Olga Tsaplina

What brought you to a career in technology at the United Nations?

I want to create a better world for my children, grandchildren, and all the generations to come.

What has been your favorite technology project or initiative at the United Nations and why? What was your contribution?

I am strongly advocaing for citizen science and demistifying the sphere of IT, so I've been also instired by the work UN Mappers do, especially in mapping out the remote and conflict-affected areas. At UN-Habitat, I have been involved in developing urban data collection tools as part of the Urban Monitoring Framework, contributing to the prototype application for data collection based on the UN system-wide Urban Monitoring Framework. My all-time favorite initiative is ITU's AI for Good. In my current role, I collaborate with my team to promote the emerging best practices in AI highlighted during AI for Good sessions, with the aim of enhancing the efficiency of our work. Although I havenﾒt yet had the opportunity to directly contribute to AI for Good sessions, I hope to engage more deeply as my expertise in the field grows.

What advice would you give women interested in pursuing a field in technology?

As a 27 year old woman with a background in social sciences, who had to learn technologies by myself to support my teams, I am well aware of how discouraging it can be to overcome the old-lived practices and face a distrust in your capacities. But also, based on my overall positive experience, one does not have to have a computer science degree to excel in applying advanced solutions to make our work more effective and efficient. So - utilize every opportunity to learn about cutting-edge technologies that comes on your way, reach out to colleagues and participate in the related communities of practice to gather knowledge and best practices.