Panel: The Democratization of Data | Mary Gray, Zhamak Dehghani & Amanda Obidike | WiDS 2021
About This Video
Panel discussion on ‘The Democratization of Data’
Moderator: Margot Gerritsen, Professor at Stanford University,
Panelists:
-Mary Gray, Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and Associate Professor, The School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University
-Zhamak Dehghani, Director of Next Tech Incubation, Thoughtworks
-Amanda Obidike, Executive Director, STEMi Makers Africa
In This Video
Co-Founder, WiDS Worldwide
Margot Gerritsen is a Professor at Stanford University and co-founder and co-director of WiDS Worldwide. Her expertise is in computational mathematics. She is particularly fond of computational fluid dynamics and linear algebra. Margot received her MS from TU Delft and her PhD from Stanford. Prior to her position at Stanford, she spent five years as a faculty member at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Margot was born and raised in the Netherlands and left the flat lands in 1990 in search of hillier and sunnier places. She still has her Dutch accent. She currently lives in the Oregon mountains with her partner Paul.
Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and Associate Professor, The School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University
Mary L. Gray is Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. She maintains a faculty position in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering with affiliations in Anthropology and Gender Studies at Indiana University. Mary, an anthropologist and media scholar by training, focuses on how people’s everyday uses of technologies transform labor, identity, and human rights. Mary earned her PhD in Communication from the University of California at San Diego in 2004, under the direction of Susan Leigh Star. In 2020, Mary was named a MacArthur Fellow for her contributions to anthropology and the study of technology, digital economies, and society.
Director, Emerging Technologies, North America, ThoughtWorks
Zhamak Dehghani works with ThoughtWorks as the director of emerging technologies in North America, with a focus on distributed systems and data architecture, and a deep passion for decentralized technology solutions: data mesh, decentralized trust and identity, and networking.
She founded in the concept of data mesh in 2018 and since has been evangelizing the concept with the wider industry.
She is a member of ThoughtWorks Technology Advisory Board and contributes to the creation of ThoughtWorks Technology Radar. Zhamak has worked as a software engineer and architect for over 20 years and has contributed to multiple patents in distributed computing communications, as well as embedded device technologies.
TechWomen Fellow, U.S. Department of State
An accomplished Non-profit Leader and Board Member with extensive experience in directing social enterprises, start-ups and complex Organizations in Africa, Europe and MENA Nations. I am a driven and ambitious Sustainability Leader who excels in building effective and high functioning teams, growing Revenue through strong Partnerships, managing change and streamlining Community service operations.
My role also entails managing bilateral and multilateral Partners, representing Organizations and policy issues in national and media outlets. I have led Strategy Development and Execution, Humanitarian responses and have served as the African Union CESASTEM Cluster for driving Educator reforms, policies and instructional pedagogy in STEM.