can I please ask you to put your thumb
up Thanks
can you please move it I came you now
please close your eyes and move it again
easy right well for some people that had
a stroke for example it’s not an
evidence thing anymore to do because
essentially because of the way their
brain has been damaged because of the
stroke the connection between their
brain and their motor skills has been
damaged so it’s really hard for them to
actually do this movement that is really
easy for you and myself I had an
accident as well about eight years ago
that left me in the dependence on other
people and losing my mobility for quite
some time and that actually led me to
creating my own side of them and being
here on this stage in the end as a kid I
was really passionate about science
engineering medicine and space and I
really wanted to pursue something in
there in those regions further down the
line in my career and so I had two parts
that I wanted to go on and that was
medicine and engineering and I decided
to combine both and become a biomedical
engineering scientist and when going and
doing different jobs well as a
biomedical engineering scientists and I
worked for some amazing amazing
organizations such as UNESCO and while I
was at UNESCO I worked with great
organizations such as different UN
bodies and the World Health Organization
I was working on projects within science
technology engineering to really in the
emerging economies and developing
countries to really boost the Science
and Technology and Eric on the local
economy with people in those countries
and I really learned a lot about how
important it is to use the technologies
that we have here to make an impact in
emerging economies and help people live
better lives and help them achieve more
really so when we look at the UN
Development Goals there are really some
core areas that they focus on
sustainability health care education
reducing inequality and
this is it’s really there where it takes
for good can make a difference because
by using technology we can really help
people and when we look at emergency
situations such as when there is a
crisis within a city for example because
of or a country because of whether it’s
a war zone or natural disasters we need
to be able to deploy emergency housing
really quickly and so by using one boat
mechanical engineering structures and
civil engineering to offer these
structures to those people but also if
we can incorporate technologies such as
solar cells to offer electricity to
those tents for example we can actually
offer those people a better way to
survive in very very hard crisis
situations another really important
technology that has been developed for
visually impaired people is a tool that
really helps people with the
identification of objects or when
they’re walking around the street when
they’re shopping they can pick up a box
the camera could identify for them what
actually it is that they’re picking up
which color of sweater that they’re
holding and really help them live a more
independent life that without without it
they would really struggle more the
genome mapping has been a really great
example of a collaborative effort that
has been enabled by technology and the
open source initiative is really a great
example of showing when people come
together when people share research and
data they can really achieve great
things because it’s only because of
sharing the data that they could
actually that they were actually able to
map the genome to be able to identify
certain genes that are responsible for
diseases and help how basically people
get better quicker so it’s all about
making an impact and I’m sure you’ve all
have asked yourself the question how can
I make an impact I really want to make
an impact and speak up how can I raise
my voice to help people in need of of
tools to live a better lives so how can
you help so tech needs more diverse
insights when we look on the left
see a heart implants one of the first
heart implants that were basically
developed for male bodies which means
that in a lot of cases they were not
possible to insert them in female bodies
just because of the different structure
on the right you see a water tap that
we’ve all used it’s it’s using sensors
but actually a lot of the water taps in
the past they would only respond to
white skin so they had a racial bias so
darker skin the water would not come out
period trekkers I see lots of women in
the audience
we all have have to deal with it on a
monthly basis well period trackers are a
great thing initially you think but
actually a lot of them they don’t
predict really well the cycles for women
because also they every woman is very
individual has a different cycle
prediction wise there’s very few of the
period trackers out there that actually
have the insights that they need to make
trackers that are actually valuable for
women so women can really make a big
difference there to even country country
will contribute more to make these
products better facial recognition bias
just recently a Google exec was talking
about facial recognition bias because a
lot of the systems that have been
developed are trained using white male
images so one day those facial
recognition bias systems are identifying
certain things they have a bias because
they’ve been trained using these white
male images basically and then in
healthcare I’m deeply passionate about
healthcare technology but we’re in
healthcare when you leave out half of
the population to develop drugs you
really have a problem before a lot of
the cardiovascular drugs for example
were these were developed based on
trials that were mainly having male
subjects the half of the population is
women they struggle with cardiovascular
diseases in equal amounts as men but
because they haven’t been trialed on
women we don’t really know how they
respond how women will respond to your
drugs for example so we have a really
big issue there the gender gap that
exists within medical research it
getting better we still need to improve
and push to include more women in
studies to make sure that we cater for
everyone so healthcare technology coming
back to the example before of moving
your thumb and the stroke patients we
basically want to connect the brain
again with the motor skills of patients
so how can we do that and that’s really
where virtual reality comes in because
this is one of our platforms where
people have to move objects around they
do rotational movements reaching
grabbing we give them challenges but
they’re training their upper limb and
because it’s so immersive virtual
reality we can actually trick the brain
into thinking that they’re actually
moving physical objects around well in
the virtual world they’re doing it
obviously with virtual objects but in
the physical world most of the patient’s
stroke patients they really struggle
just to hold this object and as you can
see on the right as well it’s a
Paralympic athlete that I’ve worked with
and he was paralyzed from the waste time
