Pursuing the Next Level of AI

  In recent years, many of her graduate students have gone to work at Google.
  However she tries to persuade undergraduates to stay in academia and not 
  rush off to become software engineers at start-up companies.

  She acknowledges that the allure of Silicon Valley riches
  can be seductive. “My husband still berates me for not 
  having jumped on the Google bandwagon at the beginning,” 
  she said. Still, she insists she does not regret her 
  decision to stay in academia. “I like the freedom to 
  explore the things I care about,” she said.

It worries me how many people do take the easy option of heading off to "chair warmer" jobs at places like Google rather than work in lower-paid, but ultimately more rewarding, academic and research jobs. What's even more odd is how few people when exposed to the commercial world actually return to the academic world.

There's a lot of work to be done in the fields of computer science and computer engineering, and a lot of the people who could be making the breakthroughs are instead chasing the dollar. We can't blame them, but instead perhaps we should be looking for ways to ensure the cream of the crop have, at least, an appealing alternative in doing research.

She entered university at 13 1/2 yrs old, taught a course at that university when she was 17, and got her Master's at 18. Thank goodness she's not lured by the money - this is an intellectual powerhouse!

She's also firmly in my list of successful women in tech.