Empowering Women in Tech with Rhythm Bhatia – Techstrong Unplugged EP13

Hey everybody and welcome back to Techstrong Unplugged. This is episode 13 of our series, and I'm your host, Atan Solomon on Techstrong Unplugged. We dive into all things tech and get people up to speed with everything happening across the industry.

Recently, Arco Cassandra Chin went to the Great International Developer Summit, also known as GID 2024 at gid. Cassandra sat down with Rhythm Batya, who is the CEO and founder of Cognio Rhythm. Shared her journey from a small town in India to becoming a leader in educational technology and artificial intelligence.

She also highlighted the importance of diversity and inclusion in technology, the need for ethical AI practices and the value of community engagement. Without further ado, let's head over to Gibbs 2024. Welcome back to Text on Unplugged.

I'm your host, Cassandra Chin, and we have Rhythm with us today. Hi, Cassandra, Can you introduce yourselves? Yes, please.

Um, my name is Rhythm Patia. I am a Chief Executive officer and founder of Cognos I, and I'm also associated with companies like Data Profit. Apart from that, I am pursuing my PhD in educational technology and artificial intelligence.

And today I'm excited to have my session on that. Ed gets Definitely very exciting. Have you given that session before?

No, this is my first time. I think you'll do really great. Thank you.

Um, I have taken some sessions, but this is my first with such a, uh, amazing crowd with, uh, and who, so it's enthusiastic people like you. Yeah. I think they're really eager to learn here.

Yes. Yes. I heard that signups for this conference went by instantly.

Yeah. Uh, can you tell me a little bit about how you got started into tech? Well, I come from a small town here in India, uh, camper Pradesh.

And, um, my school had really cool teachers, uh, especially we had a female teacher for computer science, and I used to idolize her. Um, uh, and uh, she got scholarship and she went to USA to pursue her PhD. I got so inspired of like, wow, this is the power of education and technology that, uh, from the small town she's getting to travel the world and achieve and create so many things.

And even when I would spend time in the labs in my school, I would get to create new things and see results there, uh, in form of websites, in form of games. And that is what made me so inspired me. And, uh, and I developed that sort of hunger towards technology there that you can achieve a lot.

You can create a difference and see the cool results as well. And like you're really fortunate that I got introduced to technology with the flood part. Yeah.

Yeah. You said you were introduced with like games and Education, technology. Yeah.

Is there anything which you remember, which was really fun? Well, I remember the fun part was that, um, we started with logo. Uh, that was a basic language, and we used to create games.

Uh, even during my masters, I created a game on using reinforcement, learning the game of chess where you can update the moves. Uh, I think that was very cool. So yeah.

Yeah, I think chess is really fun and the rules are so complicated, But, uh, when you are the one creating algorithm, you know that this one person will win and you can always analyze the patterns there. So did you like program the, any computers play chess or just player versus player? Player Versus player, okay.

Yeah, but I'm more into education technology. My PhD is in that personalized learning analytics using artificial intelligence. So, uh, I get to analyze the psychology part as well and the pattern as well.

So to extend it from the gaming to into the real world. Yeah. Can you explain about the patterns you analyze more?

The patterns we are analyzing in my PhD are, uh, time-based. So it's on more on longitudinal basis. So how a student learns and responds to the exactly the same questionnaire over time, uh, based on different scenarios.

So before exams, what are the response like? And before their holidays, how they respond to the similar questionnaire and what are their thoughts that is going on in the student's mind so that the learning can be made more fun. Like you said, that I'm fortunate that I got introduced, uh, based, uh, to the computer science world.

And the fun part, I feel everyone should be, uh, for everyone. Learning should be fun. I definitely agree with you.

So like people have different answer to questions based on different times. Exactly. And same question based on different times.

So it's just that, uh, they are more stressed, so they will respond to the same questionnaire in a different manner, but if they're more relaxed and having fun, they will respond to the same, same questionnaire in a different manner. So it's a little bit about like human psychology. Exactly.

