Tell us about your background.
I am an Applied Machine Learning Scientist working on M365 Copilot in the Microsoft Search Assistant & Intelligence (MSAI) Team. Prior to this, I was part of Microsoft’s 2-year Artificial Intelligence (AI) Rotational program (MAIDAP) where I built AI product features every 6 months with 4 Microsoft product groups.
Besides that, I am deeply passionate about bringing more women and non-binary people to AI and I am dedicated to changing the gender imbalance in the tech industry. I help lead the community for WiDS Cambridge, have been a WiDS Ambassador since 2022, and have been actively involved in the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) Conference over the years.
In what ways have you seen others in your community affected by your WiDS events?
To bring more women into AI, I took my first Women in Data Science workshop in 2020. Since then, workshops have enabled me to teach and interact with 200+ talented women. By word of mouth, MIT and Harvard admins helping to circulate the workshop, and LinkedIn, we’ve scaled these workshops from just 25 women in 2020 to 100+ in 2024.
How has your work with WiDS influenced your life and career?
I focus deeply on understanding the target audience’s skill level – AI, coding, statistics – and their expectations. Then I clearly lay out the objectives and prepare all required materials, e.g., presentation slides, datasets, and code examples. By delivering consistently, I’ve become a key member of the WiDS Cambridge Conference where I help design and moderate panels, invite speakers, and lead the poster selection committee.
This year, a high school student shared how last year’s conference inspired her to work on open-source ML projects, which led to her poster getting selected at this year’s conference. Hearing her say ‘you are my role model’ inspires me to continue my journey as a Women in AI leader. It instills a sense of purpose in me.
What are you eager to do in the future for your communities?
I want to incorporate a section in the upcoming Datathon where we also go over what different problems women/non-binary people face in industry and academia and how to tackle different issues that one faces as “women in tech”.
What were the most successful aspects of your WiDS 2024 events?
It is my 4th year taking this workshop and I have never seen such a diverse set of audience. It was fascinating to see people from policy-making to genomics, from mechanical engineering to environmental sciences, from astrophysics to product management all together to gear up for this inevitable era of Generative AI!!
Learning is a two-way street and in-person experience has its own charm. We went over an interesting data science problem on Climate Change, with some beginner and advanced-level solutions through deep learning in-person after 3 years.
This year we also introduced a Keynote Speaker section where Dr. Ehi Nosakhare, an AI leader and women in STEM advocate came and discussed problems women face in the tech industry being an immigrant, women of color, and someone who is deeply passionate about using AI to solve real-world problems, responsibly, and increasing the representation of women in AI. Currently, she works at Microsoft as a Senior Applied Science Manager, leading a team that uses innovative AI solutions to solve complex business and implementation challenges across a variety of Microsoft’s products and services including Cloud Infrastructure (Azure, Substrate) and Productivity Suites (Office ).
Connect with Arushi Jain.