Pallavi is a Principal Scientist and Group Leader at Philips Research Bangalore. She leads a team of around 40 scientists and research engineers to innovate and develop first of the kind solutions for healthcare applications, especially in the domain of ultrasound. She is passionate about using her skills in image processing, signal processing and AI to develop healthcare solutions to improve the lives of people especially women and children globally. 

Can you tell us about your AI journey?  

I started my AI journey during my PhD days between 2002 and 2007. I used machine learning-based techniques to automatically identify critical events in a video, including sports, medical, etc. After my PhD, I joined Philips as a senior scientist in the Philips Research department and have been developing healthcare applications, especially in the ultrasound domain, using AI techniques. Currently, I lead a team of scientists and engineers who develop novel AI-based algorithms to support clinical decision-making, improve the clinical workflow, etc. and deploy them in the Philips ultrasound systems to release new features and solutions to our customers. Starting as an AI researcher in academia, then as a scientist in industry, and now as the leader of a team of AI scientists and engineers, the journey has been incredible. I am extremely content that the AI innovations I am developing will greatly impact maternal mortality and morbidity and improve the lives of pregnant women and their newborns.  

What is your area of expertise in AI, and what made you choose it?   

Realizing the potential of AI to make a difference in people's lives by transforming healthcare drew me to this field. I have done my PhD in computer science engineering from IIT Kharagpur in image processing, computer vision, and machine learning. Applying AI-based techniques to medical images and signals to extract meaningful information, develop a novel solution, work with multidisciplinary teams (engineers, doctors, scientists, designers, etc.) and, most importantly, improve people's lives made me choose this area. I specialize in developing AI-based solutions for Ultrasound systems.  

Can you say something about your current role and your handling projects?   

I am a Principal Scientist and Group Leader at Philips Research Bangalore. I have been working with Philips Research since 2007. I lead a team of scientists and research engineers to innovate and develop first-of-a-kind solutions for healthcare applications, especially in the domain of ultrasound. I am passionate about using my skills in AI to develop healthcare solutions to improve people's lives, especially women and children, globally. I have been able to drive research innovation roadmaps and carry out industrial research that has led to first-of-a-kind prototypes and new features for products, generating intellectual property for Philips. I have around 20 international patents granted and 35 patents filed, and I have published about 20 research articles in reputed conferences and journals.  

Describe some challenges you have faced in reaching where you are now.   

I have to admit that I have faced different kinds of challenges at various stages of my career. It started with managing and balancing priorities at work and home after my daughter was born. Thanks to my family, who stood by my side and supported me. As I started to grow as a leader, it involved much more than being put in a leadership role. It was a fundamental identity shift for me. Starting from speaking up to express my opinions, acquiring new skills, and adapting my style to the requirements of the roles that I took were a few of the challenges that I not only faced but was also able to overcome to reach where I am now.   

Do you see enough female leadership roles in corporates? In your opinion, what should change?  

India produces more female graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) than developed nations, yet we see very few women tech leaders and tech startups run by women today. Moreover, young women today don't have many examples to reach out to due to a lack of women in middle management or executive teams.  

Lack of confidence in women is one of the most critical barriers preventing them from achieving their full potential. Several studies and research have indicated the same. In my opinion, women need to take the opportunity to self-promote, self-advocate and be assertive to build visibility and credibility. This will help them to take on leadership roles. Hence, corporates need to drive training programs for women to help them understand their full potential.  

Discrimination by AI is a genuine concern while ensuring data integrity - does this exist? If so, how can it be addressed?   

Yes, AI can indeed be discriminative. AI models make decisions based on the data they have been trained with. If the data used for training an AI algorithm is biased, then the decisions made by AI will be equally biased. Therefore, scientists and researchers need to ensure that the algorithms they develop are unbiased by providing that the training data represents all the real-world scenario elements. In addition, efforts need to be made by regulatory or legal bodies across the globe to audit AI-driven activities in terms of bias.  

What do you want to say to women who wish to build careers in AI and other tech-related fields?  

Women face many challenges when pursuing their careers in tech fields. But my advice to budding women who want to have a career in tech fields is that they should convert these challenges into opportunities. This is because almost every aspect of our society depends on technological R&D discoveries and endeavors, including technology developed to save lives (for example, during pandemics) or to make our lives simpler and easier.