Insight & DCU researcher Khadija Iddrisu features among Sunday Business Post tech 30 under 30
The first Khadija heard of her inclusion in this year’s list was when a journalist from the Business Post called her to confirm her age. The next thing she knew she was travelling to a photo shoot in Dublin city centre.
Reflecting on the experience and her inspiration on pursuing a career in tech, Khadija said:
My Favourite quote is from Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who made vital contributions to NASA’s early space programmes, ‘Like what you do, and then you will do your best’.
Khadija’s research focuses on the use of event cameras to detect neuro-degenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s by capturing data from eye movements.
Event cameras are imaging sensors which do not use a shutter like conventional cameras. They are superior to other similar technology such as RGB cameras, which cause motion blur. As the eye changes positions rapidly, motion blur leads to data loss. Event cameras allow for more accurate eye tracking.
Khadija is currently living in Galway while she completes an industrial placement with eye tracking technology firm Tobii. She is also preparing a review of existing research on the use of event cameras in this space as the next stage of her PhD.
Alongside her research career, Khadija is also committed to advocating for equal access to education and the tech sector for women of colour. As a co-lead of the Women in Machine Learning and Data Science, Ghana she organises events focused on promoting representation of Gender minorities in the field, as well as highlighting up and coming talent, and arranging panel discussions.
Khadija is also a recipient of the Google and Facebook Sponsored African Masters of Machine Intelligence program and holds a masters in Mathematical Sciences from the African Institute For Mathematical Sciences Ghana. This month, she was invited to the 2024 Deep Learning and Reinforcement Learning Summer School, hosted by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).