Meet Betelhem Dessie, Africa’s 19-Year Old Tech Genius

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Artificial Intelligence and Bioinformatics research is part of the services rendered by iCog Labs and Betelhem Dessie, is at the forefront of all operations.

Coordinating a number of nationwide programs run by the robotics lab, Dessie is considered and perhaps the youngest pioneer in Ethiopia’s fast emerging tech scene sometimes referred to as ‘Sheba Valley‘ at only 19-years old.

She has four software programs copyrighted solely to her name – including an app developed for the Ethiopian government to map rivers used for irrigation.

Ethiopia was one of the few countries to host Sophia, “one of the world’s most advanced and perhaps most famous artificial intelligence (AI) humanoid robot.” where some parts were assembled in Ethiopia.

Within Ethiopia’s expanding tech industry, Betelhem Dessie has quickly risen and the young pioneer’s star keeps shining bright and it all started when she was 9, making use of her father’s electronic materials around her.

Part of Dessie’s mission is to implement projects that play a key role in the development of the community. She focused on the training aspect of coding in order to get more Ethiopian women engaged in such activities. Her foray in tech led her to work on a project with the US embassy called Girls Can Code. Forty girls were trained and created their own projects that could help their communities.

Photography Credit: CNN