On January 14, Amii held the very first session for AlbertaWomen.AI. The program, co-chaired by Bernie Kollman and Yasmin Jivraj, developed and delivered by Amii’s Education and Community teams, has one simple goal: connect women to opportunities, companies, and industries that specialize in AI and technology in Alberta.

With two sessions now complete, one hosted at Deloitte and the other at Servus Credit Union, we sat down with Program Coordinator Destani Engel to see how it’s going and what the future could hold for the program.

What is AlbertaWomen.AI?

It is a free six-month mentorship program that connects young women — primarily undergraduate students — with opportunities and organizations related to AI and technology in Alberta. 

There are nine sessions, and for each session, cohort members first visit the Amii office for a session and then travel to the office of a leading tech organization to explore how they apply AI in their business, and how women play a key role in their business practices.

How did this program come about?

We started the program for a few reasons. 

There’s a gap in knowledge and resources in the transition from school to a career in AI and technology. We found there’s no one set trajectory and thought it would be helpful to show people the different paths that others in the field have taken. We also wanted to open it up to folks across any and all programs who have an interest in AI — so not just computing science or engineering students, but also business, arts and other students who are interested in the business, ethical and/or social implications of AI. So whatever career they might be pursuing — whether it be project management, data science, product management — we want to give them a good taste of what that job might entail and what that trajectory might look like for them. 

It’s also well understood that there’s a deficit of representation for women in AI. Going to networking events, seminars or educational opportunities, you’ll often find that there’s only one or two women in the room — at most, a handful. This program makes an effort to not only help to bolster representation of women within this community but also to keep them engaged by connecting them with other women who have already started their careers, women who can give invaluable insight on navigating gender bias. We wanted to do more than just get women in the room. We wanted to provide them with real-life insight from women who are working in this industry.

What’s the first cohort like?

It’s a super-engaged, multidisciplinary group of 33 young women. When I say super-engaged, I mean it — they want to dive into the content. They don’t just want to meet industry leaders, they want to ask them specific, hard-hitting questions.

One of the questions that we asked in our application was, “if you had unlimited resources, which AI project would you want to bring to the world?” and they all had these phenomenal answers — from healthcare and climate change applications to searching for lost children using facial recognition. You can tell that this cohort is deeply interested in improving the world, in using AI for good.

What is the first cohort going to be learning in the coming months?

This cohort is interested in opportunities to meet, to network, and to ask hard questions. So at Amii, we are hosting fireside chat sessions with leading women in AI and tech, while also leaving lots of time for Q&A and networking.

At the industry partner sessions, the cohort has a short presentation about the host company, followed by a discussion of how AI impacts their business, interesting applications, and the skills and experience they look for when hiring for AI positions, as well as a profile of the women working in relevant roles. There’s also a non-trivial amount of time left for Q&A. So far, we’ve had really interesting sessions with Deloitte and Servus, and we’re looking forward to visiting other organizations such as Improbable, AltaML, Telus and IBM.

What type of programming do you hope to have in the future?

We have some ideas, but we’re really trying to take our cues from the cohort. We are creating as many opportunities as possible for folks to give us feedback, and we are developing this content based on what they need, not what we think they need. 

We also had such a large group of folks apply to the program who are Grad Students or PostDocs who are further along in their journey, so we’re going to see what kind of opportunities we can provide for them.

The first AlbertaWomen.AI program runs from January – June 2020. Sign up to learn more information about future cohorts by visiting https://www.albertawomen.ai/.

Please note: this interview has been edited and condensed for space