Make technology human

It was no surprise when Andreea Moga opted to study artificial intelligence. Growing up in a tech-minded family in Romania, she started programming at a young age. Andreea is currently the AI Education Lead at CGI Nederland.

Have you always wanted to be in digital technology?

Both my parents are engineers, so tech and engineering were normal to me. In my school we were never told by teachers this is a man’s work or career path for men only. I got my first computer when I was 14 years old and I wrote my first program in Pascal and Borland C language. At High School, I was also taught programming and I have always wanted to go on the mathematics and informatics career path.

What has been your biggest challenge?

As a single woman in a predominantly male career, you still get men who stereotype and underestimate you. They have ignored my advice when I noticed issues or mistakes. My findings had to be validated by a man, even though I had solid arguments.

What is your career goal?

My career goal is to stay in the digital world and making sure we build moral and ethical solutions. My mission is to make technology work for humans, not against us. I hope I can achieve creating a community where people work together with the technology in a cross-functional team with expertise from different fields, not only tech, but also sociologists, designers, and engineers through collaboration.

Any advice for others?

Find a community and build things through collaboration and mentoring, be more human and achieve your career goals through moral and ethical actions. Love what you do and do it with passion!

How did you hear about RightBrains?

I was already busy with efforts to get more women in tech, software engineering and machine learning when a friend of mine introduced me to Geke. Being the only girl-programmer in a team of men made me decide to join RightBrains to promote gender diversity. Believe me, you need a female co-worker!

Why do you think organisations like RightBrains are important?

RightBrains is not just an organisation; it is a community where like-minded women in tech can support each other, mentor, give advice and share lessons learned. Women need to support each other.