Elena Martinez, who entered school as a “limited English speaker,” discovered an early affinity for math and went on to graduate from college with a degree in math and computer science. She now encourages high school girls to pursue STEM through the WiDS Next Gen Program. Elena has served on the WiDS Next Gen Committee and is a first-year graduate student in Stanford Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME).

Two women on different sides of world who had never participated in a Kaggle competition came together as a team to compete in the WiDS Datathon 2022—leading to new skills, confidence, and a lasting friendship. The datathon goal was to analyze the energy efficiency of buildings. Participants analyzed regional differences in building energy efficiency, creating models to predict building energy consumption, an important first step in understanding how to maximize energy efficiency.
 
We asked Pravallika Myneni and Anissa Amziani to tell us more about themselves and the experience of working together during the datathon competition.

​After watching the WiDS conference via livestream from Wisconsin, Sarah Dahl felt inspired and empowered to pivot her career to data science.

​Julia Olivieri, assistant professor of computer science at the University of the Pacific, has been instrumental to the development of the WiDS Workshops while launching her own teaching career. The WiDS Global team has been grateful to have Julia serve on the WiDS Workshop committee for the past year.

Millicent Ochieng is a Data and Applied Scientist at Microsoft Africa Research Institute MARI, a WiDS Kenya Ambassador & WiDS Africa Co-Ambassador.

Íngrid Munné-Collado, a Data Scientist with the Danish weather and energy forecasting company ConWX, describes how she overcame a fear of coding to successfully build a career applying data science to renewable energy.

​Marianna Pekar, Chief Data Scientist at MartinJenkins, has successfully built her career in data science by seizing every opportunity to learn, as well as contributing to the WiDS community in New Zealand and Central and Eastern Europe. 

Dr. Tanzila Saba, a Research Professor, Associate Chair of Information Systems Department, leader of Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics (AIDA) Lab and WiDS Ambassador at Prince Sultan University in Saudi Arabia for the past five years, supports and inspired women to pursue STEM careers in Saudi Arabia.

Tolúlọpẹ́ Ògúnrẹ̀mí’s involvement with WiDS began as a WiDS London ambassador, working with Stanford prior to getting accepted to the Stanford Computer Science (CS) PhD program. She has been able to combine a love of languages with her ability in mathematics and computer science and is now focused on Natural Language Processing (NLP) for low-resource languages, particularly in sub-Saharan African languages. Tolúlọpẹ́ came full circle with WiDS, attending and volunteering for the WiDS Worldwide event in 2022.

​Manvi Madan, a Data Analytics Specialist for the Ports of Auckland, New Zealand says WiDS has changed her perception about what’s possible for women in data science and has inspired her to become a leader in the space.

​Dr. Zaher Ali Al-Sai, a WiDS Ambassador in Jordan, says creating and leading a workshop for the WiDS Datathon expanded her skills and confidence by empowering women in her region.

​Cindy Catherine Orozco Bohorquez started her PhD at Stanford’s Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME) the same year that WiDS launched its first conference. Her involvement with WiDS started as a shy volunteer and evolved to fulfilling her dream of becoming a speaker at global and regional WiDS conferences, a WiDS workshop instructor, and a member of a thriving community of women data scientists.

Suzanne Valentine, Facebook’s Director of Data Science for Global Marketing Solutions, has built her career turning data into business insights. Inspired by WiDS’ support for women data scientists, Facebook has become a sponsor, providing micro-scholarships for WiDS ambassadors.

​Sulakshana Sreeram, Assistant Director of Corporate Relations & Initiatives at Sri Vishnu Education Society, is the WiDS Hyderabad Ambassador and a collaborator with the WiDS Education Outreach program.