I am an experienced data and AI professional, with over a decade of experience in leading and executing impactful machine learning, AI evaluation, data governance and engineering projects. I excel in navigating complex and ambiguous spaces, approach problems comprehensively, and always build on strong technical fundamentals. As a visionary leader, I build strong connections with partners and have a long history of contributing to the open source community.

I work as a research scientist at Sony AI, where I lead a globally distributed project team working in areas of AI, machine learning and human computer interaction. My team develops and standardises methods and tooling for responsible, multimodal data collection, evaluation of AI models and AI agents. I also advise Lelapa AI, a high impact South African startup revolutionising low resource langage technologies.

My projects have been supported by the Mozilla Foundation, the Shuttleworth Foundation and others. I have participated in and contributed to several amazing fellowships that promote diversity and diverse thinking in science and technology - TechWomen, Data Science for Social Good, the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute and the Heidelberg Laureate Forum.

I hold a PhD (cum laude) from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, where I worked under the supervision of Aaron Ding and Marijn Janssen. I obtained my MSc in Computer Science (distinction) and BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, where I studied under the supervision of Deshen Moodley and Tommie Meyer. Prior to my PhD I co-founded Engineers Without Borders South Africa, a non-profit organisation with the mission to empower engineers to empower communities, and served on the board of Engineers Without Borders International. I also pioneered data governance and open data capabilities for energy and climate modeling research as a data scientist at the Energy Research Centre of the University of Cape Town.