At the WomenTech Network, we’re fortunate to have a wonderful, global community of ambassadors who help us spread the word about our work and who helped us make the WomenTech Global Conference 2020 a success. We would like you to meet these wonderful people as well; therefore, we’re going to be introducing you to some of our most active members.

Today, get to know Ridhanya Sree B:

Ridhanya Sree B is an engineering student at the National Institute of Technology Calicut. She would like to work in the field of AI in health and bioinformatics. She is interested in web development, Machine learning, Bioinformatics, and Robotics. 

Ridhanya had no exposure to the tech field until she entered college life. In her first year of college, she didn’t like her classes. Thus, pressing depression gave her the energy to join a Robotics club. For the first time in her life, she realized that she actually liked building robots and it’s not hard to build one if you have the determination. Her journey continued in the club for about a year, where she was able to organize robotics workshops, learn technologies like image processing, learn programming languages like Python and build challenging projects like a Finger Reader for the blind.

After she quit the robotics club, she was introduced to Artificial Intelligence through her robotics club-mates. She was able to detect Pneumonia, cancer, etc. Meanwhile, she was also able to get recognition and take up leadership skills along with good internships. She built a community for promoting and teaching tech and was successful in conducting a tech workshop for 120 college students all around Kerala, India. 

I feel that finding the right employees/Talent is one of the biggest challenges faced by the tech industry. Also, the next biggest challenge is the innovation part. Finding an innovative solution for a problem isn’t a piece of cake. Even the availability of resources is a big threat to this industry. Example, AI companies cannot function without adequate data to train and the computational power.
 

In Ridhanya’s Own Words:

• What is the best part of being a woman in the tech industry?

Being a Woman in the tech industry gives the biggest positive impact on the society as it boosts the confidence of other interested women to take up this field and also with the emerging technologies, the tech industry is never boring.

Also, working in this industry gives us smart exposures and also, there are a lot of flexibilities at work. This industry also provides high paying jobs which makes a woman self-sufficient and this itself adds to the confidence that a woman possesses. Moreover, it's about passion. Thus, a woman working in the tech field is prone to do what she likes, which is a driving energy for her career advancements.

• Do you notice a lack of women in technology? If so, why do you think that’s the case?

Yes. I do notice a lack of women in technology. From my experience, I feel that most women aren’t aware of how to get into this industry. Some of them are misguided and they are prone to follow the traditional ways.

Also, some people who are aware of these either have bad family support which will push them away from pursuing what they like or they are scared about the competition men pose over women in this field. 

• Why aren’t there more female CEOs in tech?

I feel that it’s due to the lack of encouragement. From childhood, girls and boys are taught different things. Girls are taught to be pleasing and agreeable while boys are taught to pursue what they like.

In many cases, when a girl starts exploring robotics, computers, etc she is generally pulled away from these and she is made to learn and practice traits that will make her a good woman to raise a family but not a company.

Also, even nowadays, it's not okay for a girl to be loud, firm or demanding-characteristics that are important for a leader. Thus, these social conditioning and discrimination are the reason why women are held back from becoming great leaders.