Dr. Aisha Walcott is a Senior Staff Research Scientist and co-lead for Google Research Africa with sites in Accra, Ghana, and Nairobi, Kenya. She has over a decade of experience working in Africa and leading teams to develop innovative technologies that leverage AI and computing to address some of Africa’s most pressing challenges and to explore the vast opportunities. Aisha is currently leading and driving Google Research Africa’s food security agriculture research, where she and her team are developing AI technology and tools that address food insecurity in Africa and globally. Prior to her time at Google, Aisha was a Senior Technical Staff Member at IBM Research Africa, and led projects in developing AI tools for a range of areas including global health and healthcare, water management and access, as well as mobility and transportation. Currently, she serves as the Associate Vice President for IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Robotics and Automation Society’s Technical Education Program, is on the board for the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) doctoral research program in data science, and was recently on the program committee for the Second US-Africa Frontiers in Science program by the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). Lastly, Aisha was the Workshops co-chair for the International Conference on Learning and Representations 2023 & 2024 (ICLR). Dr. Walcott earned her PhD in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at MIT with a focus on robotics. She has several recognitions including MIT’s MLK Leadership Award and Named one the Top 50 Women in Robotics You Need to Know. Her work has resulted in over 35 patents, and over 30 publications.