What I Do I develop predictive models to estimate values (from natural gas flowing through transmission pipelines to crop yield and and risk of families becoming homeless) using machine learning algorithms.
Why Engineering? I was told that engineering school would teach me how to learn anything! Also, Math and Physics were my favorite disciplines in High School, and I like the combination of theory and practice that engineering offers, along with the fact that our profession revolves around problem solving.
School Days I attended the University of Brasilia, located in Brazil's capital and consistently ranked as one of the top 5 public universities in Brazil. Later I specialized in got an MBA in IT Management and more recently a Data Analytics / Big Data Certificate from UT Extended Campus.
My Day At Work Most of the time I'm developing machine learning and heuristics models using Python to predict things like citrus fruit yield in Florida or risk of fraud in an online market place.
Best Part The opportunity to interact with very talented people, both from the technical and business worlds. Being in Data Science allows you to work along with many people from different areas, and learn from their experiences.
Proud Moments Having two books published in Brazil on the subject of IT management that have had several reprints and are adopted by several high education institution. Only a few books are selected for publishing by that mainstream editor each year, and when my first one made the cut, it was the only one not written by a male PhD professor.
Challenges I can't say I had many challenges. I was lucky to have parents that cared about giving the best education to their children, and showing them the value of studying hard. This helped get me accepted by a prestigious engineering school funded by the Brazilian federal government, and opened many doors in my career.
My Family I'm married to another Engineer (we met at school). He is an accomplished engineer who has won awards for solutions he created for telecommunications companies in Brazil. He got a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh and works as a researcher.
Dreams and Goals I tend not to make plans! I thought I would be an electronic engineer working on development of electronic devices all my life, but after 2 years working in this field, new challenges presented themselves and I became an information technology consultant. I'm now back to a more technical field, working with mobile device, sensor, drone, and satellite data. The only important short- and long-term goals I have are to keep learning about different aspects of work and life.
Inspiration My husband is my inspiration. He is always learning new things and exposing me to new ideas and movies I wouldn't necessarily pay attention to if it weren't for him sharing.
Want to be an Engineer? Don't let negative remarks about your gender or abilities affect you. When I was in engineering school, I applied to an internship at an electrical power company and heard from a senior manager that it was not "the right field for a woman". I didn't give up, and had an amazing experience working as an intern for another department of the same company.
Hobbies I like to play the piano (Brazilian tangos and Tom Jobim) and read (my favorite author is José Saramago, a Portuguese writer).