Mahsa Mohaghegh: AI Expert & Lecturer and Women in Technology Champion

Mahsa Mohaghegh is a Senior Lecturer and also Director of Women in Tech in AUT’s School of Computer, Engineering, and Mathematical Sciences. She is a well-recognised leader in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. She is also the founder of the charitable trust She Sharp, a women’s technology networking and learning group, where she works to encourage young New Zealand girls to consider what a career in technology offers.

For the past seven years, Mahsa had organised and led Google CS4HS (Computer Science for High Schools) workshops in Auckland, with a recent focus on providing high school teachers with the skills to implement New Zealand’s new digital technologies curriculum. She was named winner of the Emerging Leader category in the 2013 Westpac Women of Influence Awards and was one of ten finalists for 2018 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year. In 2019 she was the Champion Award winner of the YWCA Equal Pay awards, and in 2020 presented with the Massey University Distinguished Alumni Award.

"Stop trying to change yourself too much. Focus more on your own capability. Never give up, and you just need to keep pressing on. Don't let anyone ever tell you that you cannot do it. Technology fields, they need females. They do really need them."