And artificial intelligence can help us analyze those patterns and help us better. So is artificial intelligence really far along on helping weda analyze? Uh, no, I don't think so.

That it's, uh, uh, struggling at all, if that's what you mean. Uh, but yes, it, uh, it also depends on how we use natural intelligence with artificial intelligence. So it's important that we use it in a responsible manner.

It's important that our algorithms are more inclusive and not biased, biased, uh, to one, any one gender or race per se. Uh, so I think that is very important and that's what even I, I will even cover today in my talk, that it's important to use it in ethical manner and inclusive manner. Yeah, I definitely agree that ethical matters and AI can be a bit tricky.

Exactly. Exactly. So, uh, well, when I'm collecting data, I ensure that, uh, there are people from all the genders that they are represented.

Uh, their own personal or private information is not used there. The security is maintained and, uh, there is no ethically I, we do not manipulate it in an based on our own personal biases. Yeah.

But wouldn't it be difficult to like, uh, grab data from different genders perfectly. It is difficult, but uh, then, uh, we can at least ensure that, uh, in the school, if there are, uh, if they are, uh, there's, uh, underrepresenation offered of gender, we should then adjust our weights accordingly. That is something that we can do as a developer.

Okay. I think that's really cool. Yeah.

Are there any other points you wanna talk about? Uh, I would like to say that, um, uh, especially for females, uh, and for, uh, female, uh, from a place which is underrepresented, uh, be out there, uh, participate more to these conferences, reach out to people like her, uh, so that, uh, we have role models. All of us have role models.

I was fortunate enough to have one. Uh, and I think everyone should have, uh, role models. Like even you, what you are doing is also very awesome, uh, through this.

Uh, Thank you. I definitely agree with you. Yeah.

So like at a conference like this, what steps can we take to try to represent females more or just engage with them? I think, uh, we, uh, do not reach out more. Uh, market yourself on LinkedIn.

Mention out there that, hey, I'm looking for speaking opportunities, uh, be part of, uh, be part of women technical ambassador. I'm part of that. Uh, that's an initiative by Google, uh, which, uh, ensures that, uh, females do get more representation there.

Even, even if you added, even if you are selected and you add there, they give you more speaking opportunities. Um, you get you an algorithm, your name comes up in suggestions more. So be part of these initiatives.

Uh, I am also part of, uh, India, Finland alumni community. I myself, uh, mentioned that, Hey, I heard you are looking for a chairperson. If I can just throw my name in there and see if I can win the elections.

So, uh, be more confident, um, and look out for more opportunities. Do not hesitate to, uh, make that first poll. Uh, uh, so Yeah.

So for the Google initiative, which you're a part of, is there like a minimum bar of knowledge or technical expertise? Uh, no. But they do is, uh, they do like to see that, uh, you are doing, uh, something for the community.

Uh, you are, uh, part of, uh, you are volunteering, you are, uh, your time to mentor other young girls as well. Uh, so that is the only criteria. And, uh, you should be, uh, doing something in the technical space as well.

But they do not have any criteria that, Hey, you should be a PhD student or you should be a master's student, or something Like that. So really anyone who's a little bit of technical should give it their shot. Yeah.

And technical and is doing something for the community should give it their shot. Yeah. I like Do you work with the community a lot?

Yes, I do. Um, I was, uh, uh, even during my college days, I was, I would volunteer for the conferences as a student and um, um, when really like from picking up the chairs to helping the speakers and just, but that also leaves strong impressions on you. Uh, you learn a lot that, okay, what are they speaking on, on?

And then you follow them on LinkedIn that, Hey, what did they do when they were in bachelor's and masters? So you, um, you can figure out your path through that. You can carve your path through that.

So even a small part, like picking up the chairs can really help you get involved. Exactly. Exactly.

Because you'll get a chance to listen to them speak. So even if the, uh, and really everyone starts from scratch, so there's no, uh, shame or no, uh, harm in starting from there because you can learn a lot and then one day sit here or give interview and be a speaker yourself. Have you built any like really valuable connections while you are doing that job?

