21st Century Women in Technology: Ana González

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Ana González López

 

From ‘The Wizard of Oz’ to ‘Death of a Cyclist’, both classic and modern films have numerous references to mathematics in their dialogue. Perhaps these conversations marked our guest for this 21st Century Women in Technology interview: Ana González López. After becoming interested in professions as diverse as medicine and literature, this young woman from Santiago discovered what she was really passionate about: logic, mathematics and problem solving. Today, a computer engineer, she holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science, still enjoys cinema, literature and loves to visit the beach in her spare time. Ana is currently working on projects in the Smart Systems area using Big Data and Analytics at Gradiant. She is very interested in research work that links one piece of information to another in order to extract the important information.

 

What did you want to do when you were little?

Like many people, I wanted to be a thousand different things. I remember that I first wanted to become a doctor, then a writer, then a pharmacist… Then I discovered that what really interested me was mathematics and physics, logic and problem solving.

 

Why did you choose technology?

When I finished the Baccalaureate, I didn’t have a clear idea, I wanted to do maths or something related. One of my brothers studied computer engineering and recommended it to me. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was going to do a lot of mathematics, both theoretical and applied, so I was it was the right decision.

 

Where did you plan to study? Why?

I wanted to do a higher degree in Computer Engineering and when I started the closest option was A Coruña. It also has a computer science faculty with a good track record, so I didn’t hesitate.

 

What are you currently working on?

The projects I am currently working on focus on the capture and processing of data from companies linked to the industrial and telecommunications sectors, with the general objective of facilitating the efficient and scalable management of all their processes, both productive and service provision.

 

What do you like most about your work?

My job requires a lot of research and processing of data from organisations. These data have specific peculiarities. Understanding how they are organised in order to extract relevant information is a complicated but very interesting task: diving into the data, investigating, finding relationships…

Who is your female role model or reference in the world of technology?

The truth is that I don’t have any specific female role models. However, the story of Mileva Maric had a great impact on me. She was Albert Einstein’s first partner (it’s a shame that that’s what she is primarily known for). She was ahead of her time, went to university and coincided with Einstein at the Zurich Polytechnic Institute. Although it’s not clear whether she was involved in Einstein’s discoveries, there is no doubt that she collaborated closely on some of his work. She had to give up her scientific career to care for her children. Regardless of not going on to become a great scientist, I find her story interesting.

What would you say to the tech workers of the future?

That they should study what they like, without being influenced by trends or stereotypes.

 

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