The "chunks of data" technology involves may put off many women, but not Loise Mwarangu.
Ushering us to a gazebo in Westlands, she recounts how she landed in data science without ever going to a physical school.
Mwarangu is a data scientist at the Artificial Intelligence Centre for Excellence.
"I first did my university degree to major in economics and statistics, and worked as a data analyst for a short time. It is from there that I gained interest in this field," she says.
After a while, Mwarangu transitioned into more coding because she loved dealing with data.
"It was during the Covid-19 period in 2020 when I started learning data science through online courses, where most of them were free,” she said.
"I could just Google and look for a course that I wanted. At that time, I did not have a permanent job.”
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Doing online courses was the trend amid lockdowns, and Mwarangu motivated herself by affirmations and words of encouragement each day.
"When I was doing online classes, my thought was that I really needed to learn AI and machine learning so I can create amazing projects and be the best data analyst that ever existed,” she said.
She did not imagine that her choice at that time would have a big impact on her career life in the future.
"I gained skills that I now use in my job and help me to put food on the table," she said.
"I joined AICE as an intern and that is how I ended up being a data scientist. It has now been a two-year journey and I'm proud of myself."
With three years of experience in data analysis, she decided to advance her studies to gain more skills.
She is currently doing a master's in computational intelligence at the University of Nairobi to advance her skills.
"With the knowledge I have gained in data science, what stands out for me is the ability to make life easier and routine tasks more bearable using data. One can literally automate anything with machine learning," she said.
Mwarangu has been mentoring young girls and helping them understand artificial intelligence when they approach her.
She has successfully guided people, especially women, from being beginners to professionals in technology.
Mwarangu believes that anyone can learn anything by themselves, invest in it and become successful in their careers.
It's not easy because it means as a woman, you have to work twice as hard just to be on the same playing field with all the other people
BEATING THE ODDS
With the daily advancement in technology, women are fighting for their space in artificial intelligence. They have shown strength, skills and resilience to leverage AI in their various fields and careers.
Power Learn Project operations chief Mumbi Ndung’u is one among many women whom young girls look up to in technology.
She describes her journey as interesting and also challenging because she had to fight her way up to where she is.
"I have experienced some challenges here and there, but I get to look at them as lessons more than challenges," Ndung’u said.
"It's not easy because that means as a woman, you have to work twice as hard just to be on the same playing field with all the other people."
She said her passion to join AI was drawn from the impact that AI gives young women in Africa and across the country.
"A lot of data sets that are used to train AI now are not Africa-friendly. A lot of data in Africa is being consumed externally," she said.
"PLP is training more young people so we can get more African data sets to help in designing AI solutions for African problems."
Ndung’u said AI is a new technology in the market and that there needs to be regulations put forward to help women in AI.
"AI is ideally a data set, and looking at AI on gender equality means that whatever biases that currently exist in our daily life are easily implemented into AI," she said.
While there are policies in place to protect women in AI, she said they need to be reviewed.
"Apart from gender equality, they should consider giving capacity building to some of these organisations that are implementing AI so they can be aware of these challenges as they're designing solutions for them," Ndung'u said.
She said this is the moment for young women to train in AI and be at the forefront of decision-making to help bridge the gap in gender equality in technology.
AI IN AGRICULTURE
A love for mathematics led Fancy Chepkoech to pursue a course associated with AI without knowing.
While many would consider it a technical subject, Chepkoech embraced data, loved the experience and got deep into it.
She is a data scientist at AICE with a background in computer science, software engineering and machine learning through python programming language.
In data science, Chepkoech has majored in agriculture but sometimes engages in other fields such as finance, where she has the skills.
Chepkoech uses AI in agriculture for a range of purposes, including weather prediction and yield prediction for commercial purposes.
"AI helps us detect pests and diseases in crops. I just take a picture of my leaves or crops and from the model created, it can tell me that this crop is not well and what I can do," she said.
"I was in software engineering at first, it was good but I did not like it as much as AI because in software engineering, you build a platform and that is it, you don’t know what happens with it.
"but as a data scientist, I'm able to use the data to make an impact. That is what drove me to AI.”
Just like the other fields, there are a lot of challenges she goes through, with a major one being lack of trust because she is a woman.
"The confidence you get as a woman in technology and particularly AI is very low," she said.
"You will say I am a developer or a data scientist and then someone will laugh. Until you actually demonstrate it is when they will believe that you can do it."
Chepkoech said most women shy away from opportunities to work in technology-based careers because their male counterparts do not expect them to deliver as much as them.
She said AI has opened platforms and opportunities for her career growth as there are few women in the field.
She encouraged other women to join AI and proposed alternatives for those not interested in AI directly.
"I advise women to join the product and project management, where they manage AI projects; they don’t develop but lead the team to deliver what they are supposed to," she said.
"You will still be in tech, paid well but offering leadership skills. They should also have background information on AI to guide them."
In 2021, she worked on a project where they were trying to know the credibility of farmers to sell agricultural solar-power equipment.
"I lead the project and we built the credit scoring tool, deployed it and it helped farmers access credit for irrigation and other activities in their farms," she said.
Women have a unique way of looking at problems and offering solutions as compared to men. They are really an integral part of technology; AI would not be complete if there was no woman in the team
PROBLEM SOLVER
AICE commercial head John Wafula said AI is the backbone of his work as it helps to solve problems and provide solutions.
"AI sits on data and most of my work involves gathering data to a particular problem, and then the data is pre-processed and fed into AI models, depending on the problem they want to solve," he said.
Wafula said his inspiration to join the field of AI was to create technological change and impact in the world.
He said women are taking over and implementing technology despite it being a male-dominated job.
"There is a lot of male dominance in the field of technology, especially in AI, but there is a systematic bias that needs to be ruled out," he said.
Wafula said AI is an evolving field that requires the input of everyone irrespective of gender, race and religion. He advised more women to join the field.
"Women have a unique way of looking at problems and offering solutions as compared to men," he said.
"They are really an integral part of technology; AI would not be complete if there was no woman in the team."
Wafula said that the challenges existing in AI include expensive infrastructure because there is a need of compute power.
He said the laptops they use do not have the capability to consume a lot of data like they are supposed to. They, therefore, rely on cloud technology that is expensive.
Wafula said the field has significantly embraced and applied the two-thirds gender rule policy to help involve more women.
This story was produced by The Star Publications in partnership with WAN IFRA Women In News
