Khushboo Verma first became acquainted with computers as a child growing up in Delhi, India’s capital city. Fascinated with innovations in science and technology, she chose to pursue her Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science and is currently in her pre-final year. A self-described developer and technocrat at heart, Khushboo loves to lead, manage teams and solve technical problems.

What inspired your journey to learn more about AI and machine learning?
I admired the fact that I can leverage technology to create products that solve real-life problems and have always been driven by the will to create an impact. When I saw some videos of projects by other people on LinkedIn about gesture recognition and image recognition, I instantly loved it and wanted to explore the field of ML and AI. I actually got to work on ML and AI while creating a product at the Smart India Hackathon with my team. My mentors provided deep insights into how we could use ML in our product and helped us along.

You’ve worked on sentiment analysis, voice recognition, and other specialized areas. Are you drawn to any particular focus? My focus right now is on building a product using AI that can solve real-life problems in my local environment. A lot of conventional practices can be automated to increase convenience and accuracy; I'm currently trying to figure them out.

What projects do you have in the works right now?
Currently I am working on a project that can be used to detect credit card fraud. I'm using synthetic minority over-sampling technique for data point generation and principal component analysis for dimension-reduction. I’m also trying different classifiers to obtain accurate results.

Tell us about some of the technology challenges you’ve had to overcome in your work?
I sometimes run into trouble integrating different frameworks. In one of my projects, the backend was in Python and the ML microservice was in Node.js; it took me a long time to bring them together.

As a woman working in technology, do you have any advice for other women considering this field?
Women have always been a minority in technology. Being from an all-women technical university, I have witnessed that women have a lot of potential to excel in tech. A lot of programs are running currently to help women improve their position in tech – but there is still a long way to go. It’s rightly said that a high tide lifts all boats, so my only advice to other women considering this field would be to keep challenging yourself, consistently try to step out of your comfort zone to become better, and to help other women rise, too.

What near-future trends do you see happening in technology?
It’s tough to make predictions in an ever-changing technology landscape, but I think in the near future most day-to-day tasks will be automated. IoT, AI and ML will be leveraged to build products that make life easier, and new research will pave the way for more discoveries. Also, since data is enormously increasing, cloud computing will become more popular in the coming years. Topics like security and privacy, cost-effective technologies and efficient algorithms will gain attention.

How do you leverage Intel technologies in your work?
Intel has always come up with innovative ideas and products. Since I wish to dive deeper into the fields of machine learning, artificial intelligence and cloud computing, I plan to learn more about Intel resources for AI including Intel DevCloud, Intel Deep Learning Deployment Toolkit (Intel DLDT) and other Intel AI technologies.

As an Innovator, how can Intel help you succeed?
I'm grateful to Intel for making me a part of the Intel Software Innovator program. Intel can help me succeed by continuing to educate me about Intel technologies so that not only can I easily understand them, but also I can feel confident enough to teach others about them as well.

Stepping away from technology, what hobbies do you enjoy?
Communities have a special place in my heart: I co-organize and attend community events, deliver talks, network with like-minded people, and consume information to learn new things. These events have greatly helped me develop my interpersonal skills. Also, I like to sing and read fiction.

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