Mereja.Forum

Addis Coder: Algorithms and Programming for High Schoolers

An intensive 1 month summer class for high school students in Ethiopia, organized by Jelani Nelson. This is the most diverse/inclusive classroom I have ever been in. All regions of Ethiopia were represented with many religions and at least 10 languages (there were 85 students). There were different income levels ranging from students working as shoe shiners to put themselves through school to kids who went to private middle schools. All students currently go to public schools. The class had students from rural areas and cities, close to 50/50 female/male ratio and people with disabilities (e.g. Misgina who is deaf but is top of his class while going to a school that gives no resources for deaf people). Some kids had never touched a computer before while others have programmed in Java. But all of them currently understand the basics of recursion, dynamic programming, graphs etc. And they only took this class for one month. I hope to one day see a computer science classroom in the US that is this diverse.

http://ai.stanford.edu/~tgebru/

Meet Timnit Gebru. Born and raised in Ethiopia, Gebru immigrated to the US at 16 to earn her PhD from Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and just finished her year as a post-doctoral researcher at Microsoft Research in New York. While she was still a PhD student, she co-founded Black in AI, an organization fostering collaboration and discussing initiatives to increase the representation of Black people in the field.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nvidia/201 ... ddf3e5286d

You were born in Ethiopia but came to the US as a teenager. Tell me a few things about your life that have opened your eyes.

Many things: Death, war, travel, art. I could elaborate on each of those but it would take too long. Growing up in a country with many ethnic groups, religions and languages have really shaped how I view the world. I come from a family that has had many hurdles. My father died when I was five years old. I was raised by my mother. She came to the US at the age of 55 and completely changed her profession. My mom solves problems in life without complaining. That’s something I try to take inspiration from.

What was the transition like moving from one country to the other, especially when it comes to education?

When I arrived at my high school in the US, the teachers couldn’t believe that I could do that well in math, physics and associated subjects. I was very confused as to what was going on. My mom called it from the very beginning because she had so much experience with this. She told me they just didn’t think I could do it because I was from Africa. They don’t think Africans can do math.

On my first day of high school in the US, I asked to move up to honors level chemistry because I had already covered the curriculum of the standard chemistry class. The teacher said, “I have met so many people like you who come from other countries and think that they can take the hardest classes here. If you took the exam these students take, you would fail.”

So on your first day, an authority figure already set you up for failure. That can’t be easy, especially for a teenager.
Do you think your experience somehow explains why there aren’t more women in STEM?

There are many reasons why there are few women, but the biggest one is that women constantly get the subliminal message that they are not good enough, and that they just don’t belong there. Once you are where we are in terms of numbers, you have to aggressively try to change things. You can’t be passive, and most people right now, even the well meaning ones, are passive. And most of the “diversity” initiatives only focus on women. Well, there are many types of women. You need to consider, race, class, etc.

There is a stereotype of what type of personality, or person, is supposed to be in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics]. When you watch shows like The Big Bang Theory, or Silicon Valley, you see what I mean. This is actually something I never experienced in Ethiopia. I never got this message. It was very weird for me to see it in the US and I noticed the stark contrast.

https://blog.rossintelligence.com/post/ ... -the-women

5 things with... Dr. Timnit Gebru (Exclusive)




Timnit was in town as a guest speaker on a very ambitious project, Girls Can Code (GCC) that was held at the national archives & library of Ethiopia this past Saturday. GCC program was launched in 2015 and Hiwot Bishawis the project manager. Students with interest in coding from 9 high schools were part of the project this year. Dr Timnit shared her experience on AI & coding to students and attendees in a discussion that was carried out by the host of the event, Saba Kahsay

EthioCreatives sat down exclusively with Timnit to do our "5 things with..." segment. Here it is.

EC/1. A lot of us here in Ethiopia don't know most of talented Ethiopians abroad doing amazing things. So, who is Timnit? What is her speciality? Why AI? What was the most difficult thing to do when you started this journey?

