Celebrating Women in Tech: Simona Dobre

This series of portraits celebrates women working with the openIMIS Initiative from across the world in diverse technical roles. Women make up less than a third of the global tech workforce, with even fewer women at senior levels. In line with BMZ’s Feminist Development Policy, openIMIS actively seeks to address this gender gap.

Country: France
Position: CEO/Data Scientist, DevAIs (50%); Technical Expert, Swiss Tropical and Public Institute (Swiss TPH) (50%)
Education: BSc, MSc and PhD in Automatic Control and Computer Science.

About Swiss TPH: The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) is a world-leading institute in global health with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries. Associated with the University of Basel, Swiss TPH combines research, services, and education and training at the local, national, and international level. Around 1,000 staff and students from 96 nations focus on climate change, environment and health, infectious and non-communicable diseases, societal and cultural context, and health systems and policies. 
About DevAIs: DevAIs is an IT company dedicated to supporting startups and organizations in the development of cutting-edge AI models. The name, DevAIs, reflects both the focus on DEVelopping AI modelS and the deeper commitment to responsible technology development. In French, the word "devais" translates to "should have", symbolising recognition of the significant environmental and societal responsibilities that come with creating new technologies.

Swiss TPH and openIMIS: Swiss TPH is a founding organisation of the openIMIS Initiative. In 2012, Swiss TPH designed the forerunner of openIMIS - the Insurance Management Information System (IMIS) - to support the management of community health funds in Tanzania. Together with GIZ, Swiss TPH went on to support the development and transformation of IMIS from a stand-alone digital solution to an integrated, modular open source software. Today, Swiss TPH continues to play a pivotal role in improving the quality of the software, in broadening its functionalities and in extending its reach to new user groups and countries. On behalf of Swiss TPH, Simona is developing the AI model for the openIMIS AI Claim Categorisation module and is a facilitator for the eLearning module on AI in Health Insurance.

How did you become interested in working in IT?
“For me, working in technology and IT was not a choice but a calling. As a young woman growing up in Romania, I was fascinated by maths and physics. I completed the mathematical proof of Archimedes’ Principle when I was twelve years of age, surprising my teachers, and I entered national competitions in both maths and physics. During high school, I loved science and the experiments we conducted really ignited my passion to follow a research career. Coming from a small city, I worked very hard and defied expectations to gain a place at Romania’s prestigious Polytechnic University in Bucharest to study Automatic Control and Computer Science. After obtaining my engineering diploma, I then went to France to continue my studies, where I gained my master’s degree and doctorate in engineering in Automatic Control, Computer Science and Signal Processing.”

Are there areas where women are underrepresented in Tech?
“Generally speaking, IT and digital health are still very much a man’s world. Of course, this depends a lot on the country. In Romania, for example, we have a high percentage of women working in technology, but in France, this is not the case; I think less than ten percent of the students I teach here are women. 
I would say that women are particularly underrepresented in the mathematical modelling domain where I work. I would also point to senior and leadership roles where it is much more difficult for women to gain a foothold.
In low- and middle-income countries, women do not have the same opportunities that we have in Europe so it’s even harder for them. However, I have recently observed that governments in these countries are putting a lot of energy and resources into the digital domain, so this is more hopeful.”

What are the challenges and advantages of being a woman working in digital tech? 
“It is more difficult for women to be heard in the digital space. I worked for seven years in aerospace and ballistics, where women are very rare – less than five percent. Even when I brought new ideas, if a male colleague said the same thing, he was more credible than me. Even with my PhD, some of the men in my working environment still believe I should be the one to write meeting notes, so being seen as a true partner and a collaborator remains a big challenge.
Structural inequalities are still present throughout Europe. A particular challenge for women is that many of us also want children and a family life. This was always difficult to balance. 
We need to remember that there are important advantages of having women in the tech space; we have more empathy, bring different, complimentary points of view, and I would say that we definitely work harder. Women are also better at putting people at the centre of IT projects, which is easily overlooked.
If we all remain sensitive to equity in both our professional and personal lives, I believe we can already start building a better, more inclusive world.”

What are you most proud of in your work?
“Combining my family and my career is probably one of the most complicated things I have had to manage and it’s one of the things I am also most proud of. 
I have worked very hard: my PhD and seven years working with data in the experimental domain. Being able to understand the data and transforming it into mathematical models is inspiring and motivating for me. I also love teaching and sharing my knowledge with others and I find working with children to open their minds to the beauty of data particularly exciting.”

How could openIMIS better support women working in the digital space?
“Mentorship is an important area. For example, creating programmes to enable girls and younger women to recognise the magic of digital technology early on and to understand that this is not a space reserved for men.
Of course, AI is changing many things, including how jobs will be distributed. Having opportunities for all children and adolescents, including girls, to learn about AI is also crucial.”