DEV Community: Sharon Sinei

My data safari (journey) as a woman in Tech from Kenya with opinions from my perspective.

Sharon Sinei — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 13:54:21 +0000

My background

I am Sharon Sinei. I pursued my bachelors in Applied Statistics purely because I liked working with numbers and solving problems. I’m ashamed to admit that I initially didn’t think of the practical ways I would apply my degree. Fast-forward to four-years later, I have skills in Math, Statistics and Programming but not entirely sure how to apply them together to solve problems. So I did what any other sane person would do, I looked for a job. I leaned more towards data-related roles but I also have interest in research.

The Kenyan data job market

It is like any other job market, very competitive. I did terribly in one of my first interviews for a Data Analysis role. I noticed there was a gap between being fresh out of university and being employable that has required me to be very aggressive to overcome.
Data roles, especially in the more rural parts of the country are also not well defined or exist only in some capacity. I have held different roles, not necessarily in data analysis, but I have kept my data passion alive by writing, constantly upskilling and generally being proactive.

Challenges I’ve faced

● Getting lost in the noise of the industry where there's always something new happening
● Properly managing burnout
● Imposter syndrome; feeling like I don’t belong or my skills are not good enough

Current interests

The impact Artificial Intelligence(AI) is having, the conversations it is causing and ways to apply AI to make my work more productive.

Advice to those getting into/already in data analytics

● Get a mentor
● A data-driven mindset is important to spot challenges in your surrounding that need data analysis skills to solve
● Find your tribe; join communities online and follow people who are where you want to be
● Enjoy the journey

"Stop stressing...there's an AI for that"... 7 super cool AI tools for creators

Sharon Sinei — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 15:26:59 +0000

Are you tired of using a pencil and paper to bring your ideas to life? Well, step into the future and check out these cool AI tools that will take your creations to the next level.
These tools are so advanced, they'll make Van Gogh roll over in his grave (but don't worry, he won't mind - he's probably too busy painting with AI in the afterlife)."

Grammar and style checkers, which use natural language processing (NLP) to detect errors and suggest improvements in writing. Grammarly and Hemingway are two popular examples.
Automatic summarization tools, which use NLP to condense long pieces of text into shorter summaries. Examples include Gensim and OpenText.
Image and video editing software, which use computer vision and machine learning algorithms to automatically edit and enhance visual content. Adobe and Corel are popular software in this field.
Music composition and production software, which use AI and machine learning to assist in creating and producing music. Amper Music is one example.
Chatbot development tools, which enable content creators to build interactive chatbots for websites and mobile apps. Dialogflow is one such tool.
AI assisted speech generation and voiceover tools can be used to produce professional voiceovers and speeches. Vocalizer from Amazon, Google Cloud Text-to-Speech are some of the examples.
Language Translation tools: Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, DeepL and more are tools which can be used to translate text from one language to another.

Was the 2022 Kenyan general election successful because of Blockchain technology?

Sharon Sinei — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 01:33:48 +0000

With the promise of free, transparent and credible elections by the IEBC each season, Kenyans on August 2022 participated in an election that some felt delivered on all its promises while some found it quite opaque.

Is it too bold to claim that the technology that made the election unique compared to its predecessors was blockchain ? Is the use of blockchain in elections even feasible ?

Some similar features that the election incorporated that can be seen in Bitcoin's blockchain and that inspired this discussion are:

Forms from polling stations being published on the IEBC website and made downloadable to all stakeholders. This mirrors the public nature of the Bitcoin ledger where all transactions can be queried and their addresses viewed by anyone.
The use of biometrics to solve the issue of double voting. Bitcoin's blockchain solves the double spending problem.
Once votes cast are recorded and signed by the officials, they are final, verifiable and cannot be amended. In Bitcoin, once a transaction is signed it is final.

It is clear that the IEBC designed the system to allow voters to verify all records which closely resembles Bitcoin's infrastructure.

There are differences that can be seen however.

Firstly, whereas the top officials of IEBC can change voter registration details and transfer voters, no admin in Bitcoin can move Bitcoin or change transactions.
Also, the IEBC polling station biometric devices have the full register of voters but can only allow voters registered for a specific location. In Bitcoin, one's transactions can be signed by any node on the network.

Use of blockchain in elections is still an emerging area but blockchain or not, it is safe to say that the 2022 Kenyan election was innovative and disruptive.
The success of the election was due to the Kenyan people who chose to make it successful.

What do you think could make the next election even better ?

"Robots: The New Oppressed Minority?" Does AI deserve rights ?

Sharon Sinei — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 06:16:42 +0000

Artificial Intelligence AI (like your ex) can act as if it understands you and has feelings.
With advancement in AI, should we start reconsidering what a human is?

Facebook AI demonstrates that robots can and will evolve to the point of generating algorithmic knowledge on their own. They will no longer need to be fed data to learn.
This plus their ability to imitate emotions will make them seem pretty human so should they have rights?

Saudi Arabia went ahead and awarded full citizenship to Sophia, a humanoid robot.

Here's what ChatGPT (an AI) had to say when asked if AI deserves rights should it become as smart as humans.

Whether or not AI deserves rights is a discussion that should be had before the robots get smart enough to demand rights. You have watched the movie The Matrix haven't you ?

Are you pro AI rights ?

ChatGPT, the last nail on the coffin for coding interviews?

Sharon Sinei — Sun, 11 Dec 2022 18:39:32 +0000

You know how you rely on Google to solve all of your life's problems? No? So it's just me then?

Programmers ,I'm certain, can relate when it comes to solving their coding problems. Now imagine if Google were on steroids. That's how some are describing ChatGPT.

The AI is here to disrupt and it's thrilling to see how the tech industry will take to it specifically with regards to coding interviews.

Some companies might opt to ditch coding interviews entirely and stick to holding technical discussions with candidates. Some might just tighten the monitoring process of the interviews.

Programming interviews might now be more focused on understanding problem solving capabilities, thought processes and assessing familiarity with tools (such as ChatGPT).

Looking at the glass as half full, ChatGPT will open the door for new and interesting ways of solving problems including for hiring good people.

Software engineers you can relax, your jobs will be safe , probably.