Ada Lovelace Day falls on Tuesday, October 14, 2025. This annual international celebration honours the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), aiming to raise their profile and inspire future generations through role models. Around the world, communities host events to recognize and support women in STEM.
To mark the occasion, ART-AI caught up with three of our women alumni, Tory Frame, Mafalda Ribeiro and Elsa Zhong to find out what they have been doing since completing their PhDs with us!
While waiting for feedback on my PhD thesis, I worked on the UK’s AI Opportunity Action Plan, focusing on AI adoption and sovereign compute. It confirmed my conviction that AI is the defining opportunity of our generation, with the potential to transform growth, investment, and trust across the economy.
That’s what drew me to the Competition and Markets Authority, where I am now Senior Director for Strategic Insight, Analysis and AI. My teams provide strategic, financial, technical, as well as data and behavioural science insights to inform competition and consumer cases, and we also co-lead the CMA’s digital transformation. My teams monitor the frontier of AI and apply AI internally, to turbo boost our people and help us make better decisions faster. Beyond our walls, we collaborate with industry leaders, policymakers, and international forums to shape the digital and AI landscape.
I’m fortunate to work with incredible people, many of them women. For example, women make up three-quarters of my leadership team—including the two leading our efforts to monitor AI’s frontier and apply it internally. It’s proof that women in STEM aren’t just present; they are steering the future.
Photo: Tory with some of her team
Since finishing my PhD in ML and biomedical engineering last year, I have been working as an applied research scientist at InstaDeep. I work in the BioAI department, more specifically developing deep learning and optimisation models for histology and for predicting and optimising RNA for multiple characteristics. It’s incredibly rewarding to apply the skills I built during my PhD to such complex and meaningful challenges, knowing that this work could help accelerate scientific discovery and ultimately pave the way for future therapies. Being at the intersection of AI and biology is a fascinating place to be, and I’m excited to be part of what the future holds for this fast-evolving field!
When I look back on my time with ART-AI at the University of Bath, I see it as the foundation of everything I do today. ART-AI gave me more than technical skills—it gave me a way of thinking. It taught me how to connect technology with ethics and society, and how to see artificial intelligence not just as a tool, but as something that carries responsibility and impact. That perspective has stayed with me ever since.
After completing my PhD, I returned to China and joined Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University（XJLTU) as an Assistant Professor. In less than a year, I have had the privilege of engaging in several impactful practices. I delivered a training session on “AI-powered workplace transformation” for senior executives of a traditional bicycle company with annual revenues exceeding one hundred million RMB, helping them identify opportunities in a rapidly changing era. I also served as an academic advisor at the 5th China-U.S. Student Conference’s Future Diplomats Summer Program, where I lectured on “The AI Landscape in China and the U.S.: Competition, Collaboration, and Governance,” and guided students in simulated diplomatic negotiations on AI’s role in international relations. This October, I will speak at the United Nations University AI Conference, presenting my research on an AI governance framework for BRICS countries. At the same time, I have led the drafting of the “Governing AI for Future Education – XJTLU AI Governance Framework,” aiming to promote more responsible applications of AI within higher education.
Through these experiences, I have reflected on how differently AI develops in the UK and China—the UK values foundational originality, while China thrives on rapid application. ART-AI gave me the vision to understand that the future must bring these paths together: deep research and fast iteration, side by side.
As a woman in STEAM, I also believe my journey shows how important diverse voices are. AI is not only about algorithms—it is about people, care, and imagination. I feel fortunate that ART-AI gave me the confidence to take my place in this field, and I hope to inspire more young women to see their own possibilities in the age of AI.
Photos: Elsa delivering a guest lecture “The AI Landscape in China and the U.S.: Competition, Collaboration, and Governance,” at the 5th China-U.S. Student Conference’s Future Diplomats Summer Program at XJLTU.
