About Rana el Kaliouby

Rana el Kaliouby, PhD, is co-founder and CEO of Affectiva, and author of the forthcoming book Girl Decoded, which is available for pre-order now. Rana is the pioneer of artificial emotional intelligence—Emotion AI. The next frontier of Artificial Intelligence, Emotion AI is projected to become a multi-billion dollar industry. Rana led the innovation of the company’s award winning technology, which uses deep learning and massive amounts of data to analyze complex and nuanced emotions and cognitive states from face and voice. And, she raised over $50 million in venture capital for Affectiva.

Rana’s PhD research at the University of Cambridge developed one of the earliest prototypes of facial emotion recognition technology. Later, as a research scientist at MIT Media Lab, she spearheaded the applications of emotion recognition technology in a variety of fields, including mental health and autism research.

Rana holds a BSc and MSc in Computer Science from the American University in Cairo, a PhD from the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and a Post Doctorate at MIT.

Rana is one of few women leading a disruptive AI company. A Muslim-American and passionate advocate, she frequently speaks in press and on stage, about innovation, women in technology, ethics in AI and leadership. Forbes recently included Rana in their list of America’s Top 50 Women In Tech, and Fortune Magazine included her in their 40 under 40, 2018 edition. She is also a Young Global Leader in the World Economic Forum.