‘Women in AI’: First cohort successfully completes training

“I studied at a math school. There were only four girls in the class, and I always heard that the other 22 boys were better at math. The same stereotype applies to technology, which is why there are more boys in this field,” says 21-year-old Tatia Tsiklauri, a data scientist who works at the National Bank of Georgia, in the Financial and Supervisory Technologies Development Department.

At the same time, Tatia is a student in the English-language Economics Faculty of the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University. Today, she officially completed the “Women in AI” training programme and presented her final project. “I heard about the programme at work,” Tatia remarks. “I was very happy when I was accepted. For nine months, I studied all the important components of artificial intelligence and put a lot of effort into this final, labour-intensive project.”

Tatia’s final project is about cancer prediction using machine learning. Together with her group, she created an algorithm that builds a model based on various variables and predicts in advance how high the risk of cancer is for a particular person. “It was a very deliberate and thorough process. We tried to fully apply the knowledge we gained to the final project,” she says.

Tatia is one of the 100 young women who completed the first iteration of Business and Technology University’s (BTU) large-scale training project “Women in AI” and received a corresponding certificate. The training, which was supported by UN Women and funded by the European Union and the Norwegian Government, involved training the participants in artificial intelligence and web development.

“It is very important that through such encouraging initiatives, women are at the forefront of technology, receiving more resources and opportunities for professional development,” adds Tatia. “I hope to effectively use the knowledge I have gained to create new algorithms.”

UN Women is actively working to increase the participation of women and girls in information and communications technology. Following the successful project “500 Women in Tech”, which was implemented in collaboration with BTU and partner tech companies and attracted unprecedented interest, UN Women, together with BTU, planned another initiative: “Women in AI”. The project continues to strengthen and promote the participation of women in technology. Within its framework, 200 women across Georgia will be selected and trained in artificial intelligence and web development over nine months.

The project is implemented with the support of the European Union within the framework of the UN Women regional programme “EU 4 Gender Equality: Together against Gender Stereotypes and Gender-Based Violence”, as well as within the framework of the Women’s Economic Empowerment component of the UN Women project “Good Governance for Gender Equality in Georgia”, funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).