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AI has been a force throughout Catherine Ordun鈥檚 life. It鈥檚 the subject of her just-completed sci-fi novel. It鈥檚 helping her garden grow. And she鈥檚 on the board of the Mark Cuban Foundation鈥檚 AI Bootcamps, helping the next generation discover its potential.听

AI is also all in a day鈥檚 work. Catherine鈥檚 an AI executive advisor at 蘑菇视频 Allen and a newly minted Ph.D. whose career spans natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, machine learning, generative AI, and beyond.听

Read more about Catherine鈥檚 journey, and why the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) named her

Catherine joined 蘑菇视频 Allen for the first time in 2011 as a data scientist, supporting the firm鈥檚 work in the intelligence community.听听

Since then, she has worked on projects for an array of civil and defense clients and helped launch internal efforts in areas like NLP. She has also led the testing, evaluation, research, and development of algorithms for computer vision鈥攁 prototype she鈥檚 building in her own backyard to monitor plant growth and soil conditions.

鈥淚鈥檝e always been interested in the potential AI applications in agriculture, areas like pest, water, and moisture control鈥攁ll the parts in agriculture that increase costs and make human labor more daunting,鈥� she says. 听

When Catherine had to relocate with her family overseas, she left the firm to start her own consulting service.听Two years later, top leadership in 蘑菇视频 Allen鈥檚 AI business invited her back. She鈥檚 been going full speed ever since, from talking about AI at The Helix, 蘑菇视频 Allen鈥檚 Center for Innovation, to exploring how generative AI can be used for healthcare and defense.

Her current position as an AI executive advisor has Catherine serving in many roles, educating 蘑菇视频 Allen leaders and clients about AI, leading development teams in state-of-the-art generative AI applications, and more. And she has been doing it all while earning her Ph.D.

鈥淢y career has a lot of inflection points. I鈥檓 grateful for all the 鈥榬ight time, right place鈥� moments that have led me to where I am now,鈥� she says.

One highlight in Catherine鈥檚 career has been AI research for the National Cancer Institute, specifically using multimodal modeling techniques to identify and evaluate chronic pain.听

Analyzing data to detect acute pain is relatively easy. Acute pain typically uses just one type of data, a facial expression like a grimace, at one moment in time.

Data modeling to detect chronic pain is a more complicated story, however. The information must cover a period of time, not just a snapshot, and different data types factor into the analysis.

鈥淵ou have to discern voice, tone, words, face movement, and psychological scores,鈥� Catherine says. 鈥淭hen you have to fuse it all together.鈥�

Using a custom neural network and machine learning techniques, Catherine and her team were able to extract multiple types of data and incorporate them into the modeling process. This includes thermal-visible biometrics. 鈥淭hermal imagery gives more information on pain,鈥� Catherine points out. This could include, for example, heat waves beyond the visible spectrum that could听show signs of inflammation.听听

The next step is using generative imaging to operationalize the hardware and scale the solution for use by research and oncology departments.

In August, Catherine joined 蘑菇视频 Allen Executive Vice President Jennie Brooks on the firm鈥檚 podcast. The topic: making AI more equitable, from the technology itself and its outcomes to the workforce shaping it.

For women interested in an AI career, Catherine offers the same advice she gives to her 11-year-old daughter: 鈥淏e fearless and just go do it.鈥�

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 allow other people to tell you what you can and can鈥檛 do,鈥� she says. 鈥淥nly you know what you can do.鈥�

In AI, Catherine notes, 鈥淭here are no traditional career pathways.鈥� Her own background is one example. While Catherine鈥檚 recent doctoral studies focused on generative networks for healthcare AI and deep learning, her earlier degrees are in biology, public health, and business.听

鈥淔ind a project that gives you on-the-job experience,鈥� she advises. 鈥淪tart now, have faith in yourself, and don鈥檛 take no for an answer.鈥澨