Category: Interview Series

Data Scientist, Entrepreneur, and Artist: Interview with Emi Harry Part 1 of 3 (Interview #4 in the Interview Series)

For my fourth interview in the Interview Series, I interviewed Emi Harry. This is the first part of three of our conversation. Emi Harry is the co-founder of Naina Tech Inc., a New York-based tech startup that is poised to launch an adaptive learning platform for early childhood education in the U.S. and Nigeria’s underserved communities. As a highly skilled data scientist and social entrepreneur, Harry is also on the board of Alula Learning, an EdTech learning management systems provider, and Manna, a health and nutrition company, both in Nigeria. She has had a diverse professional experience, having worked in the food, oil and gas, entertainment, and fashion industries in Nigeria, as well as the entertainment, non-profit, and education industries in the United States. Currently, she balances her time between working in tech, creative writing, and fashion designing.

Her educational qualifications include B.S. in Mathematics, University of Lagos, Nigeria; Master’s in Social Entrepreneurship, Hult International Business School, San Francisco; M.Sc. in Data Analytics/Science, Fordham University, New York, and is on track to earn a M.Sc. in Computer Science from Pace University New York.

During this first part of our conversation, we discussed the data science company she founded and how she learned data science. 

Links to the next two parts of the interview:

To learn more about Emi Harry, check these out:

Data Scientist, Entrepreneur, and Artist: Interview with Emi Harry Part 2 of 3 (Interview #5 in the Interview Series)

This is the second part of my interview with Emi Harry as part of my Interview Series. In it, she discusses her experiences of racial discrimination in data science as a black woman, how she manages her dual background in data science and fashion, and how she leverages her storytelling and communication skills as a data scientist.  If you would like to start at the beginning of my interview with her, click here.

Links to the other two parts of the interview:

Emi Harry is the co-founder of Naina Tech Inc., a New York-based tech startup that is poised to launch an adaptive learning platform for early childhood education in the U.S. and Nigeria’s underserved communities. As a highly skilled data scientist and social entrepreneur, Harry is also on the board of Alula Learning, an EdTech learning management systems provider, and Manna, a health and nutrition company, both in Nigeria. She has had a diverse professional experience, having worked in the food, oil and gas, entertainment, and fashion industries in Nigeria, as well as the entertainment, non-profit, and education industries in the United States. Currently, she balances her time between working in tech, creative writing, and fashion designing.

Her educational qualifications include B.S. in Mathematics, University of Lagos, Nigeria; Master’s in Social Entrepreneurship, Hult International Business School, San Francisco; M.Sc. in Data Analytics/Science, Fordham University, New York, and is on track to earn a M.Sc. in Computer Science from Pace University New York.

To learn more about Emi Harry, check these out:

Data Scientist, Entrepreneur, and Artist: Interview with Emi Harry Part 3 of 3 (Interview #6 in the Interview Series)

This is the third part of my interview with Emi Harry as part of my Interview Series. In it, she discusses her dual identify as a data scientist and entrepreneur, including how what it takes to be an entrepreneur, her experiences starting a data science company and recommendations she has for any data scientists considering starting their own.

Emi Harry is the co-founder of Naina Tech Inc., a New York-based tech startup that is poised to launch an adaptive learning platform for early childhood education in the U.S. and Nigeria’s underserved communities. As a highly skilled data scientist and social entrepreneur, Harry is also on the board of Alula Learning, an EdTech learning management systems provider, and Manna, a health and nutrition company, both in Nigeria. She has had a diverse professional experience, having worked in the food, oil and gas, entertainment, and fashion industries in Nigeria, as well as the entertainment, non-profit, and education industries in the United States. Currently, she balances her time between working in tech, creative writing, and fashion designing.

Her educational qualifications include B.S. in Mathematics, University of Lagos, Nigeria; Master’s in Social Entrepreneurship, Hult International Business School, San Francisco; M.Sc. in Data Analytics/Science, Fordham University, New York, and is on track to earn a M.Sc. in Computer Science from Pace University New York.

Links to the first two parts of the interview:

To learn more about Emi Harry, check these out:

Anti-Corruption Anthropologist in Kazakhstan: Interview with Olga Shiyan (Interview #7 in the Interview Series)

I interviewed Olga Shiyan as part of my Interview Series. In it, she discusses her anti-corruption work in Kazakhstan with Transparency International. In particular, she highlights various projects that have integrated anthropology with data science and statistics. 

Olga Shiyan is the Executive Director of the Transparency International’s chapter in Kazakhstan. She specializes in advocacy, legislation and draft laws, and democratic training programs. For this, she has developed research methods that combine anthropology and data science and statistics. In 2019, the Kazakhstan Geographic Society awarder for a medal for anti-corruption work.

To learn more about Olga, feel free to check out the following:

1. Monitoring the state of corruption in Kazakhstan for 2020, presentation

2. Presentation of the research in the media, speaking on a TV show, talk TV show

3. Monitoring the state of corruption in Kazakhstan for 2019

4. The index of civic participation and influence on lawmaking in Kazakhstan

5. 13 stories about lawmaking in Kazakhstan                                             

6. Development of local self-government in Kazakhstan: analysis of fourth-level budgets

7. Ethno-confessional monitoring. Kazakhstan. 2018.

8. Customs corruption in Kazakhstan: mirror analysis of trade

9. Opportunities for Civil Control in Kazakhstan: Experience of Ethnological Research

10. The thorny path of labor migrants to Russia: the experience of participant observation

11. Anthropological approach to the study of the influence of gift exchange on informal socio-economic relations

12. Anthropological approach in the interdisciplinary study of the phenomenon of corruption

13. Summer anti-corruption school of Transparency Kazakhstan

14. Transparency Kazakhstan School of Investigative Journalism

Digital Anthropology and Artificial Intelligence: Interview with Scarleth Herrera (Interview #8 in the Interview Series)

For Part 8 in my Interview Series, I interviewed Scarleth Herrera, a digital anthropologist and founder of Orez Anthropological Research. In it, we discuss her experiences as starting her own digital anthropology research company, transitioning into artificial intelligence-related work, and experiences conducting anthropological research outside of academia.

Scarleth lives in South Florida. Her Orez Anthropological Research is a non-profit dedicated to the exploration and advancing the research of digital anthropology. She is also a Research Scholar at the Ronin Institute in New Jersey. Her current research focus is on the implications artificial intelligence may have on society in general but particularly low-income communities, but she is also passionate about issues facing immigrant communities in the United States.  

Resources about Scarleth and Her Work:

Email: scarleth@orezanthroresearch.org
Twitter: @orezantresearch
Website:  www.orezanthroresearch.org
Ronin Institute: ronininstitute.org

Resources about Digital Anthropology and Other Resources Referenced in Our Conversation:

London School of Economics Ethnography Collective Reading List: https://zoeglatt.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/LSE-Digital-Ethnography-Collective-Reading-List-Oct-2021.pdf
Digital Ethnography Initiative: https://digitalethnography.at/blog/
The Digital Ethnographers Directory: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1x8UOb1AxZS5FYRkXn2QLPrje-6vA4U4WC6SsmJXNHys/edit#gid=0
“The Short Anthropological Guide to the Study of Ethical AI” by Alexandrine Royer: https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.03362
“The Great Hack” (Netflix Documentary Mentioned)

Recommended Books in Digital Anthropology:

“Digital anthropology” by Daniel Miller et al. (recommend both the first and second editions)
“Doing Anthropological Research” by Natalie Konopinski
“Studying Those Who Study Us” by Diana E. Forsythe
“Digital Ethnography” by Sarah Pink