Ayushi, tell me about yourself and your journey as an entrepreneur?

In my generation, engineering had almost become the default education every smart middle class Indian pursued. However, I had to arrive at the applications of technology that I was passionate about through a long process of trial and error. I had never really considered becoming an entrepreneur, but during graduate school at Hopkins, one of my classmates reasoned that since I paint and do photography, I would be able to do the user interface and experience design for a mobile application he was working on. It was for peer support and therapy — which led to my first startup — Marigold Health, a mobile platform that uses AI to scale care for mental health patients and is now funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH). I was fascinated, mental health had always been close to my heart, understanding the complexity of human emotion expressed in language and teaching it to an algorithm, and to do so with the intention of creating a space where people can support each other. It was important work, it was challenging, it also meant I had to learn new things I would have previously found extremely hard. My first stint was in a technology company. Personally, I was attracted to a sense of exploration and freedom. We are breaking down disciplinary silos, technology had found a purpose that went beyond glitzy gadgets. No other career offered the creative freedom to create a product, provide the technical challenge of a turf that changes constantly, all the while solving real world problems.

In 2017, I moved to India to work on DronaMaps. We have evolved into a command and control center solution built on the backbone of 3D drone maps. It works by integrating existing geospatial data, on ground surveys, CCTV footage, mobility data, and drone live feeds into the command center. Thereby, creating a single source of truth with all information vertically integrated. The geospatial analytics from drone-based maps work seamlessly with existing MIS, project management, or resource management softwares. 

Why did you choose 3D maps to specialise in?

Dronamaps specializes in largescale 3D mapping with drones, we use deep learning to provide geospatial analytics for command and control centres spanning applications like disaster management, Smart cities and villages, precision agriculture etc. Founded in 2016, DronaMaps was started with the vision of empowering decision makers with accurate geospatial data to make development planning more robust. The first time I realised the extent of this problem was while being on the site of Polavaram Dam in Andhra Pradesh. Once complete, it would be one of the largest dams in Asia and would displace 184 villages. The most detailed maps about these villages gave one location coordinate (lat, long) but no idea whether it is at the centre or the periphery of the village. Our platform was used to recreate the old villages in drone based 3D maps, study them to form a basis for planning the new colonies. A platform like ours could democratize high resolution drone maps helping the people make decisions regarding their own land at a local level. Our work found applications including, Covid-19 response, flood response in Uttarakhand, the Smart Village project with the University of California (Berkeley), Smart Cities, precision agriculture etc. To date, we have worked with over 7 states in India, 130 districts. 

What challenges do women face in building a tech career? How can the business community and society address this issue collectively and efficiently?

The world is changing, but it is still hard to find the right mentors who would groom and support you. Workplace sexism is common, but it’s the same as any other subsection of society. You have to learn to navigate it and choose your battles wisely. The biggest challenge is to define your own model of leadership that may or may not take after the traditional patriarchal mold. Collectively, we have to support women, recognize their struggles, make it easier for them to work, and voice their opinions. It starts with small things, ask the quiet one in the room what they think, amplify their voice if it makes sense. 

What qualities do women inherently bring to the table that make them assets in a tech company?

There is no one mould, but largely because of the way women are reared, the ability to multitask becomes second nature. In addition, women often make for leaders who are open to collaboration and feedback. This is crucial in an innovative technology company that prototypes very fast. 

How do you think startups are moving the needle in terms of supporting more women to participate in tech building/development?

The biggest hurdle for women in corporate jobs is to advance or even stay in the workforce beyond middle management. This has a multitude of reasons starting with implicit bias in decision makers, non conducive work environment, and family responsibilities. Even though startups are hard work, given the right team, they do free women to mould their careers based on their own passions, needs or principles. In addition, startups are amenable to remote and flexible work hours contributing to a more fulfilling professional journey. DronaMaps not only has a female cofounder but strong women in the lead like Poonam Gupta who are coming with a decade of corporate experience as well. We are trying to adapt the work environment on both technology and business ends to be nurturing towards female talent. 

What's the one thing that you see AI transforming completely?

Industry automation is one key area where you notice AI becoming transformational largely driven by financial motivations. On a consumer level, AI is changing the way we interact with technology be it speech based commands, image recognition, etc. In terms of user experience that means that cars can drive themselves, Alexa can understand what you mean and which song you want. Granted there’s still a lot of room for growth left. 

What is your biggest AI nightmare?

All algorithms are only as good as the data they are trained on, my biggest AI nightmare is AI will imbibe the prejudices of human beings. We know that from facial recognition algorithms that fare worse with coloured women or algorithms meant for judicial departments reflecting historic biases because of the data they are trained on. Any artificial intelligence that is designed to aid decision making and is a black box has the potential to skew the direction society takes in a very tangible way. 

What's your advice for other women who want to pursue a journey similar to yours?

Once you perceive your career as a design problem, things become easier. That means you are the product, the market only forms the external forces. You want to design and prototype yourself based on feedback but also with a vision for who you want to be in ten years time. Make small changes, curiosity is everything. That’s all you need to really learn — question everything, read everything you can get your hands on. Artificial Intelligence algorithms can learn how to do mundane tasks, what they can’t do is find patterns, identify the salient parts of a complex problem, create a strategy to solve it one by one.

Always have that vision in sight. James Baldwin had expressed this thought beautifully- “Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance.”

I am a Biomedical Engineer with little formal education in many of the buzzword-worthy complex technologies I have worked with in the last few years, or even in conducting a massive public health initiative for an unprecedented pandemic. I read widely, and learned. The one thing I always tell myself is that failure is part and parcel of things and creating a career is a long-term process.