CEO Series: Rana el Kaliouby
Rana speaking at a TED conference
Introduction
Expression recognition research and technology development. A woman who has spent her life spearheading research into helping identify emotions and thoughts expressed facially, Rana el Kaliouby has achieved tremendously in this field, including becoming the CEO of Affectiva, one of the first software companies, globally, to use technology to decipher human emotion.
Background
For Rana, the journey into the intersection of human emotion and artificial intelligence began when she started her education at the American University in Cairo. Having been brought up in Cairo, Egypt for most of her life, Rana wanted to delve into something that had not been explored before, the field of emotional AI.
She started with a Bachelor of Science degree, where she first began her research into artificial intelligence and broadening her understanding of human emotions. Her fascination with Affective science (scientific study of emotion/affect) encouraged her to also complete a Master of Science at the American University in Cairo.
Following this, is where Rana’s dreams really came through. She pursued higher education to gain a deeper understanding at Cambridge University in the UK, where she was conferred a PhD for her work in the computer science. Specifically, Rana researched into ‘developing machines and applications that are socially and emotionally relevant’. Under the guidance of her supervisor, Peter Robinson, Rana worked to develop a real-time facial emotion sensing system.
After seeing the work she was helping pioneer in affective and computer science, Rana was offered the opportunity to work as a research scientist in the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). One of her biggest achievements was helping find the Autism & Communication Technology Initiative to help improve human-human interaction for patients who struggled with deciphering emotions. For Rana, this entrepreneurial effort allowed her the opportunity to start thinking about how her research and study could help contribute to the world.
Founding of Affectiva
Rana stepped onto the business-world through her creation of emotion measurement technology company Affectiva. Here, she brought forth her knowledge from years of study into Affective science to help build technology that would allow computer software to understand human facial cues and respond with data and statistics. For example, one aspect of Affective technology allows users to look into a webcamera and track users “smirks, smiles, frowns and furrows, which measures the user's levels of surprise, amusement or confusion”. Other technologies also allow the software to be used to measure heart rates without users having to physically wear a monitor.
Application of Affectiva Technology
After bringing emotion-based technology into the world, Rana decided to apply it into the practise through trial runs with different companies and brands. Notably, Rana worked with Affectiva to develop a face-tracking system which would help monitor the effectiveness of advertising for brands such as Coca-Cola. The system would work such that the person’s face would be captured as a series of movements and analysed after being placed in a “digital database”. The use of these programs by Affectiva allowed better understanding of viewer’s experiences and encouraged more and more companies to forge better advertising programs and campaigning for their brands.
An application of Affectiva technology allowed the company to build driver-emotion detection to allow for better safety for passengers in the vehicle
Other achievements
The company is known for holding the title of the ‘largest emotion data repository’, collecting data from more than 5,000,000 human faces, capturing emotions across 75 different countries in the world.
Rana also worked with the company to produce technology to help with political polling, gaming and production of the ‘Q sensor’. Although this discontinued soon after, the Q sensor was a biosensor designed to measure ‘electrodermal activity’ which refers to the property of the human body dealing with variations in the electrical characteristics of the skin.
What is she doing now?
Rana currently holds the position of Co-founder and CEO of Affectiva. She has recently authored a book that was due to be released April 2020 called ‘Girl Decoded’, exploring a “scientist’s quest to reclaim [its] humanity by bringing emotional intelligence to technology”.
Rana also sits as a member of the Massachusetts Women’s Forum (MWF) and is a member of the Board of Trustees at the American University in Cairo. She has also been honoured in numerous women in tech magazines including being recently labelled Forbes America’s Top 50 Women in Tech in 2018 and BBC 100 Women in 2019.
Till this day, Rana is continuing to innovate and drive her passion for emotional intelligence further, inspiring many to understand humanizing technology and the future of AI.
Sources:
Wikipedia
ranaelkaliouby.com
Forbes