I started working in AI a few years ago. Before that, I was a hardware engineer. I didn't really plan on working in AI. I worked on optical medical devices at some point and got interested in image processing of the acquired images. Then I got interested in computer vision, data mining etc and that's how I got into AI. The most difficult thing is not the subject but the isolation you feel when you are a woman, and specifically a Black woman and also someone from Africa and you are in the US working in this field.

EC/2. Is it difficult to be a woman in the AI world? Why do you think more girls are not participating on AI field? What should be done to increase women's participation in coding? Especially here in Ethiopia.

Yes, its difficult because of the attitude of those in the field and the conscious and subconscious ways in which you constantly have to prove yourself. People constantly get interrupted, your ideas get attributed to the nearest man (or they are just not taken seriously) you get underpaid and undervalued, but if you negotiate for higher salary or position or something like this you are made to feel petty and like you are asking for too much. Even the women who start to leave because of things like this, the environment is hostile.

EC/3. What do you think should be done in order for us Ethiopians to find AI interesting and be part of it by involving in big projects? Do you believe we have what it takes?

The most prestigious thing to study in Ethiopia is medicine. I think if Ethiopians understood that AI could be applied to all sectors (including medicine), they would be excited about it. I believe we have what it takes but we have to be supportive of our youth and create opportunities for them. I also think that there is a lack of information where people don't know that they can even do this.

EC/4. Do you visit Ethiopia often or is it your first time? What is your favourite thing in Addis? What can you say about the coding and programming industry in Ethiopia? What do you think needs to be done to make it compete with the rest of the word?

Yes, I visit often. My favourite thing in Addis is how there are many cafes and other places to hang out. I like initiatives like Ice Addis. We need to have more of those. The one thing I noticed is that there is not only a lack of information but a lack of a countrywide network. People don't know about the different initiatives other people are doing. One needs to have a strong network of people to get anything done. We need to have a very good university curriculum and postgraduate curriculum. We also need to have labs where students can practice coding. People should think about creating technology that works in their context. For example, many people don't have access to computers but they have access to smartphones. How can we teach computer science using smartphones?

EC/5. What should we expect from Timnit in the future? New projects coming up? What would your friends say if we ask them about you? Tell us who Timint is minus AI life. Her hobby or talents...

Hopefully, more research output as well as fruitful initiatives to bring international conferences to Ethiopia, grow the tech echo system, interest in AI etc. My friends would say that I am a very absent-minded person and lose everything. I like music, dancing hanging out with family, friends etc.

We would like to thank Timnit for taking the time to chat with us and share her amazing insight. We wish her all the best in her future and endeavours. We also would like to thank GCC program project manager, Hiwot, for inviting us to the event.

Daniel Shalu

https://www.ethiocreatives.com/ethiopia ... -exclusive



August 2, 2018

Revu, pick and choose Debtra story will not serve you well.



"originated from Eritrea. She escaped potential forced deportation to Eritrea by the Ethiopian government in the late 1990s and traveled to Ireland. She then moved to the United States to join her mother (who also fled from Ethiopia few months prior) and her two older sisters who had been living in the U.S. Gebru is the youngest of three"



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timnit_Gebru

Yup! And she dedicates herself to serve Ethiopia and tells all that she's Ethiopian. Wikipedia can be edited and updated by anyone. But you wouldn't know that, would you?

Abdeaziz wrote: ↑

06 Dec 2020, 21:04

Revu, pick and choose Debtra story will not serve you well.



"originated from Eritrea. She escaped potential forced deportation to Eritrea by the Ethiopian government in the late 1990s and traveled to Ireland. She then moved to the United States to join her mother (who also fled from Ethiopia few months prior) and her two older sisters who had been living in the U.S. Gebru is the youngest of three"



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timnit_Gebru

Revu, ya right i edited just to make you upset. After inhuman deportation won't make her forgot her deep rooted Eritrean identity. Keep picking Your Debtra story.

Ha..ha..why would I be upset?! Only those that wanted to hijack the story will be unhappy with "the truth" (You're serving)!

Abdeaziz wrote: ↑

06 Dec 2020, 21:52

Revu, ya right i edited just to make you upset. After inhuman deportation won't make her forgot her deep rooted Eritrean identity. Keep picking Your Debtra story.