Yes. And they are still still very strong connections. They, I got to have like really cool mentors through these initiatives, um, uh, from Grace Opera Conference, and that's how I came to know about Google Summer of Code, uh, got a chance to be a mentor there.

Um, and then, uh, came to know about women technical initiative as well. How was your experience with the Grace Hopper conference? I loved it because that is, uh, one place where females are more in number and males are, uh, uh, are minority.

But, uh, that's not the reason why I loved it. I loved it because I got to see people from my own gender and, uh, specifically from my own ethnicity as well, stand up there and be speakers. Uh, that gives you more lot of confidence.

Uh, Chris Opera is also very strong in USAI, uh, and, um, um, I do admire her because she's the one person who, uh, uh, uh, who did so much in the computer science field. So, uh, So I think like going to conferences is good, but sometimes it can be a little bit hard 'cause females are the minority. Yes.

You, it can be victor intimidating, I think, if that's the right word here. Uh, That's the right word. Yeah.

Uh, it's not hard, but, uh, I do not, um, uh, uh, hate it. I mean, um, uh, but, uh, it's intimidating because then you feel that why, where are the other females, uh, at? Um, but um, but I think that is something that we can change by being more, being more proactively being part of it.

Yeah. So like as developer females, it's important to have a good balance between attending normal conferences but also engaging in like for to developer activities. Exactly.

Um, I, I, there are people who help me, um, male and female, both mentors, um, uh, uh, who help me, uh, uh, and who were good role models for me. So it's important to give back to the community. It's important to, uh, lend a hand to upcoming generation and help them and uplift them as well.

So that it, I mean, uh, so the draft should go up. Yeah, that's the point. Have you been to the GIS conference before?

No, this is my first time here. It's also my first time as well. I think it's a really cool conference, like a lot of passionate people And a lot of passionate topic, a lot of different topics as well, uh, like from front end to visual basic to artificial intelligence to data processing.

So I see like different topics here and I'm excited to attend these sessions. Um, I think the other, um, uh, like if I have to give a suggestion, because if you attend these conferences, you learn more about what exactly is going on in the world. So you discover that computer science itself is such a vast field.

If I, if I talk about technology per se, and, uh, you can discover different fields, uh, by just attending the booth, you can discover what all is going on in different countries, in different companies, uh, come across different opportunities, especially, uh, in, uh, during master's, students are looking for internships so they can, they can get a chance to work for on real world problem statements here. Yeah. So like even just attending conferences, you can find a job here.

Yes. Very well. I, I did find, um, uh, my master's, I met my master's, uh, thesis, um, mentor his friend at one of the conferences I attended in, into speech conference.

Um, and there I was presenting a poster, so not paper poster. And uh, they just said, Hey, this looks good. Uh, you, I heard you are applying for master's.

I'm like, yeah, so this lab has a opening, just check it out. And I checked out, I got scholarship and went for my master's there. So, uh, like, you never know.

I think that's really great. Like you can find opportunity just by meeting people in person. Yes.

And just by putting yourself out there, like, just saying that, Hey, this is what I'm looking for. If you come across something and testing, let me know. And then you never know.

Yeah. Would you recommend this advice to like your colleagues or friends? Yes, For sure.

Uh, I mean, uh, until, and unless you don't speak up and you don't say that, Hey, this is the opportunity I'm looking for, uh, how will other people know and how will they contact you? I think speaking up can be challenging sometimes. Yes.

Yes it is. Uh, but, uh, that's a fear that we have to work on. I mean, especially as an entrepreneur, if I don't speak, uh, or present my product, uh, you have to pitch your product every day.

You, so just think of it as you are pitching yourself. Yeah. So a good way to learn how to speak is to have a strong passion for something.

Exactly. And, and belief, self-belief, Believe in yourself. Yeah.

I think we had a really good chat today. Yeah. So thank you.

Rhythm. Thank you. Nice visiting you.