Alumni

Ifunanya, a Rise Global Winner, is a recent high school graduate from Nigeria. Before she joined the Rise Finalist cohort with Equitech Futures, Ifunanya was involved in youth communities in which she presented ideas to improve transportation in her community. Ifunanya also worked with a team on prototypes to make a cheaper and more efficient Augmentative and Alternative Communication Device for People with Speech Disabilities in Communities that have limited access to resources. For her Rise project, she created a website which featured medical professionals, in order to remove the stigma surrounding modern healthcare in her community. During her time at Equitech Futures, Ifunanya, who had never ventured into the field of Artificial Intelligence, was able to grasp an understanding of how to simplify the inner workings of complex AI systems. She mostly enjoyed how collaborative the experience was, as she found she was opened to different ways of thinking from her peers. With this knowledge, she has been able to create her own blueprint for an AI model and test the feasibility of new ideas. She is keenly interested in pursuing a career in Biomedical Engineering, as she hopes to increase access to healthcare resources in underprivileged communities.