On March 28th we were delighted to welcome secondary school student Sarah Sweeney to our offices. Sarah featured prominently at this year’s BT Young Scientist exhibition held in Dublin in January with her project on developing a chatbot using Neural Network technology to try and beat Alan Turing’s Imitation Game. Sarah’s work overlaps significantly with research we are performing in Openmind into Artificial Intelligence. This work is led by our CTO Brian Kelly, and Brian took the time to coach Sarah on different aspects of Neural Networks and Machine Learning so she can continue to advance her project. Sarah is also investigating other applications of machine learning, particularly when combined with her great interest in music
At Openmind we are committed to bringing new innovation and energy to the mobile messaging market. This commitment is reflected in the research we do and also in our active recruitment of bright new minds into the industry. We want young Engineers to look beyond the internet companies and see that there are exciting career paths in telecoms and mobile messaging. We know that encouraging a new generation of technology experts is crucial to our continuing success. The day Sarah spent with us is part of a wider program to build links in to schools and universities so that we can tap into new sources of talent. In particular, we believe that Sarah is a fantastic role model for girls interested in technology, and we all know that major work is needed to correct the gender imbalance in technology and telecoms.
Sarah will be competing in Scifest later this year, and we wish her all the best in that and with the rest of her studies!