three times because of a spinal tumor in
his neck and he used visual stimulation
constantly to get better and to be able
to walk again and all three times that
he was paralyzed from the waist time he
was walking again after eight weeks so
that was really incredible as a result
so VR has an incredible potential in
helping people to get better one we can
make it really sorry we can make it
really fun and engaging we can offer
people a lot of different interactions
with objects we’re in the physical world
they cannot do it now we can also reduce
the waiting times for patients we’re
currently some hospitals they have
waiting times up to nine months which is
a really big problem not only because we
miss a big window of opportunity and
helping people to get better but we also
put a really heavy burden on their
mental health so people really get
impressed within that time and then when
they actually get transferred into your
rehab facility it’s really hard to
reverse that cycle and really help them
get better again so we are
it’s an incredible kind of ecosystem
that is that is growing at the moment it
a very new ecosystem and we really have
an opportunity there to make a
difference because we can grow a very
inclusive diverse and accessible
environment unlike the tech community
today which is so very much
male-dominated and so I was part of a
community of twenty women some time ago
that came together we all work in for a
true reality and we came together to
write a vision statement for women and
virtual reality around the workforce
around representation of virtual reality
in the media around hiring people within
within a team to focus on hiring diverse
scenes on creating content that is
actually not offensive to women in in
any way or on the represented groups and
to really create a culture within these
new companies VR allowed companies that
is actually diverse inclusive and
accessible for everyone that needs to be
able to access it and work within the
space so we have a manifesto online
basically we ask companies that feel
like pledging and following our vision
for the future and hopefully create an
environment that is really accessible
and and diverse and inclusive for people
to get into this space so how can you
help I would really urge you to
challenge companies that you see that
have a clear bias against women and
underrepresented groups to challenge
them in some way to speak up whether
it’s through letters or through engaging
with them in in some way to make your
voice heard and say that it’s really not
acceptable what what those companies are
doing so also supports projects led by
women and underrepresented groups that
are leading amazing projects where and
trying to make a social impact and its
really by supporting those women and
underrepresented groups that we can
really grow their social impact
community further and reach more people
in the future to help and and help them
lead a better life as well also you can
join companies and try to make a
difference from the inside by joining
them and by helping to grow their
diverse workforce
four words and always remember to speak
up whenever possible so it’s all about
community and its really take for good
and making an impact on societies with a
collective effort we have to come
together as a society to help I make a
difference on people’s lives because
it’s only then that we will be able to
reach all the people that we need to
reach and help them lead a better life
thank you [Applause]
up Thanks
can you please move it I came you now
please close your eyes and move it again
easy right well for some people that had
a stroke for example it’s not an
evidence thing anymore to do because
essentially because of the way their
brain has been damaged because of the
stroke the connection between their
brain and their motor skills has been
damaged so it’s really hard for them to
actually do this movement that is really
easy for you and myself I had an
accident as well about eight years ago
that left me in the dependence on other
people and losing my mobility for quite
some time and that actually led me to
creating my own side of them and being
here on this stage in the end as a kid I
was really passionate about science
engineering medicine and space and I
really wanted to pursue something in
there in those regions further down the
line in my career and so I had two parts
that I wanted to go on and that was
medicine and engineering and I decided
to combine both and become a biomedical
engineering scientist and when going and
doing different jobs well as a
biomedical engineering scientists and I
worked for some amazing amazing
organizations such as UNESCO and while I
was at UNESCO I worked with great
organizations such as different UN
bodies and the World Health Organization
I was working on projects within science
technology engineering to really in the
emerging economies and developing
countries to really boost the Science
and Technology and Eric on the local
economy with people in those countries
and I really learned a lot about how
important it is to use the technologies
that we have here to make an impact in
emerging economies and help people live
better lives and help them achieve more
really so when we look at the UN
Development Goals there are really some
core areas that they focus on
sustainability health care education
reducing inequality and
this is it’s really there where it takes
for good can make a difference because
by using technology we can really help
people and when we look at emergency
situations such as when there is a
crisis within a city for example because
of or a country because of whether it’s
a war zone or natural disasters we need
to be able to deploy emergency housing
really quickly and so by using one boat
mechanical engineering structures and
civil engineering to offer these
structures to those people but also if
we can incorporate technologies such as
solar cells to offer electricity to
those tents for example we can actually
offer those people a better way to
survive in very very hard crisis
situations another really important
technology that has been developed for
visually impaired people is a tool that
really helps people with the
identification of objects or when
they’re walking around the street when
they’re shopping they can pick up a box
the camera could identify for them what
actually it is that they’re picking up
which color of sweater that they’re
holding and really help them live a more
independent life that without without it
they would really struggle more the
genome mapping has been a really great
example of a collaborative effort that
has been enabled by technology and the
open source initiative is really a great
example of showing when people come
together when people share research and
data they can really achieve great
things because it’s only because of
sharing the data that they could
actually that they were actually able to
map the genome to be able to identify
certain genes that are responsible for
