Maria's Story

I grew up in a small town in Northern Spain. I think my interest in computers really began with game play. I had a Playstation 2 and a Gameboy and I loved Zelda and Pokemon I liked video games and I liked being around computers but without really knowing what they were doing so I chose an undergraduate degree in Software Engineering . By the end of it, I wanted more. I went to a lecture about Intelligent Systems and I thought this is what I want to do. I did a Masters in Artificial Intelligence. I wanted to do research but it was very difficult to get the funding for me to do that in Spain so I was forced to look more widely. The position here in Groningen within the Intelligent Systems team felt perfect because it would allow me to study exactly what I wanted to.

All my friends from my hometown went into teaching, nursing or nursery care. I just didn't take to those things. No one went to engineering, chemistry, to maths. I was the only one who liked those things. I think some girls might find that hard because when you are little, it’s very natural for kids to want to feel like they are the same as their friends. For me it was made easier because in my family we are only women, so no one told me 'No your brother should do that, or this is not for you.’ I was taught that I could do anything.

Even so, I felt like I must belong to a very small minority of women who have interests like me. When I started in computer science, in my undergraduate course I was the only girl out of a class of fourteen people. During my Masters there were only three girls in a class of fifty. It could feel like there just weren’t many girls like me in the world. Coming to Groningen has shifted my perspective on that. Here, there are four Faculty members, one of whom is female, and twenty two PhD students, about 50% of whom are female. For the first time in my life I am surrounded by girls like me. It's like finding my tribe!

The experience of being surrounded by many other girls like me has given me even more confidence in myself and my instincts. I used to think my interests were very different from those of the rest of the girls around me, and that somehow that made me different. Now I would say to other girls: it's okay to be who you are, even when you're the only one who likes what you like. In fact, it's essential to hold on to that and explore it as far as you can - because it's what will open up your future for you.

It has been three years since I took that lecture in Intelligent Systems. I am half way towards a PhD. I am learning a lot. The project is very interesting, it's constantly challenging, I'm working with people from Europe, China, India, America and travelling all over Europe. In this project, the problem I am working on is the problem of representation learning. I am contributing algorithms that will allow the machine to better understand where it is in in its environment when the incoming image from the camera doesn’t offer any distinguishing features. Algorithms for representation learning can be used by machines in gardening, in medicine - it's very broad. It's fantastic.

At the same time, it’s not easy. In high school, I struggled with maths but that didn't stop me. Not finding PhD funding in my country didn't stop me. Feeling like I was in a minority as a girl in computer science courses, and amongst girls too, didn’t stop me This work challenges me too, but I know to preserve in the process. I think that’s a lesson for all of us.

In closing I would say to other girls: Do what you like and not what you are told you should like. You will find your tribe. In my lab now, I am surrounded by four girls and only one guy. Those other girls are working with intelligent systems to calculate the timing of and the measure the first rays of the start of the universe. I am working on representation in robotics that will one day contribute to autonomous driving, medicine, gardening, agriculture and more. Girls aren’t just teachers, or nursery teachers, or nurses. We are researchers, lecturers, professors, physicists and roboticists too.