Celebrating Women's History Month: Dr. Fei-Fei Li

As Women’s History Month takes place in efforts to showcase women’s contributions to society in the past and present, Codology is launching a four-article series highlighting women who have contributed extensively to the world of computer science, ending with Dr. Fei-Fei Li. 

Born in Beijing, China, in 1976, Dr. Li moved to the United States when she was only 15. There, she received her Bachelor's degree in physics from Princeton University in 1999 and her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2005. Li’s dissertation "Visual Recognition: Computational Models and Human Psychophysics" would become a telling notion of her future contributions to computer science. 

Upon graduation, Dr. Li became an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in electric and computer engineering and at Princeton University in computer science. Her reputation as a talented educator and researcher in computer science preceded her, and in 2009, she joined the faculty at Stanford University as an assistant professor, earning a series of promotions to full professor in 2017. There, she served as the director of Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab from 2013 to 2018 and became the founding co-director of Stanford University's Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Institute alongside Dr. John Etchemendy.

One must note that Dr. Li's contributions to computer science cannot be exaggerated regardless of the instance. Her ImageNet project is possibly her most well-known work, as it revolutionized the field of large-scale visual recognition and led to the creation of the ImageNet Large-Scale Visual Recognition Challenge (ILSVRC). Dr. Li also played a vital role in democratizing AI technology during her sabbatical from Stanford University as Chief Scientist of AI/ML and Vice President of Google Cloud.

Beyond her contributions to the field, Dr. Li advocates for diversity in artificial intelligence. She co-founded and co-directed SAILORS, a summer camp at Stanford University aimed at educating ninth-grade girls in AI education and research, which later evolved into the nonprofit AI4All. The organization has launched multiple summer programs to educate the next generation of individuals in artificial intelligence in collaboration with Melinda Gates and Jensen Huang. 

Today, Dr. Li's research focuses on improving bias in image recognition and expanding artificial intelligence to healthcare. Collaborating with Stanford Medical School Professor Arnold Milstein, she is at the forefront of researching artificial intelligence and healthcare while working on bias in image recognition. 

Dr. Fei-Fei Li's story serves as an inspiration for women and girls all over the world. Her passion for computer science, education, and diversity has propelled her to the forefront of the field. We can only hope that her trailblazing work inspires many more young women to follow in her footsteps and pursue a career in computer science.