people April 06, 2021
Vancouver tech entrepreneur Bob de Wit has enjoyed a successful career in tech transfer, commercialization and innovation, but he has a new focus now.
Diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s seven years ago, de Wit and his wife Susan Richards de Wit, both SFU alumni, have since regrouped and refocused to approach the disease with the same emphasis on innovation and research that has been the hallmark of their professional careers. The couple will be talking on Apr. 9
th at an SFU panel about their experiences ahead of World Parkinson’s Day and hope you will join them.
“For a lot of people, there is a sense of dread about being diagnosed with Parkinson’s,” says de Wit, who has extensive SFU ties, including an SFU business degree and a master’s degree in economics.
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A BC initiative with the goal of closing the gender gap in artificial intelligence has helped advance the careers of 250 women in AI, machine learning, and data science.
Athena Pathways is a Digital Supercluster initiative that officially launched in March 2020 with a goal of enrolling 500 BC women into the fields of artificial intelligence, data science, and machine learning by September 2021.
“In addition to drawing more talent into the ecosystem, Athena will work to correct a gender imbalance that threatens the performance of AI technology itself if left unchecked; models are algorithms fitted to data, and diversity is a critical part of accurate models,” Norma Sheane, administration manager of the Artificial Intelligence network of British Columbia (AInBC), told Daily Hive in an interview.