#28: Leah Njuguna on Taking Chances, STEM and thriving Home and Away

In this hearty episode, the hosts engage the brilliant Leah M. Njuguna, picking gems from her walk through lessons and experiences in different continents, classes, courses and seasons.  The chat explores earlier dreams and desires to soon finding order, direction and purpose in and through STEM as she grew older. They talk dissertations, decision trees, AI and more, diving into the fruits of drive, discipline, enjoying the present, questioning belief, expectations, exemptions, parties, prayers, patterns and more. They highlight her seasons of finding order in entropy, drive in seasons of watery meat and tasteless sodas, warmth in cold cities and friendships in foreign lands. She shares her experiences studying, working and thriving away from home - even where your second name ‘betrays’ you and going on to leading teams, companies and projects across the continent and beyond. The listen has as many nostalgic moments as it does futuristic, counting lessons beside losses and laughter beside sweat. For a moment in the episode they review the different perspectives of a shared school experience with one of the hosts, before circling and highlighting opportunities for improvement around Africa, healthcare, insurance and the AI, machine learning and actuarial science schooling and ecosystem. This Episode is brought to you by Prevail Presents.   Leah Njuguna is a Kenyan machine learning engineer, an alumnus of the University of Southampton and is currently pursuing her PhD in Applied Statistics. She has an impressive journey through different Universities as both student and lecturer and has lead different projects, companies and units around machine learning, AI and beyond, over the years and across different continents. Clearly a Philomath with a knack, gift and interest for STEM, Ms. Munjiru is a beacon of excellence and possibility.   Show Notes - Coded Bias – Documentary: Youtube Trailer, Netflix - Burnt Forest history - Strive Masiyiwa   Books: - Never eat alone by Keith Ferrazzi