Women Leading Visual Tech

Since 2012, we have been showcasing brilliant women whose work in visual tech and AI is reshaping business and society. In 2020, we started our “Women Leading Visual Tech” series. We are thrilled to showcase an expanded list of women behind many of the technological innovations that we experience today. Their contributions are extremely valuable to our ecosystem and the world. Our initial list consists of 121 names placed in alphabetical order. It features experts in machine vision, pattern recognition and generative models for digitizing the real world, as well as leaders in quantum hardware, nanophotonics and semiconductors which is the foundation for all the visual tech and AI progress.

Recent Highlights

An Electrician For the Heart On Delivering Personalized Healthcare via 4D Imaging & Artificial Intelligence

We chatted with Dr. Elaine Wan about noninvasive 3D and 4D imaging of the heart, how AI can help us make sense of all the data that our wearables collect, the impact of COVID-19 on hearts and so much more!

Can AI Detect and Identify Changes in Our Well-Being? Meet Karin Andrea Stephan of Earkick

Meet Karin Andrea Stephan – a serial entrepreneur, community leader, and startup coach. She has deep domain expertise in tracking mental health and in 2021, Karin Andrea co-founded Earkick to build the world’s first data-driven mental health tracker via multimodal sentiment analysis of physiological biomarkers.

The Magic of Engineering and Computer Science With Dr. Karen Panetta

The next guest in our Women Leading Visual Tech interview series is Dr. Karen Panetta – an electrical and computer engineer, inventor and Dean of Graduate Education for the School of Engineering at Tufts University. Abigail Hunter-Syed, Partner at LDV Capital, chatted with Karen about teaching computers to see like humans, the role of diversity of perspectives, social impact projects, the role of AI in biological image processing and so much more!

Women Leading Visual Tech: Radically Transforming Fashion

Our second Women Leading Visual Tech community event was all about fashion. In case you missed it, this is your chance to watch the keynote presentations by Caley Taylor of CLO Virtual Fashion, Madeleine Gong of Wearable X, and Neha Singh of Obsess.

Digital Fashion Gives Creators a New Form of Identity and Self-Expression in a Virtual World

Abby Hunter-Syed, Partner at LDV Capital, interviewed Caley Taylor, 3D Design Team Lead at CLO Virtual Fashion. They spoke about digital garments, 3D mockups and virtual fitting – all of which are revolutionizing the fashion industry today. Join us on December 8, and see where it’s all headed and whether we’ll all care for our virtual closets no less than for the physical ones.

Wearable Technology Delivers Smart Clothing

Abby Hunter-Syed, Partner at LDV Capital, interviewed Madeleine Gong of Wearable X. They spoke about the intersection of wearable technology and fashion. They briefly touched on mushroom leather and the introduction of skincare into textiles – join us virtually on December 8 to learn more.

The Future of Effortlessly Cinematic AI-powered Video Storytelling with Aquifer

Thrilled to introduce the new guest in our Women Leading Visual Tech series. Meet Chen Zhang, co-founder & CEO at Aquifer – an AI-powered platform for teams and creators to make stunning animated videos and livestreams with their brand's IP in minutes.

Interactive 3D Virtual Stores and More Fashion Tech

In the lead-up to our second live community event, “Radically Transforming Fashion”, Abby Hunter-Syed, Partner at LDV Capital, had an opportunity to chat with Neha Singh of Obsess.

Can AI Generate Visual Content for Social Media?

Can AI create visual metaphors for creative ads? Can it understand the contextual meaning behind them? Is it the future of content creation? We are honored to have Dr. Lydia Chilton, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, in our Women Leading Visual Tech series. Lydia leads the research about the creative design process from a computational standpoint. She builds AI tools that enhance people’s productivity.

The Future of Online Shopping and Digital Fashion

50% of clothing items purchased online are returned, in part, due to poor size or fit. Nour Karessli, Senior Data Scientist at Zalando, is utilizing state-of-the-art computer vision and AI to improve online shopping. She leverages the visual cues present in fashion images for a better understanding of the complex problem of size and fit.

Can We Compare Robots to Animals and Build Diverse Relationships With Them?

We welcome Dr. Kate Darling in our Women Leading Visual Tech interview series. She is a leading expert in Robot Ethics and a researcher at MIT's Media Lab. Abigail Hunter-Syed and Dr. Darling spoke about our tendency to assign human characteristics to the machines in our lives - anyone else ever apologizes to Roomba? How about cursed at Alexa? See how Dr. Darling thinks we should approach our relationships with robots.

Can Meta-Learning Unlock the Magic of AI?

Honored to have DeepMind’s senior research scientist Dr. Jane Wang in our monthly interview series. This interview was recorded live on March 18th at our very first Women Leading Visual Tech community event. Jane spoke with Abby Hunter-Syed, Partner at LDV Capital, about how and where meta-learning will generate opportunities for business and society.

The Interesting Interplay Between Biological Intelligence & Artificial Intelligence

Meet Dr. Mackenzie Mathis – a new guest in our monthly Women Leading Visual Tech series. She is a neuroscientist, a tenure-track professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, working within the Brain Mind Institute and Center for Neuroprosthetics. Dr. Mathis founded the Adaptive Motor Control Lab to investigate the neural basis of adaptive motor behaviors in mice to inform future translational research in neurological diseases.

Interview with Dr. Sujatha Ramanujan, Managing Director of Luminate

The next guest in our Women Leading Visual Tech series is Dr. Sujatha Ramanujan, a serial entrepreneur and seasoned executive with 25 years of experience in medical devices and consumer electronics. She currently serves as the Managing Director of Luminate – the world’s largest accelerator for startups with optics, photonics, and imaging enabled applications.

“Robotics Makes Us Superhuman,” Says Carol Reiley, the Mother of Robots

The next guest in our Women Leading Visual Tech Series is Carol Reiley, a serial entrepreneur and a computer scientist with the nickname “Mother of Robots”. LDV Capital’s Abigail Hunter-Syed spoke with Carol about current trends in robotics and AI. They touched on autonomous cars, healthcare, the food industry, and arts – all subject to being drastically transformed by advances in deep learning.

Dr. Kavita Bala on Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Industry

Please meet Kavita Bala – the next guest in our monthly Women Leading Visual Tech interview series. She is one of our most distinguished scholars, the dean of the Faculty of Computing and Information Science at Cornell University. Her work on scalable rendering, Lightcuts, is the algorithm in Autodesk’s cloud renderer.

Esther Dyson on Investing in Insurance, Mapping, Mental Health, and Telehealth

This month, in our Women Leading Visual Tech series we are honored to showcase Esther Dyson – an investor, journalist, author, businesswoman, commentator, and philanthropist.

“AI is like a toddler in terms of the sophistication of understanding human emotions,” Says Dr. Rana el Kaliouby

Our next guest in the Women Leading Visual Tech series is Dr. Rana el Kaliouby, Co-Founder and CEO at Affectiva. This technology has numerous applications, from mental health to automotive.

Lourdes Agapito On Synthetic Media and Its Way To Transform The Film Industry, Online Shopping, and More

Our next guest in the Women Leading Visual Tech series is Lourdes Agapito. LDV Capital’s Abigail Hunter-Syed spoke with Lourdes about her research and her journey through computer vision.