Daizy Maan

Svetha Venkatesh

artificialintelligencecomputerscientistempoweringwomensvethavenkatesh

Today I sent this email to someone I really admire (Professor Svetha Venkatesh) who I think should be an idol of many young Indian Australian girls. “Dear Svetha, So after much consideration, I’ve decided to take another job in addition to my SPARK Deakin job / Bold Punjab / Podcasting projects - the role of being your Chief Champion Officer. I’ve noticed this is another problem that needs solving. Job Summary Champion and advocate the work of Professor Svetha Venkatesh, one of the top 15 women in the world in Artificial Intelligence, who spends most of her time hiding in a lab in Geelong, Victoria, and avoiding attention. Why This Role Exists The gender disparity in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence is problematic. From a broader context, young Indian-Australian/Bristish/American/Canadian/British women are more likely to know who Priyanka Chopra is than know the name of a single female Indian scientist. We need to highlight the work of diverse female thinkers and scientists who are generous leaders. If young women can’t see them, they can’t be them. Below is a ven diagram explaining this role Job Responsibilities

  • Manage your social media presence - I think in 2020 there’s more merit in building your personal brand as a way to increase the impact of your work than there is in growing the brand of an organisation. This is backed by credibility research by Edelman Trust Barometer (or my interpretation of it).
  • Write pieces about you and your work in PLAIN English not academic english.
  • Pitch those pieces to media outlets, or try because I don’t really know anything about Australian media except that there’s no one like you being profiled

#Goals

  • Get a New York Times Profile on you.
  • Get The Juggernaut (new woke media outlet for the Indian diaspora) to do a profile on you
  • Get a [insert insignificant but broadly read Australia media publication here] profile on you.

Time commitment

  • 1-2 hours per week for my lifetime or until you’re as famous as Gladys West

Thank you for accepting me for this un-advertised role Regards..“

Svetha’s Response

The Queen of one sentence emails only she responded with “Haha you’re funny”. I called her a week later to ask about her thoughts. She said I was over the top about the NYT piece and that I was making her sound to be better than she was (typical female response!) but I assured her I’m adamant about it and will get there. Anyhow this page is private because I’m not sure she’d approve of my publishing it on my blog.

The Back Story

Back in 2015, I was 21 and bright-eyed, excited, and oozing energy about a new student society I had started called Socia Enterprise Collective (SeCo). It was before social entrepreneurship had become mainstream, most students didn’t know what the term meant. “ummm a social media company?” one student said to me as I walked about campus surveying anyone I could stop.  Or my favourite - “is that like someone who is an entrepreneur but very social?” I recruited a team of volunteers and one of them ended up inviting me to a scholarship function as his plus one. Like most university students I was lured by the idea of wine, canapes, and the proximity - it was on campus. After a couple of glasses of red wine, and not enough canapes I noticed that the legendary former Vice-Chancellor of Deakin University Jane Den-Hollander happened to be there. I didn’t know at the time of her brilliance which probably led to what happened next. I casually approached her and said hello. I spoke to her briefly about my new society, and how I struggled to get any engagement from the staff at the time. Jane quietly listened and the very next day she introduced me to Svetha Venkatesh via email saying that we needed to connect. She also emailed Deans and other folks at the university persistent on helping me solve the challenges I was seeing. That was my first experience of someone so senior, caring so deeply and advocating for my cause - though I didn’t realise it at the time. I met with Svetha and within months ended up working for SPARK Deakin, the university’s flagship entrepreneurship program she had founded. I remember my manager once said of her “anything Svetha touches, turns to gold”. I didn’t understand what he was talking about. Having next to no knowledge about academia or research, naivety fuelled my ability to interact with utmost confidence - letting my unrestrained enthusiasm pour out at our infrequent but energising catch-ups. I’m glad I didn’t know how brilliant she was by way of her academic achievements because then I may have been nervous. Fast forward a couple of years my manager proudly announced “Svetha was awarded an Australian Laureate”  To which I responded, “What’s that?”  “It’s the holy grail for researchers in Australia, there’s nothing further beyond that in terms of excellence” “Oh, that’s great.” I said politely Fast forward another 2 years “Did you hear, Svetha’s son just won the Fields Medal” Having learned to be a little less obvious about my ignorance. I said that’s great then I googled ‘what is a fields medal’ to which the internet basically told me it was the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for Mathematics. I called her up and congratulated her, we had a light hearted conversation about the ridiculousness of some of the questions journalists had asked her“was he a genius when he was born?”, Svetha laughed - no he was just shitting like every other baby. Then in 2019 she was named as one of the top 15 women in the world working in Artificial Intelligence. No that’s not based on some arbitrary media outlet, it’s based on an analysis of 1.5 million research papers to see who was most cited. She’s the only woman on the list from Australia. Svetha Venkatesh is an inspiring brilliant mind.

Some other cool things worth noting

  • After the London bombings in 2005 nobody could answer the question “did the bomber get off the bus?”, so Svetha and her team developed a “virtual observer” which was used to answer that critical question. You can hear her explain that eloquently here
  • In 2017 she received an Australian Laureate Fellowship for research that would establish Australia as a leader in innovation-led productivity in the 4th industrial revolution, including ground-breaking investigations into the use of pattern recognition to navigate complexity in the experimental process.
  • In 2020 iCetana a spin-off from Svetha’s research went public after raising $8 million in 2017
  • Her research has led to Tobyplaypad  - an early intervention program empowering parents to get started with therapy at home
  • She is indeed the founder of SPARK Deakin, a program I have had the great adventure of managing for the last 3 years. After all, it was because of her support and advocacy that I was given that opportunity at such a young age.

So that’s how I’ve come to this decision to be her self-appointed Chief Champion Officer. I think all women should be someone else’ CCO. Whose CCO will you be?