diseases and help how basically people
get better quicker so it’s all about
making an impact and I’m sure you’ve all
have asked yourself the question how can
I make an impact I really want to make
an impact and speak up how can I raise
my voice to help people in need of of
tools to live a better lives so how can
you help so tech needs more diverse
insights when we look on the left
see a heart implants one of the first
heart implants that were basically
developed for male bodies which means
that in a lot of cases they were not
possible to insert them in female bodies
just because of the different structure
on the right you see a water tap that
we’ve all used it’s it’s using sensors
but actually a lot of the water taps in
the past they would only respond to
white skin so they had a racial bias so
darker skin the water would not come out
period trekkers I see lots of women in
the audience
we all have have to deal with it on a
monthly basis well period trackers are a
great thing initially you think but
actually a lot of them they don’t
predict really well the cycles for women
because also they every woman is very
individual has a different cycle
prediction wise there’s very few of the
period trackers out there that actually
have the insights that they need to make
trackers that are actually valuable for
women so women can really make a big
difference there to even country country
will contribute more to make these
products better facial recognition bias
just recently a Google exec was talking
about facial recognition bias because a
lot of the systems that have been
developed are trained using white male
images so one day those facial
recognition bias systems are identifying
certain things they have a bias because
they’ve been trained using these white
male images basically and then in
healthcare I’m deeply passionate about
healthcare technology but we’re in
healthcare when you leave out half of
the population to develop drugs you
really have a problem before a lot of
the cardiovascular drugs for example
were these were developed based on
trials that were mainly having male
subjects the half of the population is
women they struggle with cardiovascular
diseases in equal amounts as men but
because they haven’t been trialed on
women we don’t really know how they
respond how women will respond to your
drugs for example so we have a really
big issue there the gender gap that
exists within medical research it
getting better we still need to improve
and push to include more women in
studies to make sure that we cater for
everyone so healthcare technology coming
back to the example before of moving
your thumb and the stroke patients we
basically want to connect the brain
again with the motor skills of patients
so how can we do that and that’s really
where virtual reality comes in because
this is one of our platforms where
people have to move objects around they
do rotational movements reaching
grabbing we give them challenges but
they’re training their upper limb and
because it’s so immersive virtual
reality we can actually trick the brain
into thinking that they’re actually
moving physical objects around well in
the virtual world they’re doing it
obviously with virtual objects but in
the physical world most of the patient’s
stroke patients they really struggle
just to hold this object and as you can
see on the right as well it’s a
Paralympic athlete that I’ve worked with
and he was paralyzed from the waste time
three times because of a spinal tumor in
his neck and he used visual stimulation
constantly to get better and to be able
to walk again and all three times that
he was paralyzed from the waist time he
was walking again after eight weeks so
that was really incredible as a result
so VR has an incredible potential in
helping people to get better one we can
make it really sorry we can make it
really fun and engaging we can offer
people a lot of different interactions
with objects we’re in the physical world
they cannot do it now we can also reduce
the waiting times for patients we’re
currently some hospitals they have
waiting times up to nine months which is
a really big problem not only because we
miss a big window of opportunity and
helping people to get better but we also
put a really heavy burden on their
mental health so people really get
impressed within that time and then when
they actually get transferred into your
rehab facility it’s really hard to
reverse that cycle and really help them
get better again so we are
it’s an incredible kind of ecosystem
that is that is growing at the moment it
a very new ecosystem and we really have
an opportunity there to make a
difference because we can grow a very
inclusive diverse and accessible
environment unlike the tech community
today which is so very much
male-dominated and so I was part of a
community of twenty women some time ago
that came together we all work in for a
true reality and we came together to
write a vision statement for women and
virtual reality around the workforce
around representation of virtual reality
in the media around hiring people within
within a team to focus on hiring diverse
scenes on creating content that is
actually not offensive to women in in
any way or on the represented groups and
to really create a culture within these
new companies VR allowed companies that
is actually diverse inclusive and
accessible for everyone that needs to be
able to access it and work within the
space so we have a manifesto online
basically we ask companies that feel
like pledging and following our vision
for the future and hopefully create an
environment that is really accessible
and and diverse and inclusive for people
to get into this space so how can you
help I would really urge you to
challenge companies that you see that
have a clear bias against women and
underrepresented groups to challenge
them in some way to speak up whether
it’s through letters or through engaging
with them in in some way to make your
voice heard and say that it’s really not
acceptable what what those companies are
doing so also supports projects led by
women and underrepresented groups that
are leading amazing projects where and
trying to make a social impact and its
really by supporting those women and
underrepresented groups that we can
really grow their social impact
community further and reach more people
in the future to help and and help them
lead a better life as well also you can
join companies and try to make a
difference from the inside by joining
them and by helping to grow their
diverse workforce
four words and always remember to speak
up whenever possible so it’s all about
community and its really take for good
and making an impact on societies with a
collective effort we have to come
together as a society to help I make a
difference on people’s lives because
it’s only then that we will be able to
reach all the people that we need to
reach and help them lead a better life
thank you [Applause]
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