CSC Public Interest Tech Speaker Series: Maria João Sousa

​Building for Impact: A Career Path in Public Interest Technology

​Curious about how to start a career at the forefront of AI and sustainability? In this talk, Maria João Sousa, Executive Director of Climate Change AI shares her early career journey, starting with her development of intelligent wildfire detection systems – a project that sparked her interest in addressing climate issues and ultimately led her to a global non-profit tackling climate change using AI. Sousa will walk through the key decisions she made, the unexpected opportunities she seized, and the challenges she overcame, offering practical advice for students interested in using public interest technology in service of a more equitable and just society.

​Maria João Sousa is a PiTech Startup Postdoc at Cornell Tech and Executive Director at Climate Change AI, a global non-profit that catalyzes impactful work at the intersection of climate change and machine learning. She received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa. Her doctoral thesis focused on cooperative aerial robotics and artificial intelligence for wildfire detection and monitoring systems.