them, with the Spanish scientists and experts who are at the forefront of artificial intelligence (AI) in this country, but who are already an international benchmark.
This is the case of Nuria Oliver, the fourth woman to enter the Royal Academy of Engineering, and engineer of the year in 2018. We also spoke in her day with Elena Alfaro, the woman who directs destinations in the Big Data area at BBVA. At Telefónica it is Elena Gil who performs this work, where Carme Artigas, founder and CEO of Synergic Partners, also stands out. And before moving on to the international arena, two other Spanish women shine, in my opinion, above the others in the field of AI.
Lorena Jaume-Palasi, who was the CEO of Algorithm Watch, a non-profit organization that evaluates and monitors the ethics of algorithms in large technology companies and has now founded another institution: The Ethical Tech Society. And Asunción Gómez, vice-rector for Research, Innovation and Professor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, and also a member of the Committee of ‘wise men’ that advises the Ministry of Industry on the preparation of a White Paper on artificial intelligence , together with Elena Gil, Lorena Jaume-Palasí and Nuria Oliver.
If we stick to the international arena, some names, highlighted by analysts, stand out today, such as Anita Schjoll, Huma Abidi, Ewelina Wołoszyn, Nancy A. Shenker, Anna Gát, Kriti Sharma, Carla Gentry, Jennifer Chayes or Bindu Reddy , among other.
Nuria Oliver, Scientific Director of Data at Vodafone Group
Nuria is, without a doubt, our most international scientist, and an expert in the development of artificial intelligence in this country. Also defender of the ethical and human values of the same. One of her great dreams, as she herself pointed out in her inauguration as an academic of the Royal Academy of Engineering, is that there are more women engineers. She also worked at Telefónica as scientific director, and is currently a Data Scientist for the Data Pop Alliance, an organization led by MIT Media Lab and Harvard.
Elena Alfaro, head of analytics and open innovation at BBVA
His duties include generating machine learning algorithms that constitute the intelligence behind BBVA’s digital products, as well as transforming BBVA’s skills and culture into a data-driven organization. Elena worked at Ericsson, and has a BA in Economics and Business Administration from the Universities of Sunderland (UK) and the Autonomous University (Madrid), and a Master’s in Analysis and Management of Intangibles.
Elena Gil, CEO of LUCA (Telefónica)
LUCA is the Big Data unit of Telefonica, whose responsibility is the development of the Big Data business in Corporate Clients and Public Administrations, helping them in their transformation. Elena has a degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Deusto (Spain) and an MBA from the MIT-Sloan School of Management (USA). He also completed his studies at the University of Berkeley (USA) and EDHEC de Lille (France).
Carme Artigas, co-founder and CEO of Synergic Partners
Carme is, according to analysts, one of the most influential women, nationally and internationally, in the field of Big Data, one of the essential elements that make up the universe of artificial intelligence. His company was acquired a few years ago by Telefónica, and since then he has worked hand in hand with LUCA in the development of solutions for the business sector. As she herself points out, “data is the new currency .”
Lorena Jaume-Palasi, founder of The Ethical Tech Society
They say that it is the Spanish that watches over Facebook and Google, among other large multinationals, so that the algorithms used by these companies do not deceive their users . To do this he created his organization, Algorithm Watch, and has now founded The Ethical Tech Society. For this reason, she is one of the scientists that make up the group of experts that has written the White Paper with the recommendations for the Government to get to work with the present and future of artificial intelligence in Spain.
Asunción Gómez, vice-rector for Research and Innovation at the UPM
Vice-rector for Research, Innovation and Doctorate and Professor in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. He directs the UPM Ontological Engineering Group, an international benchmark research group and pioneer in Spain in the areas of ontologies, semantic web and linked data from the public sector. And she is also one of the five female advisers to the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence.
Anita Schjoll Brede, CEO and Co-Founder of Iris.ai
Professor of AI at Singularity University in Denmark, and member of the board of the Ulstein group. Expert in driverless cars, genomics, robots, colonization of Mars, personalized medicine and how we can use artificial intelligence to improve the world.
Huma Abidi – Director of Machine Learning and Deep Learning Software Engineering at Intel Corporation
He is responsible for optimizing deep learning software for Intel Xeon processors. Passionate about women’s education, and member of the board of directors of ROSHNI, a philanthropic organization that educates and supports underprivileged girls in India. Huma has a bachelor’s degree in medicine and chemistry, and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Massachusetts.
Nancy A. Shenker – Fundadora de TheOnSwitch
Nancy helps people navigate the world of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics. She was a senior executive for consumer and business brands such as Citibank and MasterCard, has her own blog titled “Bad Girl Good Business,” and runs the sheBOOM.com women’s community.
Anna Gát – Fundadora de Ixy
Ixy is an AI-mediated chat application that increases the effectiveness of personal online communication. He is also working on creating an application that combines artificial and emotional intelligence to make online communication peaceful, safe and humane.
Kriti Sharma, Vice President of Intelligence at Sage
He built his first robot at the age of 17. The software bots Sage currently works on are designed to help business builders do less administrative work. Sharma is the creator of Pegg, the world’s first accounting chatbot, launched in 2017.
Jennifer Chayes – Managing Director at Microsoft Research
She is the author of more than 140 academic papers and inventor of more than 30 patents, and one of the inventors in the field of graphics, which are now widely used in massive network machine learning. Chayes is a member 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.
Bindu Reddy, General Manager, Deep Learning and AI, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Before joining AWS, Bindu was the co-founder and CEO of Post Intelligence, a social media deep learning company that was acquired by Uber. He was also at Google, and has an MS from Dartmouth College and a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai.
