Organization: National School of Engineers of Tunis (ENIT), Tunisia

Biography:

Prof. Houda Chihi was recently featured in the Nsesa Foundation’s ongoing STEM WOW series, where she shared her career highlights, her greatest achievements and the challenges she has faced as a woman in her field. Houda is a chief engineer at Tunisie Telecom and a senior researcher at Innov’COM Laboratory.When asked about her greatest achievement, Houda spoke about her TechWomen experience, her mentorship at Qualcomm and her exposure to leading companies in the Bay Area’s tech ecosystem: “I knew that with all my achievements, the TechWomen program was my key to build new contacts over the world and to get the opportunity to visit and get training in leadership and soft skills from great companies such as Linkedin, Facebook, Salesforce, Twitter, and Symantec,” she said. Houda also shared advice for other women and girls who are curious about entering STEM careers: “My advice for women is to join the STEM field, as they will always feel excited and curious about new technologies. It is also a great opportunity to build strong networks,” she said.

Organization: The University of New South Wales, Australia

Biography:

Prof. Vijayakumar Varadarajan is currently an Adjunct Professor in School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He is also a Data Science Advisor for Brite Yellow Pvt. Ltd United Kingdom, He is also a President and Founder of Global Students Nest. He was a Professor and Associate Dean for School of Computing Science and Engineering at VIT University, Chennai, India. He has more than 18 years of experience including industrial and institutional. He also served as a Team Lead in industries like Satyam, Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra for several years. He has completed Diploma with First Class Honors. He has completed BE CSE and MBA HRD with First Class. He has also completed ME CSE with First Rank Award. He has completed his PhD from Anna University in 2012. He has published many articles in national and international level journals/conferences/books. He is a reviewer in IEEE Transactions, Inderscience and Springer Journals. He has initiated a number of international research collaborations with universities in Europe, Australia, Africa, Malaysia, Singapore and North & South America. He had also initiated joint research collaboration between VIT University and various industries. He is also the Lead Guest Editor for few journals in Inderscience, Springer, Elsevier, IOS, UM and IGI Global. He also organized several international conferences and special sessions in USA, Vietnam, Africa, Malaysia and India including ARCI, IEEE, ACSAT, ISRC, ISBCC, ICBCC etc. His research interests include computational areas covering grid computing, cloud computing, computer networks, cyber security and big data. He received his university-level Best Faculty Award for 2015–2016. He is also a member of several national and international professional bodies including IFSA, EAI, BIS, ISTE, IAENG, CSTA, IEA etc.